The Microsoft® Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server™ 2005 and the Microsoft® Business Intelligence Toolset

9.2. Building and Delivering Reports

At last, it's time to put together a standard reporting environment. This section concentrates on the process of building the environment and the reports themselves. As always, our process starts with a bit of planning and preparation.

We then proceed to the creation of the initial set of standard reports based on the prioritized list presented in Chapter 8. Once the individual reports are in place, we examine an approach to creating the BI portal. This is followed by setting up the standard report operations process. Finally, we talk a bit about ongoing maintenance of the standard reporting system. Although this is not intended to be a step-by-step tutorial, we will build an example report based on the Adventure Works Analysis Services database that is included in the SQL Server 2005 samples. You should be able to recreate the example report once you get a little Reporting Services experience.

9.2.1. Planning and Preparation

The temptation to dive in and start building reports is almost irresistible at this point. Be strong. Even if you're a Reporting Services pro, it's worth taking a few days to set up your reporting environment and figure out the overall reporting process before you start creating reports. You should also have done all the application specification work described in Chapter 8. The major items you need to address are setting up the development environment, creating standard templates and styles, setting up the delivery and ...