“People give less than their best and finest effort if no one is keeping score – it’s just human nature”
The 4 Disciplines of Execution
Data analysis and statistics fed into performance dashboards (or scoreboards) which have long existed in human history, in various shapes and forms. The dashboards are essential management tools in businesses, organisations and institutions. They are critical for project execution, operational excellence, result delivery and decision-making.
This is the first of a series of article covering the subject of performance dashboards, a topic of incredible relevance for project management. Some of the elements included in these articles are based on material presented in a book that is often referenced to for good dashboard practices, “Information Dashboard Design: Displaying data for at-a-glance monitoring” by Stephen Few. There is also an integration with personal experience. As usual, I will be happy to receive constructive comments and feedback.
What is a “performance dashboard”?
Using the metaphor of a car instrument panel (the dashboard), a “performance dashboard” (or simply a ‘dashboard‘ in the rest of this series) is a management tool that allow a bird’s eye view of the health performance of a project, initiative or business operation. Sometimes this is also referred to as a “scoreboard” using in this case the analogy to the results’ board used in many sports.
An interesting alternative definition is provided by Stephen Few as being “… a visual display with the most important information needed to achieve one of more objectives that has been consolidated on a single computer screen (or page?) so it can be monitor at a glance“. [Note that the same author is very critical about the excessive reference to the motor industry and also he does not call the dashboards as “scoreboards”.]
A definition that I like is the following: “a dashboard displays metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that directly relate to the project or operation dynamics and allow the readers to quickly understand the status.”
The dashboards can be used to focus on performance and progress as well as on problems or trends that require attention. It is about enabling an individual, a group of stakeholders (a team, a unit, the management) to take the right decision at the right time with the right amount of effort.
What is the difference between metrics and KPIs?
The difference may not be so clear-cut, but, generally speaking, a metric is intended to be a measurement of something while a KPI is an indicator that relates a specific metric to one or more projects, activities or business goals. A dashboard will probably feature both. All KPIs are ultimately metrics (but not all metrics can be KPIs!). Using the analogy of the car dashboard, the car speed is an example of a metric and the % of the intended total mileage to the destination that has been already covered in the journey is a KPI. [In a dedicated article in the series I go into greater details.]
With the current degree of digitalisation, the extraction, aggregation (or disaggregation) of data clusters to distil the information have become easier. We can report essential project and business results (as metrics and KPIs) onto effective, eye-catching and often highly interactive dashboards.
Why do we need dashboards?
As this is a blog on project management, I underline here the importance of a dashboard for a project.
A dashboard, at the project level, provides the project leader and project stakeholders a quick summary on status of KPIs related to schedule, scope and budget. All project planning software tools will offer you a wide range of options for project dashboards or status reports. However, I see probably three separate level of interest.
At the operational level, summaries from various projects may be consolidated onto an ‘Operational Dashboard‘ to be looked at the level, for example, of the team or business unit. The operational dashboard is intended to get the attention of the staff (and its input), of the team and of those involved in the day-to-day operations. There are other two levels, a tactical and strategic level. The distinction I use here may not be applicable to every organisation or sector, but I think that looking at the various levels in this way is intuitive and also useful.
Dashboards from different departments, teams or business units can be consolidated onto a ‘Tactical Dashboard‘. This scoreboard can be used to evaluate resources that may have to be moved from project to project, mitigation and corrective measures that may have to be enacted at department or branch level.
And finally, at the higher level there is the ‘Strategic Dashboard‘. This will be looked at from a higher view, the higher management or external stakeholders level, to allow the review about the reach of the ultimate organisation’s portfolio (or organisation) goals.
“One-size” dashboard cannot fit all these needs and an organisation must look carefully at each level.
I hope this overview was of interest and effectively provided an introduction to the subject. It is also important to note that for the creation and maintenance of dashboards the correct enabling arrangements need to be in place. There should be enough discussion and engagement around the design, the content and format and around the process (authoring, use etc). So for those more involved in the process of dashboards conceptualisation and design for other functions or third parties, you can check the next articles on the subject. As always, please get in touch for comments and feedback.
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager, GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
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