A report refresh fails on the day of a review meeting. What is your immediate action?

< 1 min read

First, I would quickly check the error message or logs to understand why the refresh failed.
I would verify if the issue is related to the data source connection, credentials, or a temporary system failure.
If possible, I would attempt a manual refresh or restart the data pipeline to see if the issue resolves quickly.
At the same time, I would inform the stakeholders that there is a refresh issue and that I am investigating it.
If the issue cannot be fixed immediately, I would use the most recent successfully refreshed data for the meeting.
In one project, our dashboard refresh failed due to a source database timeout, so we presented the previous day’s data.
I would clearly mention the data timestamp so stakeholders know the data is slightly outdated.
After the meeting, I would work with the data engineering or IT team to resolve the root cause.
Finally, I would document the issue and consider adding alerts to detect refresh failures earlier.

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