What are the recommendations for BIRT v RRDI reports?

We have been rolling out the CLM 3.0.1 solution to customers and we are often asked what are the recommendations for BIRT v RRDI reporting.

From what I could find it appears that BIRT is being ramped down and RRDI is being promoted for the CLM solution because users can customise reports for RQM/RRC.

Are there any other views on this?

There are three reporting options and CLM provides one data warehouse shared by all three (CCM, RM and QM) applications
1) out-of-the box reports
OOTB BIRT report templates use the data warehouse for QM and CCM reports.Report viewers can run and view these available reports to get information about projects
2) Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence (RRDI)
RRDI is an an optional program which can be used to create and customize reports using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. RRDI provides the ability to author reports as well as a set of sample reports. Report authors can use these functions to design new reports or to customize sample reports.
3) Rational Insight.

Both 1)and 2) support a single Jazz Team Server deployment topology. Rational Insight supports multi-Jazz Team Server topologies.

BIRT is out of the box and doesnt require any additional Installation and configuration. RRDI contains everything you need to author and run reports. Insight includes everything that RRDI includes plus tools for adding more data sources and customizing the data warehouse schema, metadata models, and ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) processes. In addition, Insight integrates with other tools such as IBM Rational DOORS, IBM Rational RequisitePro, and IBM Rational ClearQuest

You can find more information here;
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/clmhelp/v3r0m1/index.jsp
https://jazz.net/library/article/688

Customers have the choice of choosing what they want based on their requirements.
I want to add a bit more information to this. RRDI is the recommended tool for developing or customizing CLM reports. It is available as an optional download, and requires no additional cost or licenses. Rational Insight is a separate product that must be purchased.

Mike Fox (RRDI Architect)

We have been rolling out the CLM 3.0.1 solution to customers and we are often asked what are the recommendations for BIRT v RRDI reporting.

From what I could find it appears that BIRT is being ramped down and RRDI is being promoted for the CLM solution because users can customise reports for RQM/RRC.

Are there any other views on this?

There are three reporting options and CLM provides one data warehouse shared by all three (CCM, RM and QM) applications
1) out-of-the box reports
OOTB BIRT report templates use the data warehouse for QM and CCM reports.Report viewers can run and view these available reports to get information about projects
2) Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence (RRDI)
RRDI is an an optional program which can be used to create and customize reports using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. RRDI provides the ability to author reports as well as a set of sample reports. Report authors can use these functions to design new reports or to customize sample reports.
3) Rational Insight.

Both 1)and 2) support a single Jazz Team Server deployment topology. Rational Insight supports multi-Jazz Team Server topologies.

BIRT is out of the box and doesnt require any additional Installation and configuration. RRDI contains everything you need to author and run reports. Insight includes everything that RRDI includes plus tools for adding more data sources and customizing the data warehouse schema, metadata models, and ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) processes. In addition, Insight integrates with other tools such as IBM Rational DOORS, IBM Rational RequisitePro, and IBM Rational ClearQuest

You can find more information here;
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/clmhelp/v3r0m1/index.jsp
https://jazz.net/library/article/688

Customers have the choice of choosing what they want based on their requirements.

There is no clear answer. Some very important point from my side are:

- if you need LIVE Data, you have to do this with BIRT (or RPE, Rational Publishing Engine, another option). RRDI and Insight are only accessing the Datawarehouse.

- If you need to access different datasources in one report (e.g. ClearQuest and RTC data's), you can do this with BIRT or Insight, but not RRDI. CQ 8.0 has a great data provider within Jazz to support this very well, also on dashboards.

- To develop own dashboard widgets it's simpler to do this with BIRT.

- Insight and RPE costs you a lot of money.

- Insight needs much more planning and knowhow to start and deploy in an environment.

- BIRT needs developre skillls. Without enough javascript knowhow you will not be successfull.

 

With the suggestions that everyone has offered and our own reviews we have come up with the following statements for report usage - bear in mind that this is for a policy statement for our Test Practice here in ANZ and we have tried to use clear, easy to understand language.

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Definitions

Business Intelligence Reporting Tool (BIRT)

The default reporting solution providing 50+ 'out of the box' reports. It uses an Eclipse based Open Source reporting engine. This solution enables cross-CLM (Collaborative Lifecycle Management) reporting with a common data warehouse, implemented as part of the standard CLM solution. There are no additional costs involved in using BIRT.

Rational Reporting Development Intelligence (RRDI)

The optional Cognos based reporting solution, providing an additional 40+ reports 'out of the box' and the ability to author new reports (or tailor existing reports). It requires the implementation of a separate 'reports server' and data warehouse extracting data from RRC/RTC/RQM and typically implemented on a separate server.

RRDI can not report on data from sources other than RRC/RTC/RQM. If this is required then we recommend the implementation of Rational Insight. If you wish to create cross-product reports against the live data sources (bypassing the data warehouse) then you can use Rational Insight.

Insight
Insight adds additional ability to incorporate data from disparate data sources, including separate jts deployments, into a report. Rational Insight is an additional application to the CLM Solution (RRC/RTC/RQM).

Statement

BIRT can be used for 'Out of the Box' reporting in a CLM environment is not supported for authoring of new reports or tailoring of existing 'out of the box reports'

Which solution you pick for your engagement will depend on the size and complexity of the engagement, and the potential audience for your progress reporting.  It will also depend on the OOTB reports that are currently available with each solution. Iti s recommended that these be inspected as part of the process of determining what reporting solution to recommend.

For a small engagement (team of 3-10) reporting to a mainly internal project audience, it may be that existing OOTB reports provide sufficient reporting capability. Bear in mind that BIRT won't let you author new RQM reports, so you will need to be confident that the OOTB reports will cover your requirements.

It is recommended that the RRDI OOTB reports be examined if the RRDI OOTB reports are incapable of providing what you require, or some customisation of reports are required. Bear in mind that there is an additional cost for RRDI - this will need to be factored into your solution.

For large, complex engagements where diverse reporting requirements may required, or if you have to report using sources outside of the existing Rational range (e.g. QC, JIRA) then it is recommended that Rational Insight be used; it is not limited to the existing data warehouse for reporting and is extremely customisable - but at a cost, as outlined above.

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Thanks to everyone for their responses!

There is an enhancement request out there asking for RTC live data support with RRDI