Apparatus and method for facilitating trusted business intelligence through data context

1. A computer readable medium with executable instructions to analyze a report value, comprising executable instructions to:

select a report value;

identify at least one formula evaluated to produce the report value;

determine parameters associated with the at least one formula using a computation context of a plurality of computation contexts that are a part of a computation plan, each computation context comprising a set of corresponding formulas, a corresponding index with an ordered list of dimensions with sort information for each dimension, and a corresponding filtering expression, at least one of the computation contexts being synchronized to another computation context;

locate, using the computation plan, actual parameters used to compute the report value; and

display the actual parameters.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to determine parameters include executable instructions to process metadata characterizing the computation context.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to display include executable instructions to highlight values that match the actual parameters.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the analyzing of the report value allows a user to determine whether the report value is erroneous.

5. A computer readable medium with executable instructions to analyze a report value, comprising executable instructions to:

select a report value;

determine dimensions used to establish the report value by identifying each dimension that appears in at least one final computation node of a computation plan, the computation plan comprising of a plurality of synchronized computation contexts, each computation context comprising a set of corresponding formulas, a corresponding index with an ordered list of dimensions with sort information for each dimension, and a corresponding filtering expression; and

display the dimensions.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5 further comprising executable instructions to identify original data source data used to compute the report value.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 5 wherein the executable instructions to determine dimensions include executable instructions to process metadata with dimension information.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 5 further comprising executable instructions to locate a filter used to compute the report value.

9. A computer readable medium with executable instructions to analyze a report value, comprising executable instructions to:

select a report value;

identify a formula evaluated to produce the report value;

determine an intermediate value for a sub-expression of the formula through a recursive call that determines parameters for the sub-expression;

determine an intermediate value for a sub-expression of the formula through a recursive call that determines parameters for the sub-expression, where the formula for computing of the report value is a complex formula involving different synchronized computation contexts of a computation plan, each computation context comprises a set of a corresponding formula, a corresponding index with an ordered list of dimensions with sort information for each dimension, and a corresponding filtering expression;

highlighting the intermediate value and measured values that are part of a corresponding computation in a report to users;

presenting to users an entire set of data acquired from data sources used to compute the report value; and

identifying inconsistent results based on the set of data presented to users.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9 further comprising executable instructions to display the intermediate value with an operator from the formula.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the executable instructions to select a report value include executable instructions to select an error value.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 9 further comprising executable instructions to locate a filter used to compute the report value.