Blog: Craig Schiff

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The Simplicity of Dashboards

When talking to IT executives about their performance dashboard initiatives, I am often surprised by their perception of the task ahead of them. More often than not they seem to think they have their measures and key indicators under control, and just need to look at one or two technology options to find the right vehicle for displaying those measures. Compare this to the typical finance manager looking for a budgeting solution. They first want to spend a good amount of time up front developing and/or refining their requirements and then move on to look at 4 to 6 vendors. I believe both of these BPM initiatives are very similar in challenge and complexity, yet they are being executed differently.

The IT manager would argue 'we know our measures, we've been measuring the same things for several years' and look to quickly move to the technology selection phase. Couldn't you similarly argue that the finance department has been budgeting forever, why do they need to develop requirements for a budgeting solution? When it comes to selecting a solution, there are at least as many dashboard solutions on the market as there are budgeting ones. Why would the IT manager limit his analysis to very few options, while the finance manager casts a wider net? I think the answer is that the IT manager may be looking at the dashboard as just another reporting tool, not the move to performance management that it really is. A sense of the enormity of the task at hand can be found in this excerpt from Wayne Eckerson's new book on Performance Dashboards. Until IT realizes that their dashboard project should be viewed as part of a larger business performance management initiative in the company, they will underestimate the effort and investment required and under deliver on the potential benefits.

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