Skip to content

on main · Enterprise Analytics @ UCF

Analytics, engineeredlike software.

Power BI semantic models, SQL pipelines, and Microsoft Fabric for higher education, shipped the way engineers ship code: in Git, through pull requests, and tested against the system they replace. Built with Claude Code, every day.

  • Power BI
  • Microsoft Fabric
  • SQL
  • GitHub
  • Claude Code

claude — ~/semantic-models

production reports migrated from Argos to Power BI
✓ migration22+
fields & measures being prepared for Copilot and Fabric data agents
● in progress600+
undercounting fields caught by a reconciliation audit before release
✓ qa17
departments on a governed Power BI portfolio
✓ governance15+

Featured report

One cohort, every question.Answered before it's asked.

FTIC retention and graduation, tracked end to end from PostgreSQL views: 1- to 4-year retention and 4- to 6-year graduation with IPEDS demographic breakdowns.

app.powerbi.com/groups/ir/reports/ftic-retention
FTIC Retention & Graduation report in Power BI
FTIC Retention & Graduation · Power BI

Selected work

Four production dashboards.One side project.

Power BI reports built from PostgreSQL views on the Colleague ODS, plus a SQL learning platform I built on the side. Select any report to see it full size. Screenshots use sample data.

Admissions dashboard (sample data): applied, admitted, deposited and enrolled by term; acceptance, yield and conversion rates; and a detail table by location and admit type.

Power BI · Admissions

3 pages

Admissions funnel

Inquiry to enrolled: application volume, conversion rates, and yield by term, program, and demographic segment.

View all pages
Student enrollment dashboard (sample data): gender and full/part-time splits, headcount, FTE and FFTE trends by fall term, and enrollment by department and program.

Power BI · Enrollment

Student enrollment

Census snapshot and historical trends: headcount, credit hours, and term-over-term comparisons across academic levels.

View full size
FTIC retention and graduation dashboard (sample data): 3- to 6-year graduation rates by fall cohort with a 4-year projection, and 2nd- to 5th-year retention by cohort.

Power BI · Retention · IPEDS

FTIC retention & graduation

End-to-end cohort tracking from PostgreSQL views: 1- to 4-year retention and 4- to 6-year graduation with IPEDS demographic breakdowns and forecasting.

View full size
Faculty and staff demographics dashboard (sample data): headcount, gender, full/part-time and position type, ethnicity, age bands, faculty rank and years of service.

Power BI · People

Faculty & staff demographics

Workforce composition, representation, and trends across departments, roles, and demographic dimensions.

View full size

Testimonials

Reviewed and approved.In colleagues' words.

Colleague approved these changes

“Davenee deserves most of the credit. His ability to resolve the data discrepancies with past reports was invaluable.”

On the ACTS federal submission

Colleague approved these changes

“Your diligence and attention to detail directly prevented potential fines of $20,000 per report, and that impact cannot be overstated.”

On the final IPEDS reports

Colleague approved these changes

“Your hard work, persistence, and attention to detail made a significant difference, and this outcome speaks volumes about your professionalism and dedication.”

Campus-wide announcement

How I work

From source systemto boardroom, as a pipeline.

Every dashboard starts in a database and ends in an executive meeting. I own the whole path, and I run it like a CI/CD workflow: versioned, tested, reviewed, then promoted.

source-to-boardroom.yml

on: pull_requestSuccess
  1. source

    Source system

  2. sql

    SQL engineering

  3. model

    Semantic model & DAX

  4. reconcile

    Reconcile & review

  5. deploy

    Deploy DEV → QA → PROD

  6. ship

    Dashboard & Copilot

  1. #01

    Source system

    Student, HR, finance and research data lives in the ERP: Ellucian Colleague exposed through PostgreSQL, or Workday and Huron feeding Microsoft Fabric. The first job is knowing where the truth actually lives.

    • Colleague ODS
    • Workday
    • Huron
    • SSAS
  2. #02

    SQL engineering

    Business rules become governed views: cohort logic, census snapshots, status filters, race and ethnicity classification. One CTE, one job, readable by the next analyst.

    • PostgreSQL
    • T-SQL
    • Fabric Warehouse
  3. #03

    Semantic model & DAX

    A star schema with one-row-per-record dimensions and bridge tables for multi-value fields, so distinct counts hold up across every slicer. Definitions live once, in TMDL, under version control.

    • Star schema
    • DAX
    • TMDL / PBIP
  4. #04

    Reconcile & review

    Every change is compared against the system it replaces and goes through pull-request review. A full-column audit is how 17 undercounting fields were caught before anyone saw a wrong number.

    • Comparison tests
    • Pull requests
    • Claude Code
  5. #05

    Deploy DEV → QA → PROD

    Fabric Git integration and deployment pipelines promote the model through environments. Python automates the deployment and refresh checks; Entra security groups control who sees what.

    • Fabric pipelines
    • Python
    • Entra ID
  6. #06

    Dashboard & Copilot

    Leadership opens a report that is already current and already answers the follow-up question. In progress: the same models, prepared so staff can ask in plain English through Copilot and Fabric data agents, with answers tested against known results.

    • Power BI
    • Copilot
    • Data agents

Production SQL

Readable today.Defensible at the next audit.

Real views behind the production dashboards. One CTE, one job, and comments that explain the why.

FTIC cohort retention

Tracking First-Time-in-College retention is critical for accreditation and strategic planning. This view follows federal cohort groups across subsequent fall terms and produces 1-, 3-, and 4-year retention flags that feed the executive dashboard directly.

Cohort definition first, returns second, derived flags last. Active-credit verification and enrollment status checks are applied at each fall checkpoint so the numbers survive an audit.

Cohort years
4
Cohort groups
8
Retention points
3
  • PostgreSQL
  • CTEs
  • IPEDS

vw_cohort_retention_analysis.sql

-- FTIC Cohort Retention Analysis View
-- Tracks student retention across 4 years by federal cohort
WITH cohort_base AS (
SELECT DISTINCT
ost.sttr_student AS studentid,
LEFT(sal.sta_fed_cohort_group, 2)::integer AS cohortterm,
pnc.gender,
xie.ipeds_ethnicity AS raceethnicity,
pnc.first_name AS firstname,
pnc.last_name AS lastname
FROM dbo.ods_student_terms ost
JOIN dbo.spt_student_acad_levels sal
ON sal.sta_student = ost.sttr_student
JOIN dbo.spt_person_non_corp pnc
ON pnc.id = ost.sttr_student
JOIN dbo.x_ipeds_ethnicity xie
ON xie.id = ost.sttr_student
WHERE sal.sta_fed_cohort_group IN (
'21FF', '21FP', '22FF', '22FP',
'23FF', '23FP', '24FF', '24FP'
)
),
returns_by_term AS (
SELECT sttr_student, sttr_term
FROM dbo.ods_student_terms
WHERE sttr_term IN (
'2022FA', '2023FA', '2024FA', '2025FA'
)
AND sttr_current_status IN ('R', 'T')
AND x_sttr_active_cred > 0
GROUP BY sttr_student, sttr_term
)
SELECT
c.studentid,
c.cohortterm,
CONCAT('20', c.cohortterm, '-', '20', c.cohortterm + 1)
AS academicyear,
c.gender,
c.raceethnicity,
CASE c.cohortterm
WHEN 21 THEN CASE WHEN r22.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
WHEN 22 THEN CASE WHEN r23.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
WHEN 23 THEN CASE WHEN r24.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
WHEN 24 THEN CASE WHEN r25.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
END AS oneyearretention,
CASE c.cohortterm
WHEN 21 THEN CASE WHEN r24.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
WHEN 22 THEN CASE WHEN r25.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
END AS threeyearretention,
CASE WHEN c.cohortterm = 21
AND r25.sttr_student IS NOT NULL
THEN 1 ELSE 0
END AS fouryearretention
FROM cohort_base c
LEFT JOIN returns_by_term r22
ON r22.sttr_student = c.studentid AND r22.sttr_term = '2022FA'
LEFT JOIN returns_by_term r23
ON r23.sttr_student = c.studentid AND r23.sttr_term = '2023FA'
LEFT JOIN returns_by_term r24
ON r24.sttr_student = c.studentid AND r24.sttr_term = '2024FA'
LEFT JOIN returns_by_term r25
ON r25.sttr_student = c.studentid AND r25.sttr_term = '2025FA'
ORDER BY c.cohortterm, c.lastname, c.firstname;
Davenee James

Experience

git log --careerTwo institutions, one data model.

~/career (main) $ git log --graph

  1. commit c0ffee7HEAD -> maintag: ucf

    Date: Jul 2026 – present|Orlando, FL · Hybrid

    Enterprise Analytics Specialist II

    University of Central Florida

    Analytics & Integrated Planning, Office of the Provost

    • Rebuild legacy SSAS cubes as governed star-schema semantic models in Microsoft Fabric for research administration reporting (proposals, awards, agreements, expenditures, subawards, compliance), with bridge tables for multi-value fields and DAX distinct-count measures.
    • Convert 7 certified datasets from Analyze-in-Excel pivot workbooks to Power BI dashboards, after a proof of concept stakeholders approved for production on speed and usability.
    • Reconcile each rebuilt model against the legacy system before release: a full-column audit across three models surfaced 17 undercounting multi-value fields, fixed with a combined bridge table.
    • Lead the initiative to prepare 7 semantic models (600+ fields and measures) for plain-English questions through Copilot and Fabric data agents: descriptions, synonyms, AI instructions, and testing against known answers.
    • Use Claude Code daily to write and review SQL, DAX, and model changes, every change passing comparison testing and pull-request review; building a custom Power BI matrix visual with it from pilot-user feedback.
    • Version-control models and reports in GitHub (PBIP/TMDL) through Fabric Git integration, release across DEV, QA, and PROD with deployment pipelines, automate deployment and refresh checks with Python, and secure reports with Entra security groups.
    • Gather requirements with functional stakeholders, lead user acceptance testing, deliver documentation and training, and produce recurring and ad hoc analyses for university leadership.
  2. commit 5a1e0d4tag: swau

    Date: May 2024 – Jul 2026|Keene, TX · On-site

    Data Analyst | BI Developer

    Southwestern Adventist University

    Office of Institutional Research & Effectiveness

    • Administered the institutional Power BI portfolio for 15+ departments across finance, HR, student accounts, financial aid, admissions, and board-level reporting.
    • Led the migration of 22+ production reports from Ellucian Argos to Power BI, redesigning parameter-driven reports as governed semantic models and training end users.
    • Built a reusable SQL reporting layer over a 300+ table ERP database (PostgreSQL) across admissions, enrollment, retention, financial aid, and faculty workload.
    • Authored federal IPEDS submissions, tracing discrepancies to root cause; resolved a critical submission issue that averted a federal penalty.
    • Served as data lead on the ERP migration, building source-system mapping and automated pipelines that retired recurring manual Excel reporting.
    • Mentored colleagues on SQL and self-service analytics to raise data literacy across the institution.
  3. commit ba2024etag: education

    Date: Jan 2020 – May 2024|Keene, TX

    Bachelor of Arts

    Southwestern Adventist University

    Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300), in progress · Project Management Foundations: Teams (LinkedIn Learning)

Skills

Full-stack analytics,from the ERP to the executive summary.

Pinned like repositories, because that's where most of this work lives.

power-bi

daily driver

Semantic models end to end, from star schema to the published app.

  • Semantic models (star schema, TMDL/PBIP)
  • DAX, Power Query / M
  • Report & dashboard design, custom JSON themes
  • Org apps & audiences, workspace governance
  • Role-based access with Entra security groups

DAX

microsoft-fabric

The platform the models live on, wired to Git.

  • Warehouse, semantic models, Notebooks
  • Deployment pipelines: DEV, QA, PROD
  • Fabric Git integration (workspaces on GitHub)
  • REST API

TMDL

ai-assisted-reporting

AI that speeds up the work, and tests that keep it honest.

  • Claude Code for SQL, DAX and model development
  • Preparing models for Copilot & Fabric data agents
  • Field descriptions, synonyms, AI instructions
  • Answers tested against known results

Claude Code

sql-data-engineering

The pipeline behind every dashboard.

  • T-SQL (SQL Server, Fabric Warehouse)
  • PostgreSQL
  • Python, ETL pipeline design
  • Dimensional modeling
  • Automated comparison testing

SQL

delivery

How work gets from a branch to the people who use it.

  • GitHub: branching, PRs, code review, protected branches
  • Jira, requirements gathering
  • User acceptance testing
  • Documentation & end-user training
  • Also: Tableau, SSAS / MDX

Git

Consulting

Consulting for higher ed.Taking on new engagements.

Currently partnering with Southwestern Adventist University on institutional research analytics, and taking on new engagements across Power BI, PostgreSQL, Microsoft Fabric, Argos-to-Power BI migration, and IPEDS.

Services & engagement models
  • Power BI & Fabric

    Governed semantic models and executive-ready reports.

  • PostgreSQL pipelines

    Documented views your IR team can maintain.

  • Argos to Power BI

    22+ production reports migrated so far.

  • IPEDS-aware

    Five annual surveys authored end to end.

Contact

Let's talk aboutyour institution's data.

Analytics roles, consulting, dashboard requests, or a conversation about Fabric and AI-ready semantic models. I reply within one business day.

$git commit -m "let's talk" && mail daveneejames@gmail.com

Orlando, FL · open to roles & consulting