Dashboard Specification Template (BI Report, WCAG 2.2)

Dashboard Specification: [Dashboard name]

Specification of one dashboard or BI report: its audience and the decisions it supports, the questions it answers, the KPI list (each linked to a Metric Definition), the layout wireframe, filters and drill paths, row-level security, refresh and data latency, accessibility against W3C WCAG 2.2 (Recommendation, 12 December 2024 edition), the performance budget, testing, ownership, certification and the sunset date. Tool-neutral: it works for any BI or notebook tool. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Approvals

Revision history

Contents

• 1. Audience and decisions
• 2. Questions answered
• 3. KPIs and metrics
• 4. Data sources and lineage
• 5. Layout and wireframe
• 6. Visual and content rules
• 7. Filters, parameters and drill paths
• 8. Row-level security and sharing
• 9. Refresh, latency and data status
• 10. Accessibility
• 11. Performance budget
• 12. Testing and acceptance
• 13. Ownership, certification and sunset
• 14. Glossary and references

1. Audience and decisions

Not intended for (Example): operational monitoring of the checkout service (use the observability dashboards), or customer-level investigation (use the CRM).

2. Questions answered

3. KPIs and metrics

Rules:

• DSH-R01 Every KPI comes from the semantic model. Dashboard-level calculations are limited to formatting and to comparisons the model cannot provide, and each one is listed here.
• DSH-R02 An uncertified metric is visibly labelled (for example "Preview") and placed below certified KPIs.
• DSH-R03 Each KPI tile links to its Metric Definition (data/metric-definition) from an information icon or tooltip.

4. Data sources and lineage

Register the dashboard as an exposure in the transformation project (rule DBT-055 in dbt Project Standard, data/dbt-project-standard) so model changes show it as affected.

5. Layout and wireframe

Page 1, "Overview" (Example):

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Title, data as of [time], filters applied: [Region] [Channel]    |
+---------------+---------------+---------------+------------------+
| V-01 KPI tile | V-01 KPI tile | V-01 KPI tile | V-01 KPI tile    |
| Net revenue   | Orders        | Avg order val | Growth vs LY     |
+---------------+---------------+---------------+------------------+
| V-02 Net revenue vs plan, by week (line)  | V-03 Variance by     |
|                                           | region and channel   |
|                                           | (bar, sorted)        |
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------+
| V-04 AOV by segment (line, small multiples) | V-06 Refund rate   |
|                                             | (line, Preview)    |
+---------------------------------------------+--------------------+
| Footnotes: definitions, exclusions, contact                       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

Page 2, "Categories" (Example): V-05 category table with last year comparison, conditional icons and drill-through to a category detail page.

6. Visual and content rules

• DSH-R10 Bar charts start at zero; line charts may use a fitted axis when the axis is labelled.
• DSH-R11 Show units and currency codes on every number and axis (Example: "EUR, thousands").
• DSH-R12 Use the same colour for the same category on every page; reserve one highlight colour for "below plan".
• DSH-R13 Sort categorical bars by value unless the categories have a natural order.
• DSH-R14 Write titles as findings or questions (Example: "Net revenue vs plan, fiscal month to date"), and put definitions, exclusions and the contact in the footnote.
• DSH-R15 No 3D charts, no dual axes with different units, no pie charts with more than [4] slices (Example).
• DSH-R16 Follow the platform report standards in Analytics and BI Solution Design (architecture/analytics-bi-solution-design, section "Report and dashboard standards").

7. Filters, parameters and drill paths

• DSH-R20 The header always shows the active filters in text, not only in filter controls.
• DSH-R21 Drill paths never lead to customer-level rows; the lowest grain is [product by day] (Example).

8. Row-level security and sharing

• DSH-R30 Row-level rules are inherited from the semantic model or the data platform, never defined only inside the dashboard.
• DSH-R31 Scheduled snapshots run as each recipient, or are limited to content every recipient may see.
• DSH-R32 Data export is [disabled / limited to aggregated data] (Example: limited to aggregated visuals, no underlying rows).
• DSH-R33 Usage measurement for this dashboard uses aggregate view counts from the BI tool's own logs; no third-party tracking scripts, no individual-level profiling, and no data beyond what is needed to decide whether to keep the dashboard.

9. Refresh, latency and data status

Freshness and quality thresholds come from the source data contracts and from Data Quality Standard (data/data-quality-standard).

10. Accessibility

Target conformance: WCAG 2.2 level [AA] for the dashboard page, within the limits of the BI tool. Record tool limitations as exceptions with a workaround.

Use the Accessibility Checklist (design/accessibility-checklist) during build and the Accessibility Audit (quality/accessibility-audit) for the formal evaluation before certification.

11. Performance budget

When a budget is breached for [2] consecutive weeks (Example), open a ticket: reduce visuals, pre-aggregate in a mart, or increase caching. Plan load tests with Performance Test Plan (quality/performance-test-plan) for dashboards with more than [200] daily users (Example).

12. Testing and acceptance

13. Ownership, certification and sunset

Certification requires: all KPIs certified or labelled as preview, tests TC-01 to TC-08 passed, owner and support contact named, and the dashboard registered as an exposure. Certification lasts [12 months] (Example).

Sunset and review:

1. At the sunset date, the owner reviews aggregate usage, open issues and whether the decisions in section 1 still exist.
2. The owner chooses: renew (new sunset date), redesign (new version of this specification) or retire.
3. To retire, announce [30 days] (Example) ahead, archive this specification, remove the exposure and delete the dashboard.
4. A dashboard with no named owner for [60 days] (Example) loses its certified status automatically.

14. Glossary and references

References:

• W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C Recommendation, edition of 12 December 2024: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
• Related templates: Metric Definition (data/metric-definition), Semantic Model Specification (data/semantic-model-specification), Analytics and BI Solution Design (architecture/analytics-bi-solution-design), Data Dictionary (architecture/data-dictionary), Data Platform Architecture (architecture/data-platform-architecture), Accessibility Audit (quality/accessibility-audit), Analytics Tracking Plan (data/analytics-tracking-plan) for product event data that feeds metrics.

Standard and licence note

Based on the success criteria of W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, cited by number and short name only under the W3C document licence; no WCAG text is reproduced. The rest of the structure is original, aligned with common business intelligence practice, and the Corvid Commerce example is fictional. This template is original text written for this collection. Check the current official WCAG version and your BI tool's documentation before use. Template licence: MIT.