Snapshot

Snapshot is an out of the box feature for the EPM (Project Server) User View within Reporting Hub that works by storing every day the changes you have made to all projects into history tables so that you are enabled to undertake trending per week, per month, per quarter over time for all of your projects without configuration!

By default, the frequency of the data capture occurs during nightly maintenance, however depending on your needs Sensei can assist with the creation of customised frequency captures.

With this feature you will be able to create trend analysis reports like the following:

Sample Chart

Note: This is not meant to be instructions on how to build reports or use SQL Server. For additional training on these tools consult your Sensei account manager.

Trend Views

When Snapshot is active you will be able to make review trends on your projects by week, month or quarter. It is important to note that history will only commence being collected when the feature is activated in your Site Collection.

Trend View

The following views will be available:

MSP_EpmProject_WithCustomFields_UserView_ByWeek
MSP_EpmProject_WithCustomFields_UserView_ByMonth
MSP_EpmProject_WithCustomFields_UserView_ByQuarter
MSP_EpmProject_WithTaskBaseline_UserView_ByWeek
MSP_EpmProject_WithTaskBaseline_UserView_ByMonth
MSP_EpmProject_WithTaskBaseline_UserView_ByQuarter

Each view will contain the relevant columns for that part of the project user view with additional fields allowing a user to chart and report on the specified time dimension. For each time period the state of the project for that point in time will be returned; these dimension columns are:

By Week

TimeByDay - Datetime for the last minute of the week
TimeYear - The year of the week
TimeWeekOfTheYear - The week of the year

Snapshot Week Data

By Month

TimeByDay - Datetime for the last minute of the month
TimeYear - The year of the month
TimeMonthofTheYear - The month of the year

Snapshot Month Data

By Quarter

TimeByDay - Datetime for the last minute of the quarter
TimeYear - The year of the quarter
TimeQuarter - The quarter of the year

Snapshot Quarter Data

These will enable you to establish the series in your chart and do any additional grouping.

Snapshot Moments

Additionally, you can track the trends against specific points in time by executing a stored procedure.

To create a new moment the following Stored Procedure should be executed using the report designer account or higher.

exec [Snapshot].[CreateSnapshotMoment]  @Name='My Snapshot', @CreatedBy='John Smith', @MetaData='<insert any metadata you want… e.g. xml or json containing a description>'

Or… as all parameters are optional

exec [Snapshot].[CreateSnapshotMoment]

When executed, the stored procedure will check for any changes across the project data and register the moment in the snapshots table.

These moments will add a time by day grouping to the following views with a project row per snapshot moment, along with the values passed to the stored procedure:

MSP_EpmProject_WithCustomFields_UserView_BySnapshot
MSP_EpmProject_WithTaskBaseline_UserView_BySnapshot

Snapshot Moment Data

Via customer care or partner with sufficient access, snapshot moments can be created or updated for dates and time in the past, and as long as history data was stored for that point in time, you can review the state of the projects for that moment.

Sample: Creating a snapshot moment via Flow

To automate the creation of a snapshot moment via Microsoft Flow it is straight forward… and in turn trigger it via a flow button, a timer, a power app or any other system that can trigger a Flow.

Using the Azure SQL Server connection details for your report designer account use the "Execute stored procedure" action, providing the parameters as needed.

Sample Flow Action Usage