Pattern grounded in delivery · CHAPTER 02

Sources and architecture

Source systems and the Bronze, Silver and Gold layers.

Pattern grounded in delivery

This cross-project example combines solutions delivered for several clients with similar needs. Organisation and engagement details have been generalised to show the repeatable architecture and delivery approach without disclosing client information.

DATA SOURCES

Six sources, one governed flow

Every source has its own change frequency, owner and sensitivity. Integration begins with explicit data contracts instead of connecting reports directly to operational files.

ERP

Finance and production

Data scope
general ledger, receivables, payables, invoices, orders, production orders, material movements and cost
Key control
control totals by entity, account, period, currency and document
HR

Workforce and structure

Data scope
employees, teams, roles, working time, absence and labour cost rates
Key control
data minimisation, pseudonymisation and restricted access to personal data
SP

SharePoint

Data scope
project registers, contracts, owners, status, reference data and approvals
Key control
version, effective date, mandatory fields and approval history
XLS

Plans and forecasts

Data scope
budgets, forecasts, cost allocation keys and management adjustments
Key control
approved template, locked plan version and a traceable change history
TIME

Timesheets

Data scope
hours by employee, project and task, work type, period and approval status
Key control
approved entries only, duplicate checks and calendar consistency
TASK

Task planning

Data scope
tasks, owners, dates, estimates, dependencies, status and completion percentage
Key control
project mapping, status history and orphan-task checks

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE

A medallion architecture with controlled publication

Microsoft Fabric and OneLake separate raw capture, standardisation and business-ready data. An issue can be traced to a specific batch, rule or record, while reports cannot bypass quality controls.

B

Bronze

Source-faithful capture

Immutable snapshots and increments with source, extraction time, batch identifier and file version metadata.

  • batch completeness
  • technical duplicates
  • history and replay capability
S

Silver

Clean and conformed data

Standard types, currencies, periods and identifiers with shared legal entity, project, cost centre, person and product reference data.

  • quality rules
  • reference mappings
  • HR data pseudonymisation
G

Gold

Business data products

Finance, project, production and resource marts with approved KPI definitions and retained change history.

  • source reconciliation
  • plan versions
  • publication readiness
BI

Semantic & BI

One meaning, different views

A shared Power BI semantic model with measures, hierarchies, RLS/OLS and reports designed around each role's decisions.

  • certified model
  • Entra ID groups
  • usage and refresh monitoring