Report

A report is the output of an analysis. Reports can look at data over a period of time or at a moment in time. An organisation will develop a set of reports over time which define the metrics they to measure performance. By comparing the out put of results over time changes and progress can be tracked through comparison.

Data management systems usually include a fully featured report writing tool as standard. These tools allow complex queries to be sent directly to the database for retrieval. Within the report writing tool other layers will allow for subsequent calculations and manipulations to be performed on the data before passing it to the presentation layer. In the presentation layer a user will be able to design the look, feel and layout of the report.