A few tips on BI Repository (RPD) Development …

Physical Layer

• Import metadata when possible, instead of creating it manually
• Only import objects that you need or forsee you may need in the near future
• Import Tables, Keys, and Foreign Keys – which is the default option
• Create Aliases of Physical Tables – to eliminate unwanted joins and to satisfy any naming conventions you may have chosen
• Use the Physical diagram to configure joins
• Create all relevant joins in a star-schema / dimensional model

BMM Layer

• Use terminology that users are familiar with – words of the business instead of technical physical table and column names
• Use the Rename Wizard to rename most of your logical objects when possible (this can save you a lot of time)
• Delete unnecessary objects from your BMM layer
• Create derived columns for calculations that you forsee using in multiple reports/presentation areas

Presentation Layer

• Only move the columns you need users to see and work with to your Presentation Layer
• Rename objects to match the language of the business and ensure that the meaning is very clear
• Organize your presentation columns in a logical/meaningful order – for example, in a hierarchical order or alphabetic order such as Product Category, Product sub-category, Product -or- Region, Country, State, City, Zip

General

• Check Global Consistency & resolve warnings and errors
• Disable caching during development & testing
• Verify your design by checking the SQL generated and sent to the database