--- title: Object Change Management in Cognos Analytics description: Managing object change effectively in Cognos should be the primary goal of every administrator and with the right system it can all be done automatically. image: https://www.envisn.com/hubfs/changemanagement.jpg --- [![envisn](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/file-15282154-gif/images/logo.gif?width=120&name=logo.gif "envisn")](https://www.envisn.com) [![Request a Demo](https://hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/70307/973f9256-ef61-4ab8-ab2d-a004a90a18be.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/70307/973f9256-ef61-4ab8-ab2d-a004a90a18be) [![see our new video the magic of netvisn](https://hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/70307/1845b46e-0995-41bd-9970-5523914e0cdd.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/70307/1845b46e-0995-41bd-9970-5523914e0cdd) # Envisn's IBM Cognos Blog ## [Object Change Management in Cognos Analytics](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/object-change-management-in-cognos-analytics) Posted by [The Envisn Team](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/author/the-envisn-team) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) *![cognos change management](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/changemanagement.jpg?width=300&name=changemanagement.jpg)By Elwood Philbrick, [Envisn, Inc.](https://www.envisn.com/)* Change is constant in any Cognos environment and one of the more difficult challenges is managing routine day-to-day changes in a controlled manner. In most cases there’s likely no process for capturing changes in any formal way which means there is no record that shows what happened to individual objects (reports, queries, etc.) over time. In some environments, particularly those where security changes need to be monitored closely, this can often create a cumbersome manual system that ends up being both inaccurate and hard to maintain. Ideally, we would like to be able to capture and track changes by individual object and as well as collectively for all changes but with visibility to key dimension changes – and do all of this automatically. Some important dimensions in managing object change include: - *Object name* - * Date/Time * - *User - person making change * - *Change type – specification, security, schedule, configuration, etc. * - *Action type – update, add, delete, move, etc. * - *Metadata changes – details of the actual change made * - *Change authorization – be able to track as a reference (if used)* In the examples here we are using Envisn’s [NetVisn](https://www.envisn.com/netvisn) product which captures changes for Cognos Analytics. In ***Fi******gure 1*** we see the change history for a report labeled *Employee* located in the folder BI Marketing. It shows User Name, Timestamp, Operation and change detail. Thus, we see the full history of changes to this object over time. ![cognos change history employee report](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/changemanagement-1.jpg?width=800&name=changemanagement-1.jpg) And because detailed changes are captured for every object in the Content Store it’s possible to store this in a way that makes it possible to retrieve and display the detail in whatever way is useful. We can look across the entire Cognos environment and analyze changes in virtually any dimension that may be needed. In this case ***(Figures 2 and 3)*** it’s done via NetVisn’s *Audit Console* that enables the user to analyze all object changes by change type, action type, object type, user name, etc. ![cognos change management in netvisn audit console](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/changemanagement-2%2c3.jpg?width=800&name=changemanagement-2%2c3.jpg) In ***Figure 4*** for example, we see an analysis of all *Security* changes made over the past six months. Note that the user has the ability to filter the analysis along multiple dimensions and also aggregate the output in virtually any configuration needed. And while this view is HTML, the data can easily be output to Excel or other formats if needed. ![cognos change management security](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/changemanagement-4.jpg?width=900&name=changemanagement-4.jpg) ## Summary Managing object change effectively in Cognos should be the primary goal of every administrator. It provides up to the minute status of every change to every object across the entire Cognos environment along with the assurance of full accuracy. Security changes can be easily validated to insure they are consistent with defined policies. And with the right system it can all be done automatically. © [Envisn, Inc.](https://www.envisn.com/) – 2019 – All Rights Reserved. [![Compare NetVisn to Alternatives](https://hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/70307/d5889277-0065-450a-b83a-e6b559d1c671.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/70307/d5889277-0065-450a-b83a-e6b559d1c671)   Topics: [Cognos Analytics](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-analytics), [Cognos Change Management](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-change-management) *Your feedback is very important to us - we’d love to hear your comments!* ### Subscribe to Envisn's IBM Cognos Blog [![Cognos change history on all dependent content is identified and can be automatically updated in netvisn - learn more](https://hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/70307/952fb54e-8e14-4565-af42-6e527f2750f7.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/70307/952fb54e-8e14-4565-af42-6e527f2750f7) ### Posts by Category - [Cognos Content Store (22)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-content-store) - [Cognos BI Best Practices (21)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-bi-best-practices) - [Cognos Analytics (19)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-analytics) - [Cognos BI administration (19)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-bi-administration) - [Cognos Security (18)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-security) - [Cognos Tools (14)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-tools) - [Cognos Audit Data (11)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-audit-data) - [Cognos Reporting (9)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-reporting) - [Cognos Auditing (8)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-auditing) - [Cognos 10 (7)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-10) - [Cognos Framework Manager (7)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-framework-manager) - [Cognos Metadata (7)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-metadata) - [BI Trends (6)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/bi-trends) - [IBM Information on Demand (6)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/ibm-information-on-demand) - [Cognos Audit Log (5)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-audit-log) - [cognos impact analysis (4)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-impact-analysis) - [Big Data (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/big-data) - [Cognos Data Sources (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-data-sources) - [Cognos Documentation (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-documentation) - [Cognos Scheduling (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-scheduling) - [Product Information (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/product-information) - [cognos data lineage (3)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-data-lineage) - [Archiving Cognos Content (2)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/archiving-cognos-content) - [Cognos FM Model (2)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-fm-model) - [Cognos migration (2)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-migration) - [Announcements (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/announcements) - [Cognos Change Management (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-change-management) - [Cognos Data Provenance (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-data-provenance) - [Cognos Hotfiles (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-hotfiles) - [Cognos Powerplay (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-powerplay) - [Cognos Triggers (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-triggers) - [Consolidating Cognos Environments (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/consolidating-cognos-environments) - [Impromptu (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/impromptu) - [Merging Content Stores (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/merging-content-stores) - [Remote Cognos Management (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/remote-cognos-management) - [cognos deployments (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-deployments) - [cognos fm model documentation (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-fm-model-documentation) - [cognos workspace (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/cognos-workspace) - [netvisn (1)](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/topic/netvisn) [see all](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog/object-change-management-in-cognos-analytics#) ### Posts by Popularity [![free download expert guide to cognos audit data](https://hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/70307/6933ba0f-4664-4d5d-9413-edf64d7b2644.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/70307/6933ba0f-4664-4d5d-9413-edf64d7b2644) ### [Cognos Tools from Envisn](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-products) [NetVisn](https://www.envisn.com/netvisn) [AutoVisn](https://www.envisn.com/autovisn-cogos-scheduler) [UniVisn](https://www.envisn.com/univisn-cognos-performance-management) [DocuVisn](https://www.envisn.com/docuvisn-cognos-documentation) ### [Cognos Resources](https://www.envisn.com/resources) [Envisn’s IBM Cognos Blog](https://www.envisn.com/envisn-cognos-blog) [Custom Query Library](https://www.envisn.com/custom-query-library) [Tutorial Videos](https://www.envisn.com/cognos-demo-videos) [Mastering Cognos Security](https://www.envisn.com/mastering-ibm-cognos-security) [Content Store Survival Guide](https://www.envisn.com/content-store-survival-guide) [Expert Guide to Cognos Audit Data](https://www.envisn.com/cognos-audit-data-expert-guide) ### [Contact Envisn](https://www.envisn.com/contact) [Request a Demo](https://www.envisn.com/request-a-demo) [Support](https://www.envisn.com/support) 512-991-3999 [info@envisn.com](mailto:info@envisn.com) ### Latest Cognos Posts | [![youtube](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/youtube.png?width=30&name=youtube.png)](https://www.youtube.com/user/envisn) | [![linkedin](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/linkedin.png?width=30&name=linkedin.png)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/envisn-inc./) | [![twitter](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/twitter.png?width=30&name=twitter.png)](https://twitter.com/Envisn) | [![facebook](https://www.envisn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/facebook.png?width=30&name=facebook.png)](https://www.facebook.com/envisn/) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | [![Real Time Analytics](https://static.getclicky.com/media/links/badge.gif)](http://clicky.com/101126274) ![Clicky](https://in.getclicky.com/101126274ns.gif) 3000 Polar Lane, Suite 901, Cedar Park, TX 78613 USA *Serving North America, Europe, and the UK with plans to expand to other areas in the near future. **[Privacy, Copyright & Liability](https://www.envisn.com/privacy-copyright-liability)*