4/14/15
As a business analytics coach, I’m often asked about user testing and end user deployment when it comes to BI reporting. Today, I want to take a few minutes and discuss my approach to these subjects.
Where do I start with user testing?
In a basic/summarized format, here is the approach I use most often where BI reporting is concerned. I should mention that Lodestar Solutions believes 100% in using an agile approach to projects and thus user testing is done through each step of the project.
- Compare for format – Does it meet the requirements of formatting that the end users are used to or will accept?
- Data integrity – Run each report for a number of months & companies and then compare to existing reporting. Is the data as you would expect? Are all accounts and companies available?
- Speed – Do the reports return data in the expected amount of time or does it take longer than you would think?
- Find a power user (other than yourself) to go through points 1 – 3 to test of the same things as you have.
- Once final testing is complete, mark reports for deployment.
What steps should I take to have successful end user deployment?
- Start small. Pick a couple end users who are quick to learn and who can help build support for analytics and reporting.
- Make sure that those end users selected receive some basic training and instructions prior to asking them to test for deployment.
- Ask user to go through the steps above in user testing.
- Once complete, move reports to a “production” status and insure only approved users have access to the reports. Security should also be set to the desired levels in this step.
- Start to involve other users in the same fashion as above to build support for analytics and reporting.
- Make sure you are open to suggestions. Â In your role, you try to think of every scenario but inevitably you will miss something. Your end users will provide valuable input to increase your analytics footprint. Â Take those suggestion and determine if it is something that should be done now or put on a parking lot list to accomplish in a different phase.
To learn more about BI reporting or to see some of our business analytics coaching videos, check out our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiiJyidDKrPBJDcVovXnqDQ