Analytical Explainability

A Practical Explainability Checklist for Power BI

A checklist to ensure AI explanations are reliable and auditable.

TL;DR

  • • Explainability requires data, drivers, and context.
  • • Use a checklist to enforce consistency.

The problem (layman)

  • • Teams forget key explainability elements.
  • • AI explanations vary by report.

Why it matters

  • • A checklist reduces errors and omissions.
  • • It standardizes AI outputs.

Symptoms

  • • Missing drivers or caveats.
  • • Inconsistent structure across KPIs.

Root causes

  • • No standard explainability process.
  • • Missing governance for narratives.

What good looks like

  • • Each KPI includes drivers, context, and caveats.
  • • Explanations are consistent across reports.

How to fix (steps)

  • • Adopt the checklist in model reviews.
  • • Add metadata fields required by the checklist.
  • • Use automated tests where possible.

Pitfalls

  • • Treating the checklist as optional.
  • • Ignoring feedback loops.

Checklist

  • • Lineage documented.
  • • Drivers defined.
  • • Caveats included.
  • • Segment context provided.