How to Build Effective Dashboards

7th BSPIN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2013

25-Jul-13

7TH BSPIN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2013 JULY 26 & 27 - 2013

Raja Bavani Chief Architect, Mindtree

2 7th BSPIN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2013

Good Morning!

• Let us know each other – introduce yourself!

• What do you expect from this session?

• How do you connect with this topic?

• How is this tutorial going to enable you at work?

Key things…

Only once

• Coffee break

Always

• Silent, restful electronic devices

• Conversations and experience sharing

• Questions

• Part 1 - Introduction

• Part 2 - Consumers and their needs

• Part 3 - Building an effective dashboard

• Part 4 - Industry trends

• Part 5 - Parting thoughts

Part 1 - Introduction

• What is a dashboard?

Group Activity 1

Give 3 examples of dashboards you come across in daily life. How impressive are they? Why?

A dashboard is..

“A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.”

- Stephen Few

Author of ‘Information Dashboard Design – The Effective Visual Communication of Data’

Dashboards..

“They provide visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs) through simple visual graphics such as gauges, charts and tables within a web browser. Dashboards are appealing because they: • Present a wide number of different metrics in a single consolidated

view • Roll up details into high-level summaries • Provide intuitive indicators, such as gauges and stoplights, that are

instantly understandable - for example, red bar means problem, green bar means everything is on plan.

In many respects a reporting dashboard can be likened to a dashboard in an automobile. It provides an 'at-a-glance view' of the current operational state of the vehicle.”

- Dan Dubriwny and Kurt Rivards

Why do we need?

• Why do we need dashboards?

• Who needs them?

Effective Dashboards

• What makes a dashboard effective? What are the characteristics?

• Have you come across an effective dashboard? Why do you think it is effective? Was anything missing in that dashboard?

• What about efficiency? What does it mean?

The Process

IDENTIFY GATHER PROCESS

ANALYZE

ASSEMBLE PRESENT

Benefits

• What are the expected benefits?

• What are the actual benefits? Share your experience.

Measures and Metrics

• Context-specific

• Multi-dimensional

• Seasonal

They are the building blocks of dashboards!

Source: Quantitative Management, Transparency and Trust –Raja Bavani

The problem with measures and metrics

• Too many - some are not useful

• Too much time to gather, analyze and report

• Data quality - poor

• Lack of baselines

• Lack of time to analyze

• No contribution to decision making and action planning

• Not the priority of Senior leaders and executives

Ineffective Dashboards

• What are the disadvantages?

Part 2 – Consumers and their needs

Different types of consumers

• Project team members

• Program manager

• Business unit head

• Location head

• Quality head

• CEO

Examples

Consumers Dashboard Type

Project team Project dashboard

Program manager Project portfolio dashboard or program dashboard

Business unit head Business unit dashboard

Location head Location dashboard

Quality head Organizational quality dashboard

CEO Organizational quality dashboard*

* Is that sufficient?

Let us try..

Group Activity 2

In your opinion, list the different types of consumers of dashboards in your industry. How are their needs different? If you are responsible for delivering dashboards, how will you decide

the frequency and content?

What is the right size?

• One page?

• One screen?

The fundamental challenge of dashboard design is to display all the required information on a single screen:

– clearly and without distraction

– in a manner that can be quickly examined and understood

– Stephen Few

Cockpit of a commercial jet

Years of effort went into its design to enable the pilot to see what’s going on at a glance, even though there is much information to monitor.

Every time I board a plane, I’m grateful that knowledgeable designers worked hard to present this information effectively.

Similar care is needed for the design of our dashboards.

- Stephen Few

Contents of a dashboard

Group Activity 3

List the contents of a dashboard you use most frequently. How important are they? Are they

related? What are the key parameters you have included in your dashboard? How do you want

to represent them? What are the top 3 questions do you want your dashboard to

answer?

Traffic Light

Today’s status is clear. But where is the project headed?

Traffic Lights

“Unlike traffic lights that automatically change, projects don’t change unless the project manager and the team act to change them. Projects tend to continue in the direction the team is heading.”

- Johanna Rothman

Weather Report

Which one do you prefer?

Weather Report

Status Description

Sunny The project schedule is on target

Mostly

There is minor project schedule concern, but the

schedule can be met.

Partly

Cloudy

There is schedule concern; the schedule can be

met by putting extra efforts.

Cloudy There will be difficulty meeting the schedule.

Rainy To meet the schedule would take great difficulty.

Severe The schedule cannot be met in any situation.

Source: Sunny Skies or Storms? Project Weather Reports by Johanna Rothman

Do you know?

• Hue – a more precise term for what we normally think of as color (red, green, blue, purple, etc.)

Folks with normal color

vision see the true

colors.

Those who are color-

blind sees it like this.

( 10% of males and 1%

of females)

“Despite this fact, many vendors actually promote the use of red, yellow, and green stoplight colors as “business intelligence” colors, the most unintelligent choice.”

- Stephen Few

Cool Gadgets

Charts

What is important?

• Understanding the consumers or customers or the context

• Not exceeding the size

• Providing the right content

• Removing the unwanted

• Visual communication

So far….

Part 2 - Consumers and their needs

• Part 3 - Building an effective dashboard

Part 3 – Building an effective dashboard

1. Metrics Selection

2. Visual Representation

3. Correctness

4. Accessibility

5. Usability

3.1 Metrics Selection

• Choose what matters the most

• Do these metrics connect to the project/program/organizational vision?

• Do the consumers of your dashboard understand these metrics?

Goals-Questions-Measures

Goal 1

Question 1

Measure 1 Measure 2

Question 2

Measure 3 Measure 4

Goal 2

Question 3

Ref: “Goal Question Model Paradigm” In Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, 1st edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1994 - Victor R. Basili and Rombach H Dieter

Hierarchy of Goals

Goals are hierarchical !

Goal 1

Question 1 Measure 1

Measure 2

Question 2 Measure 3

Measure 4

Goal 2 Question 3

3.2 Visual Representation

• Is it easy to understand ?

• Does it communicate the key things?

• Is it intuitive or hard to learn?

• Are the representations effective?

Any examples?

• We discussed some examples before

• Do you want to share your experience?

3.3 Correctness

• Is the data current?

• Are the metrics reflecting the current challenges?

• Is the data relevant to where you are headed?

3.4 Accessibility

• Is your dashboard accessible?

• Are people aware?

• Is it simple to access?

• Do people access it at an expected frequency?

3.5 Usability

• Is it easy to use?

• Is it static or interactive or intelligent?

• Is it simple to use?

• Does it communicate the key things using the right representations, colors, etc.?

2 more questions

• What can be removed from this dashboard?

• What is missing in this dashboard?

Enablers vs. Drivers

Enablers ‘reinforce’ the Drivers

Drivers ‘ensure’ Results

Do you know?

• What are lagging indicators?

• What are leading indicators?

Lagging Indicators

Lagging indicators are outcome measures that help you gauge progress by examining the final end result or outcomes of your collective efforts.

• Indicates the end result.

• Tells you what occurred, not what is going on.

Examples: Customer Retention, Attrition Rate, Defect Density

Why lagging indicators?

• Lagging indicators have a direct impact on margins.

• Improvement in lagging indicators means enhancing business results!

Leading Indicators

Leading indicators are process measures that help you gauge incremental progress you are making toward key outcome (lagging) measures.

• Immediate feedback or early warning

• Tells what is happening now

• Can be tracked over time to improve end results

Examples: Network Availability, Customer Feedback

Why Leading Indicators?

• Leading indicators have an indirect impact on margins.

• Improvement in leading indicators means enhancing business results over a period of time.

Try this!

Group Activity 4

All of us drive cars. What are the leading and lagging indicators related to driving your car

from one place to another?

At work, what are the leading and lagging indicators?

Balanced Scorecard

• Also known as business scorecard

• Originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton

• Performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics

• Gives managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance.

Balanced Scorecard

Vision and

Strategy

Customer

Financial Internal Business

Processes

Learning and Development

From Mission to Outcomes

Source: Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, The strategy focused organization How Balanced Scorecard companies thrive in the new business environment, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass, 2001

Question

How can we apply BSC concepts in designing dashboards?

Try this!

Group Activity 5

Consider a dashboard you create or consume at work. Is it balanced?

How can you apply BSC concepts to your dashboard?

Well-designed dashboards

• Exceptionally well-organized

• Condensed – primarily in the form of summaries and exceptions

• Specific to and customized for the audience and the objectives

• Displayed using concise and often small media that communicate the data and its message in the clearest and most direct way as possible

So far…

Part 2 - Consumers and their needs

Part 3 - Building an effective dashboard

Part 4 – Industry Trends

• Large electronic visual boards

• Real time data

• Intelligent dashboards

• Interactive dashboards

• Enterprise Application Integration(EAI) & Business Intelligence (BI) adding power to dashboards

• Design and maintenance – a big challenge!

Part 5 – Parting Thoughts

Group Activity 6

What are the 5 things you learned in this tutorial? What are the top 3 takeaways for your

group?

How are you planning to apply this at work?

What are your next steps?

References

• Information Dashboard Design, The Effective Visual Communication of Data, Stephen Few, O’Reilly, 2006

• Show Me the Numbers, Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Stephen Few, Analytics Press, 2004

• http://www.prepetualedge.com

• Implementing the IT Balanced Scorecard, Jessica Keyes , Auerbach Publications, 2005

THANK YOU!

How to Build Effective Dashboards

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