Apparatus and method for selecting a subset of report templates based on specified criteria

1. A computer readable storage medium with executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

process metadata associated with a set of report templates;

select a subset of report templates from the set of report templates using the metadata to form an iterative selection, wherein the subset of report templates maximizes a reporting objective subject to a selection rule as specified by the metadata, wherein the executable instructions to select include executable instructions to

select a first report template from the set of report templates;

remove the first report template from the set of report templates, and

insert the first report template into the subset of report templates;

return the subset of report templates; and

display the subset of report templates.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to update the set of metadata to reflect the removal of the first report template from the set of report templates.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to remove a second report template from the set of report templates.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions to select the subset of report templates from the set of report templates utilize a greedy process.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions to select the subset of report templates from the set of report templates utilize a global selection process.

6. A computer readable storage medium with executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

process metadata associated with a set of report templates;

select a subset of report templates from the set of report templates using the metadata, wherein the subset of report templates maximizes a reporting objective subject to a selection rule as specified by the metadata, wherein the executable instructions to select include executable instructions to create a ranking for a plurality of subsets drawn from the set of report templates;

return the subset of report templates and the ranking for the plurality of subsets; and

display the subset of report templates.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to select the subset of report templates from the set of report templates utilize an optimized search over a plurality of subsets drawn from the set of report templates.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to process the set of metadata include instructions to compute a metric.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions to process metadata include instructions to construct a selection table including a set of dynamic metadata and a set of static metadata.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 further comprising executable instructions to offer for sale the subset of report templates.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein metadata includes an element of metadata selected from the group consisting of:

a second plurality of report templates; and

a plurality of names for the second plurality of report templates.

12. A computer readable storage medium with executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

process metadata associated with a set of report templates;

select a subset of report templates from the set of report templates using the metadata, wherein the subset of report templates maximizes a reporting objective subject to a selection rule as specified by the metadata;

return the subset of report templates; and display the subset of report templates;

wherein the metadata includes an element of metadata selected from the group consisting of:

a model determining costs associated with deploying the subset of report templates;

a model for inter report template dependencies; and

a model for inter report template synergies.

13. A computer readable storage medium with executable instructions, comprising instructions to:

process metadata associated with a set of report templates;

select a subset of report templates from the set of report templates using the metadata, wherein the subset of report templates maximizes a reporting objective subject to a selection rule as specified by the metadata;

return the subset of report templates; and

display the subset of report templates;

wherein the metadata includes an element of metadata selected from the group consisting of:

a question; and

a rating for the question.

14. A computer implemented method comprising:

specifying a reporting objective;

receiving metadata for a first set of report templates; and

applying the reporting objective to select a subset of report templates from the first set of report templates based on the metadata;

wherein the metadata includes an element of metadata selected from the group consisting of:

a second set of report templates;

a selection rule;

a question;

a rating for the question; and

a model determining costs associated with deploying the subset of report templates.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising processing the metadata such that a metric for each report template in a representative subset of report templates from the first set of report templates is computed.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising constructing a selection table for the set of report templates based on the metadata.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the reporting objective is an objective of a customer.