ADR 017: Analytics Tooling Standards
Status: Proposed | Date: 2025-07-28
Context
Organisations need simple, secure reporting with reproducible outputs. Reports should be version-controlled alongside the data transformations that produce them.
Decision
Use Quarto for analytics and reporting.
Why Quarto
- Multi-format: Same source produces HTML, PDF, Word, presentations
- Version-controlled: Reports live alongside data transformation code in git
- Open source: Markdown-based, portable, no vendor lock-in
- Accessible: Built-in support for WCAG compliance
Capabilities
| Need | Quarto Feature |
|---|---|
| Static reports | Markdown + code blocks |
| PDF documents | PDF output with professional formatting |
| Interactive charts | Observable JS for client-side interactivity |
| Dashboards | Quarto Dashboards for layout and filtering |
| Parameterised reports | Parameters for automated report generation |
Integration
- Data Sources: Query via Ibis or DuckDB per ADR 018: Database Patterns and Reference Architecture: Data Pipelines
- Deployment: Static HTML hosted per ADR 016: Web Application Edge Protection
- CI/CD: Automated report generation per ADR 004: CI/CD Quality Assurance
Consequences
Benefits:
- Version-controlled, reproducible analytics outputs
- Static hosting with minimal operational overhead
- Consistent tooling across reports, dashboards, and documents
Risks if not implemented:
- Inconsistent reporting approaches across teams
- Reports not tracked in version control
- Difficulty reproducing historical analytics outputs