Selecting the Right Approach

On the surface, providing complex reporting facilities seems to be a straightforward process:

1. Note the user requirement.
   
   
2. Create a new ActiveX business object.
   
   
3. Create a report template in an Excel workbook.
   
   
4. Insert VBA code to reference the ActiveX business object.
   
   
5. Repeat this process for each new user request.

This approach is not recommended, however, because it causes a major maintenance headache.

As with all facets of development, if you take enough time up front in analysis and design, you’ll derive a suitable approach to act as a framework for further development and won’t be restricted to the specifics of developing for one user request. A technique I find useful in evaluating a requirement is to break down the requirement according to the mechanisms and methods needed to produce the result:

1. Gather the right data.
   
   
2. Retrieve the data.
   
   
3. Filter the data.
   
   
4. Manipulate the data.
   
   
5. Present and store the report result.

The following sections describe what’s involved in each of these steps.