1. A method comprising: receiving a selection of a business intelligence report element of a first business intelligence report specification, the first business intelligence report specification in a first file format; creating a serialized description of the business intelligence report element in a second file format based on a business intelligence report element data model; receiving an instruction to add the business intelligence report element to a second business intelligence report specification, the second business intelligence report specification in a third file format; and adding the business intelligence report element to the second business intelligence report specification in the third file format based on the serialized description of the business intelligence report element.
4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein adding the business intelligence report element to the second business intelligence report specification in the third file format comprises: determining that at least one semantic object of the business intelligence report element is not available in the second business intelligence report specification; creating a template object based on the business intelligence report element; receiving mappings from the at least one semantic object to at least one semantic object of the second business intelligence report specification; and adding the business intelligence report element to the second business intelligence report specification based on the template object and the mappings.