1. Image Path
Should use relative path, don't use absolute path, otherwise, you will get in trouble when in team development based on version control.
2. Border and Line
Should configure border, don't use line as possible as you can, line would result in extra excel row and ugly look.
3. IDE
Jasper Studio or Eclipse with Jasper Studio Plugin. iReport is out of date.
4. Deployment
Should use the Jasper Studio's publish to Jasper Server function, it's very easy to use. Don't try to publish artefact one by one manually, it's error-prone and time-consuming.
Concern: production deployment, do we have to deploy within an IDE?
5. Jasper Server
Should use the Jasper Server as our report service.
6. Variable Name
7. File Name
8. Project Structure