Clarity PPM: Time Slicing Terminology Explanation

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

The following will explain meaning of the columns shown in the Administration  > Data Administration > Time Slices page.

Environment

Release: All Releases

Component: CA PPM Time Slicing

Resolution

1. Login as an administrator user with access to the Administration > Data Administration > Time Slices page.
2. Navigate to Administration > Data Administration > Time Slices
3. Here are the explanations of what the time slice definition fields mean and how they are to be interpreted:
   
   Rollover Interval: This is how often the slice rolls over or how often it shifts forward.
   
   From Date: This is the date that you want to start reporting from. For example, if you have data that you want beginning in June 2017, you would set your From Date as 06/01/2017. Note: Care must be taken when setting up time slices to avoid database and performance issues. A great amount of data, especially for the daily slices can be generated if the date ranges are too long.  NOTE: If you are changing the 'From Date' on any existing Time Slice definition, be sure to set the 'Expiration Date' field to BLANK.  This will allow the application to recompute the date.  Initially the 'Expiration Date' will be computed to the next rollover period date.
   
   Slice Period: This is the slice unit.
   
   Number of Periods: This is the number of Slice Period units that specifies the number of periods to add to the From Date
   
   Expiration Date: This is the date of the rollover that is to happen at 12am on the date shown. The expiration date is computed automatically based on the time slice definition.
   
   When rollover occurs, the following will happen:
   a. The From Date will be set to the prior Expiration Date
   b. The Expiration Date will be forward shifted by one Slice Period unit.
   (Note: Editing a Time Slice definition will erase the data for that slice; however the data will be replaced when the Time Slicing job is next run)
   For example, if time slice id = 2 (DAILYRESOURCEACTCURVE) is currently set as
   From Date = JAN 01 2017
   Number of Periods = 740 (2 years)
   Expiration Date = FEB 01 2018
   
   This means the data is generated starting from JAN 01 2017 + 740 days.
   
   On FEB 01 2018 at 12am, the Time Slicing job will reconfigure the slice id to generate the data for:
   
   From Date = FEB 01 2017, removes flat table data for the month of JAN 2017
   Number of Periods = 740, keeps the same scale/length of data to generate 2 years of data starting from FEB 01 2017 for 2 years worth of data.
   Expiration Date = MAR 01 2018
   
   On MAR 01 2018 at 12am, it repeats the procedure.
   From Date = MAR 01 2017, removes flat table data for the month of FEB 2017
   Number of Periods = 740, keeps the same scale/length of data to generate 2 years of data starting from MAR 01 2017 for 2 years worth of data.
   Expiration Date = APR 01 2018
   
   Data Warehouse: (CA PPM 14.2+) This is a Boolean field.  This indicates that the time slice is used for the Data Warehouse. This field is not available for editing.  Therefore, when you are creating or updating time slice definitions, this field cannot be changed. 
   
   
   Last Run Date: Indicates the last time the Time Slicing job successfully processed the specific time slice definition.

Additional Information

The Time Slicing job automates the reconfiguration of time slices definitions on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis, therefore there is no need to manually change the definitions on this page, unless there is a date range that is not covered by a reporting need.

Data will not be deleted, but will be generated based on the the date range specified.

If any question or issue is being experienced with time slices, please contact the Support team for assistance.