Frequently I see a bit of confusion from business users when using an analytic grid on a dashboard in PerformancePoint. The confusion comes when you right-click on the analytic grid and see a context-sensitive menu. When you right-click on any of the numbers in the grid, in this case “73,149,028″, you will see the following menu:
When you right-click on any member in the hierarchy, in this case “Total Revenue”, you will see:
The difference is right-clicking on a number allows you to drill to detail. Clicking on a hierarchy allows you to drill down to other hierarchies. You can’t drill down to other hierarchies when right-clicking on a number, and you can’t drill to detail when right-clicking on a hierarchy.
Remembering this will allow you to quickly answer the confused questions from users when they claim they are not able to drill to detail or drill down to other hierarchies when using PerformancePoint. Note you will find a similar issue when using other tools such as ProClarity and Excel.