Any Damn Fool Can Write A Report!
The Great Myth of Business Intelligence
Google “Any Damn Fool” and you get some amazing quotes. I especially love the one by Sir Francis Chichester, but there are dozens of excellent ones. We will share some more as we go. Most seem to work on theme — there is something anyone can do and something more useful of impressive. That is a good formula for the proliferation of any meme.
Larry Niven bucked the trend. He didn’t offer us one better. He did make an astute observation. Or perhaps not. Can one really predict the past? Honestly, he just creatively toyed with a definition.
That is what most executives do when they say that anyone can write (or build) a report. They really have no idea what a report is.
If your definition is “to bring back” random numbers on a spreadsheet, I suppose you win. Or perhaps that really means you lost.
Incidentally — report means “to bring back” in its original Latin. That and this strange myth about who can build them goes a long way to explaining the plethora of “vomit on a spreadsheet” masquerading as business reporting.
I could relent that reports are a basic concept and tell you it takes real brains to build an executive dashboard. But like William Levitt, you could simply one up me. Maybe this is about information systems or business intelligence? It really doesn’t matter.
Great reports are business models. How complicated they are and what title you give them isn’t what counts. What counts, what takes brains, what takes genius is making sure that they are clear, concise, and drive real decision-making value.
Any fool can know. The point is to understand. — One Of An Infinite Number Of Things NOT Said By Einstein
If they include accurate attribution, all the better. But even if they are like this dubious quote by Albert Einstein, we still may be able to take something from them. Unfortunately, it takes and array of talents to do reporting right. Just from a standpoint of form there is:
- Data Layer Development — whether marts or proprietary frameworks
- KPI Development — which includes metrics, measures, ratios, and others
- Spreadsheet Development — whether Excel or a myriad of other options
- Dimensional Design — which should include groups, filters, and other descriptive elements
- Graphical Design — whether an infographic or complex multi-axis combo graph with reactive hovers and benchmarks
- And Navigational Design — a skill set that seems absent in so many
All of these figure into truly effective reporting. And none of these are unique to Qlik, Power BI, Tableau, or any other solution. They are universal.
But then you could also look at functional needs. These tend to be influenced by both the platforms you are using and the subject matter you are reporting on. Common concepts include —
- resolution
- engineering
- development
- design
- staging
- structure
- interpretation
There are many more, but lets wrap with a note on Interpretation. The “damn fool” you ask to build you a report is proactively interpreting on your behalf. It is how BI Developers do. They must predict your needs in order to engineer a model capable of supporting them. Still interested in hiring a “damn fool”? Perhaps you already have?
Any damn fool can read a great report. They are designed for that express purpose.
Or if you prefer…
If you hire any damn fool to build you a report, it won’t take a damn genius to realize you wasted your time and money.
Thanks for reading! And don’t suffer fools… we can help.
