Example Data Specifications &

Information Requirements
Framework
ANALYTICS & REPORTING
REQUIREMENTS TEMPLATE
Alan D. Duncan

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Information Strategy | Data Governance | Analytics | Better Business Outcomes

Analytics & Reporting Requirements Template

Purpose

This document template defines an outline structure for the clear and unambiguous definition of
analytic, reporting or informational outputs (including standard reports, ad hoc queries, Business
Intelligence outputs, analytical models etc).
It provides a self-service survey template that can be used by business users to outline and the
reporting outputs that are currently responsible for, and to document the process by which reporting is
produced.
This template forms part of an example data specification & information requirements framework. The
framework offers a set of outline principles, standards and guidelines to describe and clarify the
semantic meaning of data terms in support of an Information Requirements Management process.
(See the Framework Overview for further details.)

Analytics & Reporting Requirements Template

2

Reporting Requirements Survey Template

ORIGINATING
REPORTING
REQUIREMENT

The statement of need for the business user to produce reporting output

e.g. a statutory obligation, an information request from a

government department, a standing commitment to a peer-group
forum, or internal reporting specification.

This may be a reference to an originating document, memo or specification.

REPORTING
PURPOSE

Business purpose or outcome supported by the report; why is the report

needed?

REPORTING
REQUIREMENT
AUDIENCE

Who is requesting the reporting output?

UNSW REPORTING
OWNER

Who is the nominated UNSW person accountable for producing the

reporting output?

DATA STEWARD(s):

Who else is actively involved in administering the data sets and preparing
the associated reports?

SOURCE DATA
INPUTS

What data is required to fulfil the requirement?

REPORTING
DELIVERY METHODS
& DATA UPDATE
PROCESSES

What process is followed to produce the required reports?

EXCEPTIONS,

Are there any exceptions or constraints that limit the scope of report

Where does this data originate from?

What steps are involved?

(Include any details of manipulation that may be applied to source data)

Analytics & Reporting Requirements Template

CONSTRAINTS &
EXCLUSIONS

delivery?

DETAILED DATA
DEFINITIONS &
BUSINESS RULES

Define any specific terms, calculations or business logic that are used within
the report.

REPORTING
DOCUMENTATION

What documentation exists for this reporting process?

OTHER RELEVANT
REFERENCE
MATERIALS

What other principles, guidelines and reference materials relate to this

requirement? (e.g. legislation, regulation, policies and standards)

IDENTIFIED
DEPENDENCIES

Pre-requisites etc. that need to be satisfied before the report can be

prepared.

RELATED UNSW
BUSINESS
PROCESSES

Identify other existing UNSW processes impacted by the delivery of the

report.

OTHER
INFORMATION &
NOTES

Please include any further information that you consider of relevance.

Is there are any data that explicitly wont be included?

E,g. minutes, design documents, updates to metadata repository etc.

Analytics & Reporting Requirements Template

Supporting notes:

The Business Intelligence Competency Centre (BICC) or other expert analytic personnel
should follow up with more detailed analysis of reporting and analytic processes and seek
opportunities for more consistent, sustainable, repeatable approach.

Identified reporting requirements may give rise to evaluating the methods, standards,
guidelines & protocols in use.

Consideration should be given to the type of data content to be reported, and the intended
audience for that data. (e.g. there may be additional considerations to be addressed if
releasing data to 3rd parties)

The principle of manage by exception should be applied where possible.

QlikView similar to Tableau

You have to ask the user about the Business Rules that are available in the Business that you are
working on and you have to go for few of the major steps.

1. Finding Major Tables available in the data model.

2. Find main fields on the tables with measures and dimension.
3. Identify the different dimensions like Dates, Customer Names, Country, Regions, SBUs etc
4. Work on the KPIs to find out if it is formula than you need to find different fields also.
5. Work on Major data sources and its types.

These are not fixed and main rules but that are few nice steps to work on the requirement gathering
process. Also always try to create simple and good Data model and this will help you for creating the
Charts, Reports, Dashboards and Qlikview application.