Simulation frameworks: The key to dashboard success

Article published in May/June Issue of Analytics

By Zubin Dowlaty, Subir Mansukhani and Keshav Athreya

Regardless of the organization that you work for, chances are that you use dashboards to display and deploy metrics. The technology for building dashboards has continuously evolved, so much so that it is now possible for a non-technical person to "build" a dashboard. Despite their ubiquity, whether dashboards have been able to achieve their utmost potential is subject to debate.

Most dashboards typically start life in a business function (e.g. a spreadsheet tracking report). With increasing use, more data integration is required and the number of users burgeons, spawning the need for a full-fledged dashboarding solution. Departments (or governance bodies, in some instances) typically determine key metrics that must be part of the dashboarding solution, and IT is brought in to gather requirements and select the technology for a successful implementation.

Independent of the hierarchy of implementation, each such exercise must attempt to answer two key questions:

• What metrics must be chosen to maximize impact on business?
• What is the relationship between metrics, and is there an overarching framework into which these KPIs slot in?

Often the latter of the two — the focus on the big picture — is lost during the development of dashboards.

To read the full article please visit http://www.analytics-magazine.com/may-june-2011/322-simulation-frameworks-the-key-to-dashboard-success.html