Four Phases of Report Authoring Targeted for Executives and Upper Management By: Ben Aminnia President, L.A. SQL Server Professionals Group Database Architect, Pointer Corporation

2 Objectives  There are four phases in report authoring;  Most textbooks only cover 1.5 of those phase;  We’ll go over all four phase;  With emphasis on the missing 2.5;

3 Agenda  Phase 1: The Users  Phase 2: The Data  Phase 3: The Report  Phase 4: The Delivery and Administration  Questions and Answers

4 What’s Covered in the Textbooks Phase 1: The UsersNo00 % Phase 2: The DataNot Enough20 % Phase 3: The ReportOK80 % Phase 4: The Delivery and AdministrationSo-So50 % Overall % Presented for all 4 phases150 % Maximum % for all 4 phases400 %

5 A Typical Scenario  A client calls me or sends me an …  Ben, I need a report;  How much is it going to cost?  When is it going to be ready?  Now, you be “Ben” and I’ll be “the client” …  How would you answer these questions?  What questions will you ask me before giving me your cost and time estimates?  Or maybe you have an estimate, even without asking any questions?!

6 Why These Four Phases?  You build the most sophisticated report;  Then the manager says: “That’s nice but …”  Why is that % value over there lower than this % value?  It should be higher!

7 Phase 1: Understanding the Users  Reading their mind  Understanding their psychology  Do they know what they want?  Do they have time to tell you what they want?  Is it in writing or just in their head?  Is there a sample?  Is it similar to another existing report?

8 Phase 1: Understanding the Users  Maybe they can designate someone else (like a manager or director who reports to them) to be your contact and who will have time to sit down with you and tell you exactly what the boss wants?  What problem are they trying to solve?  WHY do they need this report?  Is it for their personal use to manage their own business better or is it mandated by some other authority – inside or outside the organization – or even a government agency?

9 Phase 1: Understanding the Users  Did they request the report themselves or did one of their staff tell you what they want?  Do they even look at the existing report which you are supposed to improve?  How sophisticated are they?  If they asked for a weekly report …  Do they understand the difference between “Last week” and “Last 7 days”?  Which one do they want?  Can you show them a prototype / mock report before spending hours / days on development and formatting?

10 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  Some fundamental questions which are virtually missing from every reporting textbook …  Where is the data?  How accessible is it?  Is it ready for reporting?  Why is it that textbooks do not cover these topics?  Is it because they don’t have the answers?  Or they don’t understand the concept of an end-to-end textbook?

11 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  In the view of reporting textbooks …  The Data Source is there and ready to be reported on;  You just need to know the connection string / id / password / etc.  Not so easy in the real world!  What if the data source is unreachable?  What if the data owner doesn’t give you access?  What if some required data elements aren’t being tracked yet? (e.g. CreateDate vs. LastUpdate)

12 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  And even more interesting …  Not only they may want one date instead of another (e.g. CreateDate vs. LastUpdate)  They may also say: “Why is that other previous report using LastUpdated? That should have used CreateDate as well.”

13 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  Some examples from my real-life experience in the past couple of years …  From a user elaborating on the report requirements: “The weekly report needs to represent the status of the cases as they were on those days even if we pull it a week, a month etc... later.”

14 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  From another user elaborating on the report requirements: “The report should show only my staff’s weekly activities; not John’s staff.”  My 1 st thought: WHERE DeptID=“X”  Not so fast!  This was a business divorce case!  We had to split the database and put it on two separate servers.

15 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  Another example …  We need five SSRS reports and here’s the layout and screenshot of the application where the data is entered.  Where’s the data connection information?  Talk to John; Here’s his and phone #;  But that’s a different company!  I ended up building an elaborate SSIS package to pull the data from the other company’s server, before I could start working on the new SSRS reports.

16 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  Another example …  We need some new reports.  Where’s the data connection information?  Talk to Bob; Here’s his and phone #;  Bob: What’s the connection information to this data source?  We will not give it to you; Only our staff are allowed to extract this data!

17 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources The Ideal vs. the Real / Practical Data Source  In an Ideal Data Source …  All Calculations / Summarizations / Aggregations are already done;  Data has been stored in Analysis Services (SSAS) where applicable;  Shared Data Sources have been defined within Reporting Services (SSRS) before report authoring starts;

18 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources The Ideal vs. the Real / Practical Data Source  In the Real World (or at least in most cases) …  Calculations / Summarizations / Aggregations are missing;  Data may not even be accessible to the reporting world and you may need to run an SSIS package to import it periodically;

19 Phase 2: Evaluating the Data Sources  You have to choose between two methodologies in order to bridge the gap: 1.A simple data source (e.g. one or more joined tables) followed by a complex report definition; 2.A complex data source (e.g. one or more stored procedures with temporary tables, groupings, aggregations, etc.) followed by a simple report definition;  My choice is the 2 nd approach as much as possible: GO SP!

20 Phase 3: Composing the Report  That’s where the textbooks are most helpful.  Categories / Templates (lists, tables, 1-to- many, cross-tab, tablix, etc.)  Formatting; Fonts; Page Breaks; Headers/Footers; Groupings; etc.  Wizards and other tools to get you started quickly  3 rd Party vendors

21 Phase 4: Delivery and Administration  How are the users going to get the report?  Are they accessing the Report Server directly?  Do they have a SharePoint site where their reports are deployed?  Is there an existing application where this new report will just become another entry under its “Reports” menu?

22 Phase 4: Delivery and Administration  Are we building a new application to host these reports?  Specifying Connections and Credentials for the ReportViewer Web Server Control  Do they want the report ed to them periodically?  Scheduling  Deployment  Push: From Report Builder => Save As …  Pull: From Report Server => Upload File

23 In Summary: Here’s what we learned today Understanding the users and their requirements Two Weeks80 Hours Developing Data Sources (Stored Procedures) Two Days16 Hours Developing Report Definitions (RDLs), Deploying, and Scheduling Half a Day4 Hours TOTALTwo and a Half Weeks 100 Hours

24 Questions and Answers

25 Contact Information s: s: Websites:Websites:

26 Thank You!