So You Want to be a Dashboard/Scorecard Developer?
There's been lots of buzz in the business world over the last 12 months about scorecards and dashboards... although I'm not convinced enough people know the difference between the two. Anyway, Microsoft is starting to build a pretty impressive collection of tools to deliver the “BI vision”... SharePoint, Business Scorecard Manager, Reporting Services, Analysis Services... just to name few. So, if you're a techie (I'll save the designing advice for another blog entry), what do you need to know to build great scorecards and dashboards?
My philosophy is simple... “It's the data, dummy!”. You've got to have the “right” (complete and accurate) information in your BI data source and you have to provide a tool for business users to get their hands on it. The workhorse components in any good MS BI solution really centers around SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) and SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services). More specifically, you have to take advantage of the power of the 2005 versions. SSAS 2005 is unbelievable! It doesn't matter if your backend data sits in SQL Server or Oracle or PeopleSoft or wherever. The UDM (Unified Dimensional Model) in SSAS provides the technology to get your data collected and ready for the presentation tier. Reporting Services really goes beyond the traditional static reporting and makes data “come alive”. Report Builder is the ad hoc reporting tool that fills a big hole in the MS BI story. So, how do you start?
Here are two great resources I have found on SSAS 2005 and SSRS 2005. Both have lots of great examples and code samples. Being strong in these technologies brings you a long way to delivering the “BI vision” to your executives and Information Workers...
“Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005” by Teo Lachev
“Pro SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services” by Rodney Landrum and Walter Voytek II