In the world of business intelligence (BI), a well-crafted report is more than just a collection of data points; it’s a powerful tool that drives informed decision-making and business outcomes.
However, the journey from data to insights isn’t always straightforward. To ensure your report not only delivers valuable insights but also captures the attention of your end users and stakeholders, it’s crucial to follow a structured, proven approach.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the essential steps of BI report building, from gathering requirements to publishing your final product. By adhering to these best practices, you’ll maximise the impact of your BI efforts and ensure your reports aren’t just in service but are consumed and acted upon.
1. Gathering Requirements: Setting the Foundation for Success
The first step in any successful BI project is understanding the needs of your audience. The reason you’re tasked with creating a report is because there’s a specific business question or challenge that needs addressing. Your role is to translate these needs into clear, actionable user stories.
Key Steps:
- Engage stakeholders: Conduct interviews or workshops to extract detailed requirements. The goal is to get everything from their heads into a clear, documented format.
- Write user stories: Use a format like “As a [user], I want to [know/see/do] so that I can [reason/benefit].”
- Get sign-off: It’s crucial to have your stakeholders review and agree on these user stories before moving forward.
We spoke to BI & Analytics Senior Consultant Dan Beeley about the significance of wireframing in BI:
“I recently delivered a wireframing training session to a client. Whilst preparing for this session, I devised a test using Power BI’s performance analyser. The test compared a wireframed report against a standard report. The act of implementing the Figma wireframe drastically reduced the visual complexity of the report by removing unnecessary objects and shapes. The results showed an improved aesthetic and a 52% drop in report rendering time, a dramatic difference.”
2. Designing and Wireframing: Visualising the Outcome
Many developers are eager to jump straight into report building, but taking the time to design your report can save significant development time, lead to a more polished final product and improve report rendering speeds.
Key Steps:
- Translate requirements into visuals: For each user story, decide on the most effective way to visualise the data. Consider what type of chart, table or graphic best answers the business question.
- Create wireframes: Whether it’s putting pen to paper or adopting a modern technology, like Miro or Figma, to map out your report, wireframing can help you organise your thoughts, instil a repeatable design and present a coherent plan to stakeholders.
- Stakeholder review: Before moving to the build phase, get feedback on your designs to ensure alignment; this can help your stakeholders feel engaged.
We spoke to Senior BI & Analytics Consultant Ben Butters about the impact of stakeholder engagement throughout the report building process:
“Engaging stakeholders is crucial at every step of the report-building process, but it becomes particularly valuable during the design phase. Until this point, communication with stakeholders has primarily been conversational and focused on gathering requirements. Presenting them with something visual for the first time sparks their imagination and gives them a sense of how they will interact with the final product. This can lead to the discovery of additional requirements and design improvements, which ultimately saves time and effort by reducing the need for rework later in the process.”
3. Building the Report: Bringing Your Design to Life
With a clear design in hand, it’s time to build your report. This is where your data visualisation skills come to the fore.
Key Steps:
- Data modeling: Start by setting up your data model. Ensure all necessary data sources are connected and that relationships between tables are well-defined.
- Create visualisations: Using tools like Power BI or Tableau, you can bring your user stories to life by visualising your data. You can either embed or reference your wireframes to help construct your report.
- Document Your Work: As you build, document key aspects such as the data sources, custom calculations, and the purpose of each visualisation.
4. Developer Testing and Peer Review: Ensuring Quality and Accuracy
Even the most skilled developers can miss something. That’s why peer reviewing is a vital part of the process.
Key Steps:
- Engage a peer: Have a colleague with technical expertise review your report. They should check for errors, inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement.
- Document feedback: Keep a record of any issues found and how they were resolved. This documentation is invaluable for future reference and proving due diligence.
5. User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Gathering End-User Feedback
UAT is your opportunity to see how the report performs in the real world, with actual users interacting with it.
Key Steps:
- Select test users: Choose a group of end users who represent your broader audience to participate in UAT.
- Collect feedback: Have them interact with the report and provide feedback. Look for patterns in their responses that could indicate areas for improvement.
- Refine the report: Based on the feedback, make necessary adjustments before the final release.
6. Publishing to Production: Releasing Your Report to the World
Publishing your report is a significant milestone, but it’s not the end of the journey.
Key Steps:
- Prepare for launch: Ensure all users have access to the report and confirm with your platform’s site administrator that everything is in place.
- Communicate the release: Connect the report to your end users by either hosting a demonstrative workshop or writing a release email explaining what the report covers and how they can access it.
- Ongoing engagement: After the release, monitor user feedback and be prepared to make ongoing enhancements based on their input.
Conclusion
Building a BI report is a complex process that requires careful planning, design, and execution. By following these steps, you can ensure that your reports not only meet the technical requirements but also engage and satisfy your stakeholders and end users.
Remember, the goal is not just to create a report but to deliver insights that drive informed decisions and add real value to your organisation.
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