How do you report BI project outcomes?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you start your BI project, you should define your goals and metrics clearly and align them with your stakeholders' expectations and business needs. Your goals and metrics should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. They should also be linked to the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your organization or department. By defining your goals and metrics upfront, you can set the baseline and targets for your BI project outcomes and measure your progress and results.

2 Collect and analyze data

During your BI project, you should collect and analyze data from various sources and methods, such as surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, dashboards, reports, and analytics tools. You should use appropriate data quality and validation techniques to ensure the accuracy and reliability of your data. You should also use descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to generate insights and recommendations from your data. You should document your data collection and analysis processes and findings, and share them with your stakeholders regularly.

3 Communicate your outcomes

At the end of your BI project, you should communicate your outcomes to your stakeholders in a clear, concise, and compelling way. You should use different formats and channels to suit your audience and purpose, such as presentations, reports, infographics, videos, podcasts, or webinars. You should highlight the main achievements, challenges, benefits, and impacts of your BI project, and compare them with your goals and metrics. You should also provide actionable recommendations and next steps based on your outcomes.

4 Solicit feedback and evaluation

After you communicate your outcomes, you should solicit feedback and evaluation from your stakeholders and users. You should ask them to rate and review your BI project outcomes, and to share their opinions, suggestions, and testimonials. You should use various methods to collect feedback and evaluation, such as surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, or online forums. You should analyze the feedback and evaluation data and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your BI project outcomes.

5 Document and share your learnings

Finally, you should document and share your learnings from your BI project outcomes. You should summarize the key takeaways, best practices, lessons learned, and success stories from your BI project. You should also acknowledge the contributions, challenges, and achievements of your team and partners. You should create a repository or a portfolio of your BI project outcomes and learnings, and make them accessible and reusable for future reference and improvement.

6 Improve and iterate

Reporting your BI project outcomes is not the end of your BI journey. You should use your outcomes and learnings to improve and iterate your BI processes, products, and services. You should monitor and evaluate the performance and impact of your BI project outcomes over time, and update them as needed. You should also seek new opportunities and challenges to apply and enhance your BI skills and knowledge. You should always strive to deliver better and more valuable BI solutions to your stakeholders and users.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?