Dashboards: Driving Decision Making

Mary Chant, Certified Usability Analyst

http://www.uiandme.com

Dashboards:: Driving Decision Making

“Dashboards are much more than pretty data presentations. They are powerful, flexible business tools which allow for true information democracy – actively empowering business users at all levels to make better decisions every single day.”Hyperion White Paper

“It is a well-established management principle that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. It is equally true, however, that you cannot manage well what you cannot monitor. That is where enterprise dashboards come in.”Business Case for Enterprise Dashboards, Dashboard Execution

Dashboard: Business Activity Monitoring

Business Activity Monitoring – BAM – a right-time system enabling organizations to monitor and manage business processes that span multiple systems, departments, and organizations. BAM is basically another label for an operational dashboard.

BAM characteristics:1. Event-driven processing model that captures events in real time from multiple systems that comprise an end-to-end business process.2. Robust business rules that let users define alerts, targets, and thresholds for individual performance metrics.3. A business-user-friendly dashboard that updates metrics as events flow through the system and puts metrics into context by relating them to business objectives.4. A collaborative workflow system that lets one set up formal and informal processes by which users can collaborate and discuss results.* p. 117, definition of an Operational Dashboard, Performance Dashboards, Eckerson

Dashboard: Real Time & Right Time

Real TimeTechnologists use the term real time to mean data that are updated instantaneously after an event occurs. Here, the latency between an event and when workers view it on a dashboard is zero. . . In actuality, it is difficult, expensive, and often unnecessary to deliver data in real time with zero latency. Conversely, business people use the term real time to mean something that happens quickly. However, how fast is real time to them? Is it a second? A minute? An hour? In the end, the definition of real time varies from business person to business person.

Right TimeRight Time. Perhaps, a better term to describe the timely delivery of information to decision makers is right time. Ultimately, business executives do not care about the degree of latency in a performance dashboard. They simply want the system to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time so they can make optimal business decisions. Right time puts the emphasis on the business value of information, not its latency.*p. 114, real time vs. right time, Performance Dashboards, Eckerson

Dashboard: Components

Dashboards: Return on Investment

*Enterprise Dashboards, Malik

See also: “Reduced Costs Through Business Intelligence Standardization”, Business Objects Case Study

Dashboard: Sample Milestones/Effort Chart

Dashboard: Criteria

Criteria for Evaluating Performance Dashboards•Design•Analysis•Delivery•Administration•Infrastructure•Vendors

Dashboard: Features

Features for Evaluating Dashboard Software•End-user experience•User management•Drill-down•Reporting•Data connectivity•Alerts•Visualization•Collaboration•System requirements•Image capturing and printout

Dashboard: Sample Evaluation

Dashboard: User Requirements

“By treating BI (Business Intelligence) as a set of technologies, most organizations veer off track, building ever-more-complex systems that fail to meet user needs – while what’s really needed is a better understanding of the underlying data and business requirements.” . . . “You need to be business-driven, not IT driven. Otherwise, you get a tool that no one uses.”*Rethinking Business Intelligence, Galen Gruman, Infoworld, 04/02/07

“With contextual, personalized information at their fingertips, users can rapidly pinpoint problems, detect emerging trends and respond to shifting business conditions.”*Choice with Context: Enterprise Dashboards from Hyperion

“The most common customer complaint about analysis applications today is that they are too hard to use.”*Visual Analysis for Everyone, Tableau Software

“You should evaluate the different tools against the specific needs of your end users. Because there is no such thing as a “typical user,” you should first group or segment your users into different profiles. Examples of appropriate profiles may include executives, analysts, general business users, and external users such as customers and partners.”*Choosing a Business Intelligence Standard, Business Objects

Dashboard: Vendors

Major Dashboard Vendors “For the most part, the vendors who have developed the potential of enterprise dashboards most effectively are the reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) vendors such as: Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, Micro-Strategy. Also there are niche vendors such as iViz Group, iDashboards, Noetix, QPR Software, and Theoris, who have developed dashboard software with certain characteristics that have been left out by the major BI vendors.” *Enterprise Dashboards, Malik

Vendor Resourceshttp://www.cognos.com/products/now/application-workbench.htmlhttp://www.tableausoftware.com/products.htmhttp://www.dundas.com/Dashboards/index.aspx?Campaign=ASPAlliancePShttp://www.businessobjects.com/products/dashboardvisualization/dashboardbuilder.asp http://www.iviz.com/portfolio/portfolio.htm http://www.2020software.com/software/display.asp?tMethodID=9&tMethod=category&tse=Google&tst=business+intelligence+dashboards&CMP=KNC-GoogleComparison of Top 8 Business Intelligence Software Solutions

Vendor EvaluationIndustry analysts such as Gartner, Meta Group, and IDC regularly evaluate the different vendors in the market and can help advise on the choice of a particular vendor or product based on your projects.*Choosing a Business Intelligence Standard, Business Objects

Dashboard & Alerts

“Although it does so much more, the central purpose of a dashboard is to warn the user when any relevant metrics are out of acceptable boundaries. In the dashboard terminology, these alerts consisting of rules and actions add critical value to an enterprise dashboard deployment complemented with strong visual indicators of warnings.*Business Case for Dashboard Execution, Dashboard Execution

“The system should also let developers and end-users define rules about when and how users should be notified if parameters are exceeded for a a given metric (i.e., alerts) as well as when and how to initiate automated actions based on those alerts (i.e. agents). Visual alerts should be accompanied by text that explains the problem, a report that users can click to see actual data and a URL to initiate additional action, such as to refresh a report or display contact information for someone to call. The rules engine should accept events from third-party systems as well.”*p. 215, Performance Dashboards, Eckerson

Alerts: Definition

Notifications sent by users or administrators that let users know when a metric exceeds predefined thresholds.

Key Performance Indicators - KPI•KPI are determined through requirements analysis in order to build customized and effective dashboards

Key Performance Indicator Elements:•Data source(s) (including data validation and data redundancy)•Granularity

•Time – hourly, daily, weekly, etc.•Geography – zip code, city, state, etc.•Product – UPC, item, item group, brand, category, etc.

•Calculation (sum, average, percentage, and other calculations)•Variance (basis for change, change calculation) may include periodic calculations and forecasts•Assessment of the attributes of the key performance indicators helps determine navigation and the user experience (i.e. meaningful drilldown paths).

Alerts: Key Performance Indicators

Alerts: Description

Alerts and key performance indicators are related•Being out-of-variance triggers an alert

Alerts provide a method for exception management•Distribute information to the right person at the right time•Can also trigger actions/events within the system

Alerts: Elements

•Rules•Actions•Recipients

Alerts: Requirements

Alerts Requirements (Basic)•User is allowed to archive alerts•User is allowed to delete alerts•User is allowed to organize alerts

•Into folders•Into categories

•User is allowed to forward alerts

Alerts Requirements (Advanced)•Collaboration

•Alert ID – for managing/referring to alerts/archiving•Date/Time stamp for alert•Date/Time the message information takes effect (if applicable)•Date/Time – expiration•Distribution status: Public (General), Restricted, Private•Distribute by: User Group, Job Profile, Individual•Headline•Event Type•Event Category•Urgency (time sensitive)•Severity (importance or priority) - commonly ranked as: extreme, severe, moderate, minor or unknown/undetermined•Risk commonly ranked as: high, moderate, low, minimal, unknown

Alerts: Common Attributes

•Name of distribution group•Body text – event description•Link to additional information•Recommended actions•Link to graphic file•Link to audio file•Link to URL•Contact/follow-up or confirmation •Rule/threshold or parameter that caused the alert to be launched•Scheduled/recurring – send this alert every Monday morning•Scheduled/triggered •Reminder•Real Time/Right Time•Create alerts for shared lists and documents•Ability to Disable Alerts•Project level alerts

Resources

Books•Enterprise Dashboards, Shadan Malik•Performance Dashboards, Wayne W. Eckerson•Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of DataArticles•Analytic Applications versus Business Intelligence Tools•Dashboard Execution, Business Case for Enterprise Dashboards•Guidelines for Effective Alerts, Paige K. Parsons•Common Alerting Protocols, Common Alerting Protocol Technical Working Group•White Papers•Choice with Context: Enterprise Dashboards from Hyperion•Visual Analysis for Everyone, Understanding Data Exploration and Visualization, Tableau Software•Choosing a Business Intelligence Standard, Business ObjectsOther Recommended Books•Super Crunchers: Data Mining and Statistical Analysis, Ian Ayres•Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think

Mary Chant, Certified Usability Analyst

website: http://www.uiandme.com

email: mary@uiandme.com

http://twitter.com/uiandme

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