Why templates
Most of a senior BI developer's influence happens in documents, not in DAX: the requirements that stop the wrong report being built, the KPI definition that ends an argument, the ADR that explains a decision two years later, the postmortem that stops an incident happening twice. These templates are short on purpose, and each has a worked Northwind example.
Every Experience Mode scenario asks you to produce one or more of them; the "Used in" links take you to those scenarios.
When to use which
| You are… | Produce |
|---|---|
| Starting from a vague request | Requirements and open questions, assumptions log |
| Ending an argument about a number | KPI dictionary, validation and reconciliation |
| Designing or documenting a model | Model design document, data dictionary, source-to-target mapping |
| Making a decision someone will question later | Architecture decision record (ADR) |
| Securing a model | RLS / OLS test matrix |
| Proving it works | Validation plan, UAT plan, performance before/after report |
| Shipping | Pull request description, code review checklist, deployment checklist, release notes |
| Operating | Runbook, incident report, blameless postmortem, capacity review |
| Governing | Ownership matrix (RACI), workspace naming standard, certification checklist, deprecation checklist, governance assessment, COE charter, data contract |
All templates
Requirements and open questions
What the requester needs, in numbers, with the questions still open and who answers them.
Used in BI-1042, REQ-301 · Read · Download .md
Assumptions log
Every assumption you made to keep moving, its impact if wrong, and who must confirm it.
Used in BI-1042 · Read · Download .md
KPI dictionary
One entry per business measure: definition, formula, grain, owner, source and caveats.
Used in BI-1042, BI-1057, BI-1103 · Read · Download .md
Validation and reconciliation
How you prove the numbers: source-to-report reconciliation, tests, tolerances and results.
Used in BI-1042, BI-1057, CR-118 · Read · Download .md
UAT plan and log
Test cases the business runs before go-live, with expected and actual results and an outcome per case.
Used in UAT-017 · Read · Download .md
RLS / OLS test matrix
Every role and a representative user, what each must and must not see, and the result after each release.
Used in INC-2031 · Read · Download .md
Performance before/after report
Baseline, root cause per visual, fix, measured improvement and the budget it now meets.
Used in INC-2044 · Read · Download .md
Architecture decision record (ADR)
Context, constraints, options, decision, consequences, risks and the trigger to revisit.
Used in BI-1103, ARCH-009, ARCH-012 · Read · Download .md
Pull request description
What changed, why, how it was tested, the risk and how to roll back.
Used in PR-214, PR-231 · Read · Download .md
Release notes and migration plan
What changes for users and when, the steps, the checks and the rollback.
Used in BI-1103, ARCH-009, ARCH-012, INC-2079, GOV-044, CR-118 · Read · Download .md
Deployment checklist
Checks before and after promoting content between environments.
Used in INC-2058 · Read · Download .md
Runbook
Step-by-step diagnosis and recovery for a known failure, written for whoever is on call.
Used in INC-2058, INC-2071 · Read · Download .md
Incident report
The facts of an incident as it happens: impact, timeline, mitigation, status updates.
Used in BI-1057, INC-2031, INC-2058, INC-2071 · Read · Download .md
Blameless postmortem
Why it happened, why it wasn't caught, and the actions that stop it happening again.
Used in INC-2031, INC-2044, INC-2071 · Read · Download .md
Data contract
What a source team promises a consuming team: schema, meaning, freshness, quality and change notice.
Used in INC-2071 · Read · Download .md
Ownership matrix (RACI)
Who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for each definition, model and process.
Used in BI-1103, ARCH-012, GOV-050 · Read · Download .md
Data dictionary
Every table, column and measure users can see: meaning, type, examples, source and caveats.
Used in BI-1103 · Read · Download .md
Source-to-target mapping
Exactly how each target column is built from the source, with the rule, type and the test that proves it.
Semantic model design document
Purpose, facts and grain, dimensions, relationships, storage mode, security, measures and the performance budget.
Used in BI-1103 · Read · Download .md
Code review checklist
What a reviewer checks in a Power BI pull request: correctness, maintainability and impact.
Used in PR-231, PR-214 · Read · Download .md
Deprecation checklist
Retire a report or model safely: decide, announce, retire, then delete, reversibly until the end.
Used in GOV-044 · Read · Download .md
Capacity review
Monthly look at capacity usage, throttling and the top consumers, with actions and owners.
Workspace and content naming standard
Naming patterns for workspaces, models, reports, apps and security groups.
Used in ARCH-012 · Read · Download .md
Certification checklist
The bar a semantic model must meet before it is certified: ownership, definitions, quality, security, usability.
Used in BI-1103 · Read · Download .md
Governance maturity assessment
Score ten governance areas with evidence, then pick three actions for the next quarter.
Used in GOV-050, ARCH-012 · Read · Download .md
Center of Excellence charter
Mission, sponsor, responsibilities, scope and success measures for a BI Center of Excellence.
Make them yours
Download the Markdown, put it in your team's wiki or repository, and change it: add your company's fields, remove what you never use. A template that matches how your team works will be used; a perfect one that doesn't won't. The printable checklists complement these documents.