Cognos Query Studio is designed for the user that understands the data from which they are collecting information but will likely have a number of different, unique report requirements. The reason that this is an ideal user is because, if the user does not understand the underlying data, they are likely to be lost when trying to create their own report. In addition, if the user has only a few report requirements, they could ask IT to develop those reports for them. Therefore, with Cognos Query Studio, a business user can create their reports without having to rely on IT.

A typical user of Cognos Query Studio may be a business analyst or line-of-business user that understands their data. The understanding of the data is essential because it is very difficult to make the metadata that IT will provide simple enough for a user that does not understand what it is that they are looking at. There are ways of adding additional details to the metadata (for instance...