Need Advice on where to put PowerBI reports per CSDM

[tammykuhns]

Hello all - 

We are starting our journey on mapping services, applications, etc., based on the CSDM.  I need some guidance on what to do with Reports that are created in PowerBI.  These reports are supported by a specific team and they would like to track information via Incidents & requests.   We'll be making a Technical Service & Offerings to break down the support structure but my question is around where do the reports themselves go?   I was thinking Software Applications as a Configuration Item  (reports would be like Corporate Account Sales, Field Sales by Division, etc)  There are about 80-100 different reports

Business Application:  Power BI

Application Service(s): Power BI - Prod

Has anyone tackled this before?

Thanks.

Tammy 

[CMDB Whisperer]

I might actually go with Configuration File, or possibly extend Configuration File to a custom class.  I mean technically there is a configuration file somewhere that determines the output of that report in PowerBI and whenever that Configuration File changes, so does the report.  That's probably the best representation of what the PowerBI report actually is in reality.

Another possibility would be to consider it an Information Object, but I don't think that's the best solution, since Information Objects are actually what is contained in (or used by) the report.  

So my suggestion: extend Configuration File class to a custom "Document" subclass, and then extend that to a "Report" subclass (or some variation thereof.)  Or if you want to avoid subclassing altogether, just use the Configuration File class itself, and then add a custom field for the File Type and set that to Report.  

Once you have your inventory of reports, you can associate each report with the "PowerBI" Application Service you have created.  And if you have defined Information Objects you can even relate your reports with those Information Objects, so that people know what is in those reports (and therefore, what level of sensitivity they need to be given, for example).

[matthiaslorenze]

Hi, Tammy,

we have created a CI Class with the name "Report" and mapped it to the Business Applications with the relation "Provides::Provided by".

The main use case for us was managing and auditing user access to Dashboards built with PowerBI.
Be have therefor built a relation between the Business Application that provides reports, that requires a role and that are part of a dashboard (we called it Reporting Overview) covered it in a Business Service Offering.
We use these relations as part of an automated workflow, so someone can request to get access to the Dashboard and we can provide all the required roles for the reports that are part of the Dashboard automatically by adding the requestor to the related AD Groups, which is an attribute on the role CI..
In addition it is possible for us to see who has subscribed to the Business Service Offering (i.e. the dashboard) for auditing purposes by adding them to the "Subscribed by" related list once the access request has been approved.
In addition the report is linked to Information Objects, so we can see what data is utilized by the reports. The illustration below is from our test environment (utilizing some dummy data ...) So I think it is very close to what CMDB Whisperer suggested before.
Let me know in case you need more information.

Matthias