Metrics Using Variables

Acumen provides an extremely powerful means of defining metrics against generic fields and values prior to knowing what these values actually are.

There are two forms of variables within Acumen:

• Variable Values

  When defining a metric, instead of setting criteria based on a defined value, you can describe a metric in terms of a variable. An example is a custom metric called High Cost. At the time of the metric being created, you do not know what this value should be. Instead you can create a variable called, for example, High Cost Value and use this in the metric definition. At run-time, when an analysis is run, the user is prompted to enter a value for this variable which will subsequently be used in the calculations.

• Variable Fields

  When defining a metric, if a field to be used in a metric definition is unknown, then a variable field can be created. In a similar manner to the variable value concept, when an analysis is run, the user is prompted for the actual field to be assigned. This is useful when a metric refers to, for example, a user-defined or code field that is not known at the time of creation of the metric.

You can define a metric using variable values, variable fields, or both.