Chapter 2. Overview of a Qlik Sense® Application's Life Cycle

In the previous chapter, we outlined the evolving requirements driven by the market, and more importantly by business users seeking to help make better decisions within their organization. This chapter's goal is to highlight key features and benefits of Qlik Sense in meeting these requirements. There are thousands of features in the initial release of the software, and this chapter will serve as a guide to the major components, features, and benefits of Qlik Sense as you start exploring it.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

• Overview of the hub

• Starting application authoring

• Components of a Qlik Sense application

• Sharing an application

Overview of an application's life cycle

As we begin our overview of a Qlik Sense application life cycle, it is best to start at the center of a Qlik Sense community collaboration, which is called the hub. The hub is made up of a number of streams that contain applications that are published by authors as well as users who can extend these applications by adding personal sheets and data stories. The Qlik Sense Management Console (QMC) governs this publishing through streams that have security rules. This approach provides the highly governed system that IT needs, while granting users the ability to explore information and share and collaborate on their findings.

Let's dig a bit deeper in each of these areas:

Overview of the Qlik Sense hub

Starting application authoring

The need for a Qlik Sense application often starts with simple questions, such as these: Why are sales down in my region? What products are not selling well? Are there opportunities to sell additional products to existing customers...

Summary

Enterprise Qlik Sense applications are built based on governed data sources defined in the QMC. These data sources are transformed into a QIX Engine. Once the model is defined, key dimensions and measures are created within the library. This library will be used to create sheets. Next, the application is published to a stream within the hub for consumption. The application is then explored by users, and key findings can then be shared through bookmarks, private sheets, and data stories. These artifacts enrich the application and can be published back in the stream for collaboration between other members of the stream.

The next chapter will explore each of these capabilities in more detail and how they meet the needs of key stakeholders within your organization.