# Cognos User
> Use when consuming, creating, or customizing reports and dashboards in IBM Cognos Analytics as an end user — navigating the Cognos portal, running and scheduling reports, creating dashboards (drag-and-drop), self-service report authoring (Cognos Analytics Reporting), data exploration, prompted reports (value/date/search prompts), exporting (PDF/Excel/CSV), personal folders, subscriptions and bursts, data modules (self-service data prep), and collaboration features. Complements cognos-admin with user-role focus. Part of the cognos-* skill family.
- Skill: `joogy06/cognos-user` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add joogy06/cognos-user`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/joogy06/cognos-user/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Data & Analytics
- Author: joogy06 (https://skillmd.com/u/joogy06)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/joogy06/cognos-user
---
# IBM Cognos Analytics — End User & Report Consumer
Companion skill to `cognos-admin` (server administration, security, Framework Manager, REST API, deployment). This skill focuses on the day-to-day tasks of report consumers, dashboard creators, and self-service authors working within the Cognos Analytics web portal.
Always use prompted reports with date/filter parameters instead of running full unfiltered reports — unfiltered reports against large datasets cause server performance issues for all users.
Never share personal saved prompts or output versions that contain sensitive data — personal content inherits your access level but shared links may expose data to unauthorized users.
Always verify data refresh dates before using report outputs for business decisions — scheduled reports may show stale data from the last successful run.
Never upload sensitive data (PII, financial) into personal data modules without IT approval — uploaded data bypasses enterprise data governance controls.
---
## 1. Portal Navigation
### Cognos Analytics Home Page
The home page is the landing screen after login. Key areas:
```
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Navigation bar (top) │
│ ┌──────┬──────────┬─────────┬──────────┬──────────────┐ │
│ │ Home │ Content │ Recent │ New (+) │ Search (🔍) │ │
│ └──────┴──────────┴─────────┴──────────┴──────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Welcome panel — recently viewed, pinned, and suggested │
│ │
│ Quick launch cards — Dashboards, Reports, Explorations │
│ │
│ Activity stream — recent runs, shared content │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```
### Content Pane
```
Content (hamburger menu or sidebar):
├── Team content — shared organizational reports and dashboards
│ ├── Published packages (data sources for reports)
│ ├── Departmental folders (Finance, Sales, HR, etc.)
│ └── Shared dashboards and reports
├── My content — personal workspace (visible only to you)
│ ├── My reports
│ ├── My dashboards
│ ├── Saved output versions
│ └── Uploaded data files
└── Recent — last accessed content (sorted by timestamp)
```
### Navigation Tips
- **Search** — Global search bar at the top; searches report names, descriptions, and content metadata. Use quotes for exact phrases (`"Sales Q1 2026"`).
- **Favorites** — Star/pin any report, dashboard, or folder for quick access from the home page.
- **Recent items** — Automatically tracks your last viewed items (reports, dashboards, explorations).
- **Breadcrumb trail** — Navigate folder hierarchy; click any breadcrumb segment to jump up.
- **Set home page** — Customize your landing page: Home > Profile > Set a specific dashboard or folder as default.
- **Personal folders** — Create folders under My Content to organize personal work by project, time period, or data domain.
---
## 2. Running Reports
### Opening and Running Existing Reports
```
Navigate to report in Team Content or My Content:
1. Single-click to open in interactive viewer (HTML)
2. Right-click (or "..." menu) for run options:
├── Run as — choose output format
│ ├── HTML (interactive, default)
│ ├── PDF (print-ready, paginated)
│ ├── Excel (XLSX — formatted spreadsheet)
│ ├── CSV (raw data, no formatting)
│ └── XML (structured data exchange)
├── Run in background — queues report, notifies when done
└── View output versions — see previously generated outputs
```
### Prompt Handling
Prompted reports present parameter selections before running. Common prompt types:
**Value prompt (dropdown / list):**
```
Select Region: [dropdown]
☐ EMEA
☑ APAC
☑ Americas
☐ Global
Tips:
- Use the search box within the prompt to filter long lists
- Ctrl+click or checkboxes for multi-select
- "Select all" / "Deselect all" buttons for bulk selection
```
**Date prompt (calendar picker):**
```
Report Date Range:
From: [2025-01-01] (calendar icon to pick)
To: [2025-12-31] (calendar icon to pick)
Tips:
- Type dates directly in YYYY-MM-DD format for speed
- Some reports accept relative dates ("current month", "last quarter")
- Check if the report has default date values pre-filled
```
**Search prompt (type-ahead):**
```
Customer Name: [type to search...]
Results update as you type
Select one or more matching values
Tips:
- Type at least 3 characters to trigger search
- Wildcards may be supported (depends on report design)
```
**Cascading prompts:**
```
Step 1: Select Country → [United Kingdom]
Step 2: Select City → [London, Manchester, Birmingham]
(city list filters based on country selection)
Step 3: Select Branch → [filtered by city]
Tips:
- Always complete parent prompts before child prompts
- If child prompt is empty, verify parent selection
- Use "Reprompt" button to change selections and re-run
```
### Run Options
```
Run in background:
- Report queues on the server; you can close the browser
- Check status: My Content > My Schedules and Subscriptions
- Or: Recent > look for the completed output
- Notification appears when output is ready
View output versions:
- Report Properties > Versions tab
- Lists all previously saved outputs with timestamps
- Download or view any historical version
- Admins control how many versions are retained per report
```
---
## 3. Report Viewing
### Interactive Viewer Features
When viewing a report in HTML format, the interactive viewer provides:
**Drill actions:**
```
Drill up — aggregate to higher level (City → Region → Country)
Drill down — expand to finer detail (Year → Quarter → Month → Day)
Drill through — jump to a related detail report (passing context values)
Right-click a data cell or chart element to access drill options.
Drill-through targets are configured by the report author.
```
**Sorting and filtering in viewer:**
```
Column header click — sort ascending/descending (toggle)
Right-click column → Filter:
├── Keep only this value
├── Exclude this value
├── Top N / Bottom N
└── Custom filter (comparison operators)
These are viewer-level filters — they do NOT modify the report definition.
Filters reset when you close the viewer unless you save as a view.
```
**Chart interactions:**
```
Hover — tooltip shows exact values and labels
Click — select a data point (highlights related data)
Lasso — drag to select multiple data points
Exclude — right-click selected points → Exclude
Zoom — scroll wheel on chart area (where supported)
Legend — click legend items to show/hide series
```
**Other viewer features:**
```
Bookmarks — save current viewer state (filters, drill position) for quick return
Conditional highlighting — pre-set by report author (e.g., red = negative, green = above target)
Page navigation — for multi-page reports, use page controls at bottom
Find on page — Ctrl+F to search text within the rendered report
```
---
## 4. Scheduling & Subscriptions
### Scheduling a Report for Recurring Delivery
```
Report > Properties > Schedule tab > Create Schedule:
Frequency options:
├── Daily — every N days, or every weekday
├── Weekly — select days of the week (Mon, Wed, Fri)
├── Monthly — day of month (e.g., 1st, 15th) or ordinal (first Monday)
├── Yearly — specific date each year
└── Custom — cron-style expression for complex patterns
Additional options:
├── Start date / End date — bounded schedule window
├── Time zone — ensure correct execution time for your region
├── Priority — Normal / High (High runs before Normal in queue)
├── Output format — HTML, PDF, Excel, CSV
└── Prompt values — set fixed values for prompted reports
```
### Delivery Targets
```
Delivery options for scheduled reports:
├── Save to portal — output stored in Content Store (view via Versions tab)
├── Email delivery — send output as attachment or inline link
│ ├── To / CC / BCC recipients
│ ├── Subject line (can include report name, date)
│ ├── Attach output or include link to portal
│ └── Email body text
├── Burst by recipient — personalized output per recipient
│ ├── Each recipient gets only their data slice
│ ├── Burst key = data column (e.g., Region, Department)
│ └── Distribution list maps burst key values to email addresses
└── Save to file system — write output to a server-side path (admin-configured)
```
### Managing Your Schedules
```
My Content > My Schedules and Subscriptions:
- View all your active schedules
- Enable / disable individual schedules
- Edit schedule frequency, format, or delivery
- View run history (success/failure, timestamps, duration)
- Delete schedules you no longer need
Tips:
- Schedule during off-peak hours (early morning, weekends) to reduce server load
- Check run history periodically — failed schedules may indicate expired credentials
or data source issues
- Disabled schedules retain their configuration — re-enable without reconfiguring
```
---
## 5. Dashboard Creation
### Dashboard Authoring (Drag-and-Drop)
```
New (+) > Dashboard:
1. Select a template layout (freeform, 2-column, 3-panel, tabbed, etc.)
2. Add a data source:
├── Published package (from Team Content)
├── Data module (self-service or published)
└── Uploaded file (CSV/Excel in My Content)
3. Drag data items from the source panel onto the canvas
4. Cognos auto-suggests a visualization type based on the data
5. Customize the visualization, filters, and layout
6. Save to My Content or Team Content
```
### Widget Types
```
Available widgets:
├── Visualization — chart/graph (see visualization types below)
├── List — tabular data display with sorting
├── Crosstab — pivot-table-style summary
├── Text — static or dynamic text (can reference data items)
├── Image — upload or URL-linked image
├── Shape — rectangles, circles for design elements
├── Web page — embedded iframe (URL, internal or external)
├── Media — embedded video
└── Summary — KPI summary number with comparison (up/down indicator)
```
### Visualization Types
```
Charts and graphs:
├── Bar (vertical/horizontal, stacked, clustered)
├── Line (with/without points, area fill)
├── Pie / Donut
├── Scatter / Bubble
├── Map (filled region, point, heat map — requires location data)
├── Treemap (hierarchical proportional areas)
├── Heat map (matrix with color intensity)
├── Waterfall (cumulative positive/negative values)
├── Box plot (statistical distribution)
├── Radar / Spider
├── Word cloud
├── KPI / Summary number
├── Gauge (radial or linear)
└── Infographic (icon-based proportional display)
Choosing the right visualization:
Comparison across categories → Bar chart
Trend over time → Line chart
Part of whole → Pie/Donut or Treemap
Correlation between measures → Scatter/Bubble
Geographic distribution → Map
Matrix of two dimensions → Heat map
Single KPI with target → Gauge or Summary
```
### Filtering in Dashboards
```
Filter levels:
├── Local filter — applies to a single widget only
│ (drag a data item to the filter shelf of the widget)
├── Page filter — applies to all widgets on the current tab/page
│ (use the page-level filter bar at the top)
└── Dashboard filter — applies to all tabs/pages in the dashboard
(use the dashboard-level filter icon)
Filter types:
├── Value selection (include/exclude specific values)
├── Range (between, greater than, less than)
├── Top N / Bottom N
├── Condition (e.g., Revenue > 100000)
└── Relative date (last 30 days, current quarter, YTD)
Widget-to-widget filtering:
- Click a bar/slice/point in one widget to filter other widgets on the same page
- This is enabled by default when widgets share the same data source
- Disable per widget via Properties > "Use as filter" toggle
```
### Calculations in Dashboards
```
Add calculated fields directly in the dashboard:
1. Data panel > right-click data source > Create Calculation
2. Build expression using available functions:
├── Arithmetic: +, -, *, /
├── Aggregation: sum, avg, min, max, count
├── String: concat, substring, upper, lower
├── Date: _days_between, _add_days, _year, _month
└── Conditional: if-then-else, case
Example calculations:
[Profit %] = ([Revenue] - [Cost]) / [Revenue] * 100
[YoY Growth] = ([This Year Revenue] - [Last Year Revenue]) / [Last Year Revenue] * 100
[Status] = If ([Actual] >= [Target]) Then ('On Track') Else ('Behind')
```
### Dashboard Tabs
```
Add multiple tabs to organize dashboard views:
- Click "+" next to existing tabs to add a new tab
- Each tab can have its own layout and widgets
- Dashboard-level filters persist across tabs
- Page-level filters are tab-specific
- Rename tabs by double-clicking the tab label
- Reorder tabs by dragging
Common tab patterns:
Tab 1: Executive Summary (KPIs and trends)
Tab 2: Regional Breakdown (maps and comparisons)
Tab 3: Detailed Data (lists and crosstabs)
```
---
## 6. Self-Service Reporting
### Cognos Analytics Reporting (Web-Based Authoring)
For users with authoring permissions (Authors role), the web-based report editor provides more control than dashboards:
```
New (+) > Report:
1. Select data source (package or data module)
2. Choose initial layout:
├── List — row-by-row detail report
├── Crosstab — pivot table (rows × columns × measures)
├── Chart — standalone visualization
├── Blank — freeform layout with manual placement
└── Template — pre-built layout with placeholders
3. Drag data items onto the report canvas
4. Configure properties, filters, and formatting
5. Preview (Run > View Report)
6. Save to My Content or Team Content
```
### Adding Data Items
```
Source panel (left) shows available data items organized by:
├── Query subjects / tables
├── Dimensions and hierarchies
└── Measures
Drag items to:
├── Column headers (List report)
├── Row/Column/Measure drop zones (Crosstab)
├── Axis areas (Chart)
└── Detail filters area
```
### Filters in Reports
```
Detail filter (applied before aggregation):
[Order Date] between ?StartDate? and ?EndDate?
[Region] in (?SelectedRegions?)
Summary filter (applied after aggregation):
[Total Revenue] > 50000
Prompt-based filters (interactive at run time):
Create a prompt page with value/date/search prompts
Link prompts to filter expressions using parameter references
Users select values before the report executes
```
### Grouping and Aggregation
```
Grouping:
- Select a column > Group/Ungroup to add group headers and footers
- Grouped columns become section breaks
- Nest groups: Region > Country > City
Aggregation:
- Summary row automatically added to group footers
- Default: Sum for numeric, Count for non-numeric
- Change via: Data Item Properties > Aggregate Function
- Options: Sum, Average, Count, Min, Max, Median, Standard Deviation,
Percentage, Running Total, Custom expression
Section headers and footers:
- Add text, images, or calculated values to group headers
- Repeat group headers on each page for multi-page reports
```
### Conditional Formatting
```
Select data item or cell > Conditional Style:
1. New Condition:
If [Profit Margin] < 0 → Red background, white text, bold
If [Profit Margin] < 15 → Yellow background
If [Profit Margin] >= 15 → Green background
2. Condition types:
├── Value-based (numeric thresholds)
├── String match (equals, contains, starts with)
├── Date comparison (before, after, between)
└── Top/Bottom N (percentile or count)
3. Style options:
├── Background color
├── Font color, size, weight
├── Borders
├── Data format (number of decimals, currency symbol)
└── Icon (checkmark, arrow, traffic light)
```
### Calculated Fields in Reports
```
Query > Data Items > Add Calculated Field:
Expression examples:
[Profit] = [Revenue] - [Cost]
[Margin %] = [Profit] / [Revenue] * 100
[Full Name] = [First Name] || ' ' || [Last Name]
[Fiscal Quarter] = 'Q' || cast(ceiling(extract(month, [Order Date]) / 3.0), varchar(1))
[Days Outstanding]= _days_between([Due Date], current_date)
[Status Flag] = CASE WHEN [Amount] > [Budget] THEN 'Over' ELSE 'Under' END
```
### Headers, Footers, and Page Breaks
```
Report layout elements:
├── Page header — appears at top of every page (logo, title, date)
├── Page footer — appears at bottom (page number, confidentiality notice)
├── Report header — appears once at the beginning
├── Report footer — appears once at the end
└── Page breaks — force new page after group sections
Inserting dynamic text:
Page footer example: "Page &npages; of &tpages; | Generated: ¤t_timestamp&"
Tip: Use headers/footers for PDF and print output — they are less relevant in HTML.
```
---
## 7. Data Modules
### Creating Data Modules
Data modules provide self-service data preparation for dashboards and reports:
```
New (+) > Data Module:
Source options:
├── Uploaded file — CSV, Excel (.xlsx), or text file
│ (file stored in My Content, size limits apply)
├── Existing package — published Framework Manager package
├── Data server connection — direct connection (if permissions allow)
└── Other data module — build on top of existing modules
Steps:
1. Select source(s) — can combine multiple sources
2. Preview data — verify columns, data types, row counts
3. Clean and shape — rename, filter, calculate, join
4. Save — to My Content (personal) or Team Content (shared)
```
### Join and Blend Data Sources
```
Combining multiple tables or files:
1. Add multiple sources to the data module
2. Cognos auto-detects relationships based on matching column names
3. Manually define joins if auto-detect misses:
├── Inner join — only matching rows from both sources
├── Left outer — all rows from left + matching from right
├── Right outer — all rows from right + matching from left
└── Full outer — all rows from both sources
4. Set join condition: [Table1.CustomerID] = [Table2.CustID]
Blending (for sources without direct relationships):
- Cognos stitches results at the report level using shared dimension values
- Less precise than explicit joins — verify results carefully
```
### Data Module Operations
```
Column operations:
├── Rename — give business-friendly names (e.g., "cust_id" → "Customer ID")
├── Hide — keep in module but hide from report authors
├── Data type — change type (string, number, date, time, timestamp)
├── Format — set display format (currency, percentage, date pattern)
└── Calculate — add computed columns (same expressions as report calculations)
Row operations:
├── Filter — exclude rows (e.g., [Status] != 'Cancelled')
├── Sort — default sort order
└── Aggregate — pre-aggregate (sum, count) for performance
Table operations:
├── Union — stack tables with same columns vertically
├── Pivot — convert columns to rows (unpivot) or rows to columns
└── Navigation path — define drill hierarchies (Country > Region > City)
```
### Publishing Data Modules
```
Sharing a data module for team use:
1. Save to Team Content (requires Write permission on target folder)
2. Set permissions: right-click > Properties > Permissions
├── Traverse — users can see the module in folder listings
├── Read — users can use the module as a data source
├── Write — users can modify the module definition
└── Execute — users can refresh/run queries against it
3. Other users can now select your data module when creating dashboards or reports
Tips:
- Include clear descriptions when saving (Properties > Description)
- Test with a sample dashboard before publishing
- Coordinate with IT if the module will be used widely — they may want to
review data governance and performance implications
```
---
## 8. Data Exploration
### Explore (AI-Assisted Data Discovery)
Cognos Analytics Explore uses AI to help discover insights without manual report building:
```
New (+) > Exploration:
1. Select a data source (package, data module, or uploaded file)
2. Cognos displays an initial overview:
├── Key metrics summary
├── Distribution of categorical fields
├── Time-based trends (if date fields exist)
└── Notable outliers or patterns
AI-assisted features:
├── Natural language questions — type in plain English:
│ "What is the total revenue by region for 2025?"
│ "Show me the trend of customer count over time"
│ "Which products have declining sales?"
│ "Compare profit margin across departments"
│
├── Suggested visualizations — Cognos recommends charts based on:
│ - Data types (categorical, numeric, temporal)
│ - Relationships between columns
│ - Common analytical patterns
│
├── Pattern detection — automatic identification of:
│ - Trends (upward, downward, seasonal)
│ - Clusters (natural groupings in the data)
│ - Correlations (which measures move together)
│
├── Anomaly detection — flags unusual values:
│ - Outliers in numeric data
│ - Unexpected spikes or drops in trends
│ - Values outside normal distribution
│
└── Driver analysis — answers "what influences this metric?":
- Select a target measure (e.g., Revenue)
- Cognos identifies top contributing factors
- Ranks dimensions by their influence on the target
- Shows how each factor value impacts the metric
```
### Working with Explorations
```
Actions within an exploration:
├── Refine — drag additional fields to modify the analysis
├── Filter — narrow the exploration to a subset of data
├── Pin — pin a specific visualization to keep it visible
├── Convert — promote an exploration visualization to a dashboard widget
├── Share — save to Team Content or export results
└── Ask again — rephrase your question for different results
Tips:
- Start broad ("show me an overview of sales") then narrow down
- Use Explore for initial discovery, then build a proper dashboard for ongoing use
- Exploration results depend on data quality — verify against known reports
- Natural language works best with well-named columns ("Revenue" vs "AMT_01")
```
---
## 9. Exporting & Sharing
### Export Options
```
From report viewer or dashboard:
├── Export to PDF — full report with formatting, charts, and pagination
├── Export to Excel (XLSX) — formatted spreadsheet, formulas preserved where possible
├── Export to CSV — raw data, comma-separated (best for data analysis tools)
├── Export to XML — structured data (for system integrations)
└── Print — browser print dialog (Ctrl+P)
Tips:
- PDF is best for sharing with non-Cognos users (no login needed to read)
- Excel preserves most formatting; crosstabs export well as pivot-ready data
- CSV strips all formatting — use for loading data into other systems
- Large exports may time out — use "Run in Background" for big reports
```
### Sharing Content
```
Share options (right-click content > Share):
├── Copy link / URL — direct URL to the report or dashboard
│ Recipients need Cognos login and appropriate permissions
│
├── Email — send link or attachment via Cognos email integration
│ (requires SMTP configuration by admin)
│
├── Create shortcut — place a shortcut in another folder
│ Shortcut points to the original; updates propagate automatically
│
└── Embed — generate embed code for intranet portals or web pages
(requires admin to enable embedding and configure allowed domains)
```
### Permissions on Personal Content
```
Sharing content from My Content:
1. Move or copy the content to a Team Content folder (recommended)
- Or -
2. Set permissions directly on the My Content item:
Right-click > Properties > Permissions
Add specific users or groups with Read access
Warning: Sharing from My Content can be fragile — if your account is
deactivated, your My Content becomes inaccessible to everyone.
Always publish important content to Team Content.
```
### Collaboration Features
```
Annotations and comments:
├── Add comments to a report or dashboard (Properties > Comments)
├── Tag colleagues with @mentions (if directory integration is configured)
├── Comment threads — reply and discuss within the context of the report
└── Comments are stored in the content store and visible to users with Read access
Notifications:
├── Subscribe to content changes — get notified when a report is updated
├── Schedule completion alerts — know when your scheduled output is ready
└── Manage notifications: Profile > Notification preferences
```
---
## 10. Best Practices for Users
### Prompt-Friendly Report Requests
When asking IT or report authors to build or modify reports:
```
Good request:
"I need a monthly sales summary by region with prompts for:
- Date range (default: current month)
- Region (multi-select, default: my region)
- Product category (optional, default: all)
Output: PDF for email distribution, Excel for ad-hoc analysis"
Bad request:
"I need all sales data" (too broad — will produce a massive, slow report)
```
### When to Use Dashboard vs Report
```
Use a Dashboard when:
├── You need interactive, visual exploration
├── Multiple KPIs need to appear on one screen
├── Users will filter and drill at run time
├── Data needs to be current (live connection)
└── Audience is executives or analysts who want self-service
Use a Report when:
├── Output needs exact formatting (pixel-perfect for print/PDF)
├── Data is tabular with many columns
├── Output is distributed via schedule or burst
├── Regulatory or compliance formatting requirements exist
└── Active Report (offline interactive) is needed
```
### Performance Tips for Report Consumers
```
1. Always supply prompt values — never leave prompts blank if "all values"
would return millions of rows
2. Use date ranges — limit to the period you actually need
3. Avoid "Select All" on large multi-select prompts — pick specific values
4. Run large reports in background — do not wait in the browser
5. Use saved output versions — re-view existing outputs instead of re-running
6. Check if a pre-built dashboard exists — before requesting a new report
7. Limit Excel exports to necessary data — exporting 100K+ rows to Excel
is slow and may fail; use CSV for large extracts
8. Close browser tabs for completed reports — each open report consumes
server session resources
```
### Organizing Personal Content
```
Recommended My Content folder structure:
My Content/
├── Current Projects/
│ ├── Q1 Budget Review/
│ └── Product Launch Analysis/
├── Saved Outputs/
│ ├── Monthly Reports/
│ └── Ad-hoc Extracts/
├── My Dashboards/
├── My Data Modules/
└── Archive/
Tips:
- Clean up old outputs periodically — they consume content store space
- Move finalized work to Team Content for team access and durability
- Use descriptive names with dates: "Sales_Summary_2026-Q1_EMEA"
- Delete draft/test content you no longer need
```
### Working with IT and Admin Team
```
When to contact your Cognos administrator:
├── Need access to a new data source or package
├── Need access to a Team Content folder
├── Report runs slowly or times out consistently
├── Scheduled report fails repeatedly
├── Data appears incorrect (may be a security filter or data source issue)
├── Need to upload large datasets (admin may need to adjust limits)
└── Need to share content externally (requires admin approval and configuration)
Information to provide when reporting issues:
├── Report name and location (full path in Team Content)
├── Prompt values used when the issue occurred
├── Time of occurrence (for admin to check server logs)
├── Expected result vs actual result
├── Screenshot of error message (if any)
└── Browser type and version
```
---
## Anti-Patterns
| Anti-Pattern | Why It Fails | Correct Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Creating reports with SELECT * or dragging all columns | Slow execution, excessive memory use, and confusing output for consumers | Select only the columns needed; start with the business question, not the data model |
| Building complex reports without using prompt pages | Users run unfiltered reports against millions of rows, overwhelming the server | Add mandatory prompt pages for date range and key dimensions; use cascading prompts to narrow data before execution |
| Duplicating reports instead of using parameterized prompts | Report sprawl — 50 copies of the same report with slight filter differences becomes unmaintainable | Use prompt parameters and conditional formatting to serve multiple use cases from one report |
| Ignoring the difference between detail and summary filters | Detail filters exclude rows before aggregation; summary filters exclude after — wrong choice produces incorrect totals | Use detail filters for row-level exclusion, summary filters for aggregate thresholds; verify totals match source system |
| Scheduling reports without setting burst keys or output limits | A single report generates a 500MB PDF that fills the content store and overwhelms email delivery | Use burst keys to split output by dimension; set row limits; deliver to a folder or file system, not email |
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## Related Skills
| Domain | Skill |
|---|---|
| Cognos server administration, security, API, Framework Manager | `cognos-admin` |
| Data warehouse design (star/snowflake schemas for reports) | `data-warehouse` |
| Data mart design (departmental reporting data) | `data-mart` |
| DataStage ETL (data pipelines feeding Cognos) | `datastage-developer` |
| DB2 database administration (common Cognos backend) | `db2-rhel`, `db2-mainframe` |
| Presentation building from Cognos data | `presentation-builder` |