At a general level, the universe designer's job is to add value to the underlying database rather than simply providing it "as is". I'll come back to that later though.
The first two documents I'd want as a universe designer are the reporting requirements and the ERD. I'd walk through the reporting requirements and make sure that all the data items are available in the ERD. The ERD is useful as it establish what tables logically belong together, their cardinalities and the join columns. However, there are things that may need changing in Designer. Loops will need resolving through contexts, aliases will need to be identified where tables are used for different things (typically the calendar table has multiple uses). You also need to consider adding value - I added this topic to the BOB Board for example to allow users to schedule reports to run for time periods relative to today:http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?t=152613
You should also look at the following:
Giving all objects meaningful names - do not present the database column name; rename it to what the business know it as. For example, change BUSTYPCD to Business Type Code.
Give all numbers the correct number format - there's nothing worse for an end user than seeing the current year as 2,103.00
Give all measures an aggregate function - get the database server doing the work. Be careful though - while a count aggregate has a sum projection, a count distinct does not.
Give all objects descriptions - it is somewhere to document what the object is and any calculations you have applied to it when you have used a case statement for example.
Above all else, before attempting to build a universe, attend a universe design course. The cost of not doing so is far greater than the cost of doing so. Even if you have to pay for it yourself, it will pay you back over two or three years with what you will achieve.
Best of luck,
Mark
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