| Dashboard generation process is relatively simple compared to a scorecard. Please refer Scorecards vs. Dashboard and designing dashboards for a back-ground. Dashboards are more data oriented. Dashboards have least OR no commentary. There is a high degree of emphasis on visualizations.
A dashboard has the following traits:
- Focused on limited set of critical operational parameters.
- Is focused on providing current state.
- Has crisp and quick analysis. For example if your credit cards are taking too long to get embossed, you will not have 'fundamental' analysis like 'aged embossing machine'. It will be more on the operational reasons like 'faulty batch of base credit card blanks'. The fundamental long-term aspects are taken as given, OR else they will keep on repeating on a dashboard.
TIP- Analysis and actions in the dashboard are mainly of operational reasons. They are related to the short-term OR immediate actions which you can take to fix the issues. For example a sales dashboard will not contain 'product features' as the reason for under performance on last week's sales performance. It may contain 'closing period for key customers, leading to customers having more focus on revenue than purchase'.
Some notes on Dashboards
- There are different sets of audience for a dashboard: Your dashboard can take a different look depending upon the people who are going to see it. The audience could be the Manager, Operational Floor staff OR Customers. Examples are:
- The operational floor dashboard in the Data Centre Operations, call centre operations.
- Customer view dashboard sharing status and stock of items being sold at discount store OR 'availability of tickets' on the ticket window of a movie theatre
- There are different levels of audience for the dashboard: Dashboard, due to its operational focus need not be limited to the lower levels of an organization. ExecutionMiH.com professes an operational involvement of senior levels in the management for a robust execution process. A dashboard audience can range from a CEO down to an individual performer.
- Dashboard can exist for an individual: Unlike a scorecard, a dashboard can exist down to a level of an individual.
- Dashboard is typically a single page: A score-card could be having multiple sections and pages, as it covers holistic set of performance parameters. Dashboard is typically a single page. The driving principle is to provide a crisp and single look view. A dashboard could be having drill downs it lower level of details.
Dashboard Generation process has following traits
Most of the dashboard generation process traits are unlike what you do in scorecard generation
- Mostly automated- A dashboard has to be as close to the current state as possible. This needs a certain level of automation. For example- you should not be taking 3-4 hours to generate a daily dashboard.
- Typically generated by a single person. If more people are involved, it means that Dashboard is not focused on key operational parameters and the generation is too complex. The data for a scorecard can come from multiple sources.
- Does not pass through too many hands for preview and agreement (a question of speed). If there is inaccuracy OR disagreement, it will be fixed in the next cycle of dash-boarding.
Dashboard Generation Process- Imperatives
There is nothing much to write on dashboard generation process itself, because of its simplicity and very few distinct steps. Here are some notes on the process:
- Take as much data from the enterprise production reports as possible, as that data is expected to be reliable in terms of quality.
- Keep Audit trails and versions: Maintain the copies and references to the raw data which you used to generate your dashboards.
- If enabled by a tool, provide drill down capabilities, by which people can find the detailed transactions related to a summary data in the dashboard.
- Include the action steps which were agreed in the previous dashboard reviews and include their status.
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