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196 Part II • Descriptive Analytics

often be tagged to the dashboard and put the information in context, adding a lot of per-
spective to the structured KPIs being rendered.

present information in three Different levels

Information can be presented in three layers depending upon the granularity of the
information: the visual dashboard level, the static report level, and the self-service cube
level. When a user navigates the dashboard, a simple set of 8 to 12 KPIs can be presented,
which would give a sense of what is going well and what is not.

pick the Right Visual Construct using Dashboard Design principles
In presenting information in a dashboard, some information is presented best with bar
charts, some with time-series line graphs, and, when presenting correlations, a scatter plot
is useful. Sometimes merely rendering it as simple tables is effective. Once the dashboard
design principles are explicitly documented, all the developers working on the front end
can adhere to the same principles while rendering the reports and dashboard.

provide for guided Analytics

In a typical organization, business users can come at various levels of analytical maturity.
The capability of the dashboard can be used to guide the “average” business user in order
to access the same navigational path as that of an analytically savvy business user.

sectiOn 4.6 revieW QuestiOns
1. What is a performance dashboard? Why are they so popular for BI software tools?
2. What are the graphical widgets commonly used in dashboards? Why?
3. List and describe the three layers of information portrayed on dashboards.
4. What are the common characteristics for dashboards and other information visuals?
5. What are the best practices in dashboard design?

4.7 Business peRfoRMAnCe MAnAgeMent
In the business and trade literature, business performance management (BPM) has a
number of names, including corporate performance management (CPM), enterprise
performance management (EPM), and strategic enterprise management (SEM). CPM was
coined by the market analyst firm Gartner (gartner.com). EPM is a term associated with
Oracle’s (oracle.com) offering by the same name. SEM is the term that SAP (sap.com)
uses. In this chapter, BPM is preferred over the other terms because it is the earliest,
the most generally used, and the one that does not closely tie to a single-solution
provider. The term business performance management (bpM) refers to the business
processes, methodologies, metrics, and technologies used by enterprises to measure,
monitor, and manage business performance. It encompasses three key components
(Colbert, 2009):
1. A set of integrated, closed-loop management and analytic processes (supported by
technology) that addresses financial as well as operational activities
2. Tools for businesses to define strategic goals and then measure and manage
performance against those goals
3. A core set of processes, including financial and operational planning, consolidation
and reporting, modeling, analysis, and monitoring of key performance indicators
(KPIs), linked to organizational strategy

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