BI product — Trust and operations

What lets you rely on the product day to day.

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Access and permissions#

Who can see and do what, and how is it managed?

Level	Signature	Criteria to meet
0 · Handcrafted	The file is copied to whoever asks for it.	Starting point: no criteria.
1 · Locally tooled	Files shared in a folder or protected by a password.	Access to shared files is restricted to a list of people.
2 · Shared	Authenticated access, named accounts.	Each user has a named account. Access without an account is impossible.
3 · Industrialized	Groups and roles, centrally managed rights.	Rights are granted by group or by role. Granting and removing rights follows a process. Rights are managed in one place for all reports.
4 · Integrated and governed	Row-level security, inherited scopes, periodic review.	Each user sees only the rows in their scope (row-level security). Scopes are derived from the structure (groups, inheritance). Rights are reviewed periodically.
5 · Autonomous	Policy-driven permissions: automatic granting, temporary rights, continuous audit.	Rights are granted and removed automatically from reference data (arrivals, departures, changes). Exceptional rights have a limited duration. Access is audited continuously, with alerts on anomalies.

Effect on the user

The user sees exactly what concerns them, without asking for it or filtering it themselves.

Are the data and the product protected, and can this be demonstrated?

Level	Signature	Criteria to meet
0 · Handcrafted	No specific measures: data lives on uncontrolled workstations or disks.	Starting point: no criteria.
1 · Locally tooled	Sensitive data is identified.	Personal and sensitive data is identified.
2 · Shared	Basic measures: encrypted exchanges, backups, updates.	Exchanges are encrypted. Backups exist and are tested. Components are updated regularly.
3 · Industrialized	Security by design: requirements, reviews, penetration tests.	Security requirements are written for the product. Changes are reviewed from a security standpoint. Penetration tests take place regularly, preferably by an independent team.
4 · Integrated and governed	Compliance built into deliveries: check before each release, logged access.	A compliance check (GDPR in particular) is carried out before each release. Access to sensitive data is logged. A register of processing activities and retention periods is maintained.
5 · Autonomous	Automated checks in the delivery pipeline, continuous monitoring.	Security scans and automated penetration tests are part of the delivery pipeline. Secrets are managed outside the code and rotated. Security events are monitored and handled according to a plan.

Effect on the user

The user does not need to know the security rules: the product applies them by default.

Is the product there when needed, and at what cost?

Level	Signature	Criteria to meet
0 · Handcrafted	Available when the author's workstation is.	Starting point: no criteria.
1 · Locally tooled	Files on a workstation or a share, with no guarantee.	The file is backed up.
2 · Shared	Shared server, backups, announced maintenance.	The product runs on a shared server. Planned outages are announced.
3 · Industrialized	Availability targets defined and measured, monitoring.	An availability target is defined and measured. Response times are measured on key user journeys. Monitoring raises an alert in case of unavailability.
4 · Integrated and governed	Sized capacity, high availability, managed costs.	Capacity is sized from measured usage. The failure of a component does not interrupt the service. Operating cost is tracked and related to usage. The availability target takes into account the combined availability of the services in the chain.
5 · Autonomous	Automatic adjustment: start, stop, scale up and down; self-healing.	Resources start, stop and resize automatically according to load or schedule. Common incidents are repaired automatically. A cost overrun triggers an alert or an action.

Effect on the user

The user never wonders whether the product will be available or fast: it is a given.

Who helps when it does not work, and do we see problems coming?

Level	Signature	Criteria to meet
0 · Handcrafted	The author troubleshoots, when available.	Starting point: no criteria.
1 · Locally tooled	Users know whom to contact.	A contact person is identified.
2 · Shared	Single entry point and request tracking.	A single entry point receives requests. Each request is tracked until it is closed.
3 · Industrialized	Support process, knowledge base, classified incidents.	Incidents are classified by severity with target response times. A knowledge base captures the answers. Root causes of serious incidents are analyzed.
4 · Integrated and governed	Observability: logs, metrics and usage telemetry put to use.	Logs and metrics are centralized and searchable. Usage and performance telemetry is collected. Monitoring dashboards are used daily.
5 · Autonomous	Predictive detection: drifts are anticipated before the incident.	Drifts (processing times, volumes) are detected by extrapolating trends before they are suffered. Alerts are qualified to limit noise. Frequent causes trigger an automatic fix or a prepared action.

Effect on the user

The user is warned before suffering the problem, and always knows whom to turn to.