Why this matters
A report catalog is the single source of truth for your dashboards and reports. It answers: What does this report do? Who owns it? Is it trusted? Where does its data come from? Clear ownership stops duplication, speeds up change requests, and reduces risk when something breaks.
- Real-world tasks you will face: deprecate duplicate reports, certify trusted dashboards, route a bug to the right owner, audit who has access, and communicate breaking changes to stakeholders.
- Without a catalog and ownership model: users can’t find the right report, support tickets bounce around, and teams keep rebuilding the same charts.
Concept explained simply
Think of your analytics as a library. The report catalog is the card index. Ownership is the librarian who is responsible for each card. Together they make everything findable, trustworthy, and maintained.
Mental model
Every report is a product with a product card (metadata) and product managers (owners). The card must say what it is, who it’s for, where it comes from, how fresh it is, and who to contact. Owners keep it healthy and up to date.
Key components of a good report catalog
- Identity: Report ID, Title, Business Domain (e.g., Sales, Finance), Version/Status (Draft/Active/Deprecated/Archived).
- Purpose: Problem solved, KPIs covered, primary audience (Execs, Managers, ICs).
- Ownership: Business Owner, Technical Owner, Data Steward, Backup Owner, Support Channel.
- Data & lineage: Data sources, semantic model, refresh cadence, last refresh, upstream dependencies.
- Quality & trust: Certification status (Certified/Community/Experimental), SLA/expectations, known caveats.
- Access & governance: Sensitivity/PII flags, compliance notes, access instructions, tags.
- Change management: Release notes, review cadence, next review date, deprecation plan if applicable.
Minimal field template you can start with
- report_id (string, unique)
- title
- business_domain
- summary_purpose
- primary_kpis
- business_owner
- technical_owner
- data_sources
- refresh_cadence
- last_refresh_at
- certification_status
- audience
- sensitivity
- status
- tags
- review_cadence
- next_review_at
- release_notes
Ownership model that works
- Roles: Business Owner (defines the why), Technical Owner (builds/maintains), Data Steward (metadata/quality), Approver/Sponsor (exec or domain lead).
- RACI for changes: Responsible = Technical Owner, Accountable = Business Owner, Consulted = Data Steward/SMEs, Informed = audience list.
- Lifecycles: Draft → Reviewed → Active/Certified → Deprecated → Archived.
- Change triggers: metric definition change, data source update, audience shift, compliance requirements.
Simple lifecycle policy
- All new reports start as Draft with a review date within 30 days.
- Active reports must have named Business and Technical Owners and a review every 90–180 days.
- Deprecated reports show a replacement link and planned archive date.
Worked examples
Example 1: New executive dashboard
Scenario: You launch "Executive Revenue Overview".
- Identity: report_id = REVENUE_EXEC_001; status = Active; domain = Sales.
- Purpose: Executive revenue trend, YoY growth, top 5 regions.
- Ownership: Business Owner = VP Sales; Technical Owner = BI Dev A; Steward = Data Gov Lead.
- Data & lineage: CRM_SALES, FINANCE_LEDGER; refresh = daily at 06:00; last_refresh_at = 06:15.
- Quality & trust: Certified; SLA: data fresh by 07:00; caveat: excludes refunds older than 90 days.
Example 2: Duplicate regional sales reports
Scenario: Two similar "Sales by Region" reports confuse users.
- Action: Compare purpose and audience, merge KPIs, select one owner pair, mark the other as Deprecated with a replacement reference.
- Catalog updates: Set deprecated report status to Deprecated, add deprecation note and archive date in 30 days.
Example 3: Ownership transition
Scenario: Technical Owner leaves.
- Action: Assign Backup Owner as interim, update catalog fields, set review date in 14 days to validate run-books and refresh schedules.
- Result: No support gap; on-call routing remains clear.
How to set this up (step-by-step)
- Inventory: Export a list of all dashboards/reports from your BI platform or list them manually. Include title and current workspace/folder.
- Add minimal fields: For each item, fill report_id, title, domain, owner(s), refresh cadence, status, certification_status.
- Establish ownership: Confirm Business and Technical Owners. If unknown, assign temporary owners and add a due date to confirm.
- Define review cadence: Choose a sensible cycle (e.g., 90 days) and set next_review_at.
- Communicate: Share how to find the catalog and how to request changes or report issues.
- Enforce lifecycle: Add a simple deprecation policy and follow it.
Tip: IDs and naming
Use stable IDs (e.g., SALES_REV_EXEC_001). Keep titles human-friendly; never encode meaning only in the ID.
Exercises
These match the exercises below. You can complete them in a spreadsheet or your BI admin notes.
Exercise 1 — Design a minimal report catalog schema
Create a minimal set of fields for your catalog and propose example values for one report you know well.
- Deliverable: A list of fields with short descriptions and sample values for one report.
Exercise 2 — Ownership matrix (RACI) for 3 reports
Pick three reports and define Business Owner, Technical Owner, Steward, and who is Consulted/Informed for changes.
- Deliverable: A mini table (or list) with RACI decisions per report and who handles incoming support tickets.
Self-check checklist
- Every report has both a Business and Technical Owner.
- Each report has a refresh cadence and last refresh date.
- Certification status is clear (Certified/Community/Experimental).
- Deprecated reports have a replacement noted and archive date.
- Your catalog fields are unambiguous and easy to fill.
Common mistakes and how to self-check
- Missing owners: If a report has no owner, it will be neglected. Self-check: filter your catalog for blank owner fields.
- Too many fields: Overly complex catalogs don’t get maintained. Self-check: can each field be filled in under 30 seconds?
- Undefined trust levels: Users can’t tell what’s reliable. Self-check: ensure certification_status is present for all reports.
- No review cycle: Stale reports accumulate. Self-check: list reports with next_review_at in the past.
- Hidden lineage: Troubleshooting slows down. Self-check: for critical reports, confirm upstream sources are listed.
Practical projects
- Starter: Catalog your top 10 most-used reports with full ownership and certification status.
- Intermediate: Implement a deprecation workflow for one duplicate report and communicate the replacement to users.
- Advanced: Add automated freshness notes to your catalog (e.g., copy last refresh time from your BI platform into the catalog daily).
Who this is for
- BI Developers who need to reduce report chaos and support load.
- Analytics Engineers setting governance and documentation standards.
- Data Stewards formalizing trust and lineage.
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of your BI platform’s workspaces/folders.
- Familiarity with your data sources and refresh schedules.
- Comfort with spreadsheets or your BI tool’s metadata panels.
Learning path
- Before this: Basic metadata fields and naming conventions in your BI platform.
- This lesson: Report catalog structure, roles, RACI, lifecycle policy.
- Next: Certification workflows, access governance, and change communication patterns.
Next steps
- Fill the catalog for your top 10 reports.
- Schedule recurring reviews (e.g., quarterly) and assign owners.
- Run the Quick Test below to confirm understanding.
Mini challenge
Pick one high-visibility dashboard. In 30 minutes, complete all minimal fields, assign confirmed owners, set a review date, and mark trust level. Share the summary with the audience.
About progress and the Quick Test
The Quick Test is available to everyone for free. If you are logged in, your progress and results are saved automatically; otherwise, you can still take it without saving.