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In addition to the ability to compare results across units relative to the selected item in the hierarchy (go to Reference Group Settings for more information), you can also choose to show the results of one "reference unit" called "Upper Level Comparison". You can select "Upper Level Comparison" on the Categories and Statistics object in the aggregated tables of a report with a hierarchy as Personalized Filter Question. The functionality allows you to construct for example a table such as the one shown . where the first Categories object shows the results for "Self" (the unit selected as report base) and the second Categories object shows the results for "Upper level comparison".
Figure 1 - Example of Upper Level Comparison
In the second of these Categories objects, the "Upper level comparison" property is set . In the first categories object, it is not set.
Figure 2 - The Upper Level Comparison property on a Categories object
The statistics object has the same property. This means you can use the same technique when you wish to compare averages.
The default unit used for upper level comparison is the parent unit of the "self", that is the parent of the unit selected in current report base or assigned to the viewer (go to Setting the Report Base for more information). However it is also possible to set up references to other units to use as "upper level comparison" units, if it is not natural to compare with the parent unit. To do this, define a secondary relation in the hierarchy defining the upper level comparison units. In the figure below, the relation "hierarchy" defines the company hierarchy, whereas the relation "upperlevcomp" defines which units are to be used for upper level comparison. The figure is taken from the definition of the hierarchy in the database designer, which is described in more detail in the Forsta Authoring documentation.
Figure 3 - Secondary relation defining which units are to be used in upper level comparison
There are a few differences between the hierarchy and the units that are used for upper level comparison. "Marketing" is organized directly under "The Company", but for upper level comparison, "Sales" is the unit that will be used. Similarly, "Partner Sales" will be compared with "Direct Sales", but is organized under "Sales", and "Operations" will be compared with "Support", but is organized under "Professional Services".
To specify that this alternative relation is to be used instead of the parents in the hierarchy, go to the "Upper level comparison" tab in the aggregated table property sheet, select "Specify Relation" and specify the Relation Name .
Figure 4 - Aggregated table properties for upper level comparison
It is also possible to construct tables to compare a unit and its children, siblings etc. with the results for the same reference unit. The example here shows the averages on a satisfaction statement for a unit "Sales" and its children "Direct Sales" and "Partner Sales", and compares them with the results of the same unit, the upper level comparison of "Sales". This enables you to use formula to calculate the gap between each of these units' averages and the same reference unit(go to About Formulas for more information).
Figure 5 - Upper level comparison of a unit and its children against the same unit
For the department question in the figure above, self and 1 level of children are selected as the reference group settings (go to Reference Group Settings for more information). The second statistics object has "Upper level comparison" set.
When using upper level comparison across several units in this way, you can choose whether the unit that all the units should be compared with is to be the upper level of self (the upper level of "Sales" in the example above), or the upper level of the children (which would be "Sales" itself in the example above). This is done in the "Rule for cuts" setting in aggregated table properties.