Utilisation Analysis – Data Models, and the ‘How?’

As I promised on yesterday’s blog, today I will begin discussing the different aspects of the utilisation report, and more generally on reporting. 

I’m going to take this in four bite sized stages so I hope you enjoy

1. The Data Model, and how to begin constructing it
2. Excel, or any database, and getting the data ready
3. The Purpose of the Utilisation Report
4. The Graphs

Firstly, the actual process when constructing a report is to work backwards at the same time as working forwards. It may sound confusing at first, but with practice anything is possible. 

The beginning of the Data Model

When you are creating a specific report, your starting point should always be your source data which you have on hand. But if you consider this on its own you are in for a world of pain. So before you get bogged down in the intricacies of the data you move on to identifying the most useful information for the business. This simple goal setting exercise allows you to know your general destination. You are still not ready to start yet, and what you do next is to sketch the end part of the report.

What are the visuals going to look like, how are they going to interact – you’re not aiming for perfection just conception. The sketch should be quick and dirty, the purpose is to consolidate n your mind what you will be providing in your report. The once you have these sketches, you can lay out how your end tables should look like: you work out how many you need, where the data needs to sit, what order the fields should be laid out in. All of this is essential it will provide you with the strategy to solve the problems. I find the best way to think of it is in terms of a 5000-piece puzzle of a wheat field, you start not with the middle, but with the outer edge, you give yourself a handle, upon which you can fall back on. Do this, and the rest will fall into place!

So now you have a firm end, and your starting point; and of course, you should be nowhere near Power BI yet and still have your pencil at the ready to continue sketching! Look at both the start and the end and draft a plan: how are you going to transform the data to achieve your result, once this is done now you can move to Power BI.

See the final product here on the Microsoft Website