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Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business
Tips, techniques, and trends on how to use dashboard technology to optimize business performance
Business performance management is a hot new management discipline that delivers tremendous value when supported by information technology. Through case studies and industry research, this book shows how leading companies are using performance dashboards to execute strategy, optimize business processes, and improve performance.
Wayne W. Eckerson (Hingham, MA) is the Director of Research for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), the leading association of business intelligence and data warehousing professionals worldwide that provide high-quality, in-depth education, training, and research. He is a columnist for SearchCIO.com, DM Review, Application Development Trends, the Business Intelligence Journal, and TDWI Case Studies & Solution.
Business performance management is a hot new management discipline that delivers tremendous value when supported by information technology. Through case studies and industry research, this book shows how leading companies are using performance dashboards to execute strategy, optimize business processes, and improve performance.
Wayne W. Eckerson (Hingham, MA) is the Director of Research for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), the leading association of business intelligence and data warehousing professionals worldwide that provide high-quality, in-depth education, training, and research. He is a columnist for SearchCIO.com, DM Review, Application Development Trends, the Business Intelligence Journal, and TDWI Case Studies & Solution.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 14, 12
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216 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 24, 2018
I enjoyed this book, and I appreciated the fact that the author gave me permission to skim and skip various chapters. I have always thought of dashboards as ad hoc Excel-based charts where “someone” pulls data and updates. The author has solidified for dashboards to be effective; they have to be more than that.
The first third of this book discusses business intelligence and the need for integrated data in dashboards. The author spends a fair amount of time describing and comparing a dashboard to a scorecard, and explains the levels of dashboards and their uses and intended audiences. The middle third of the book is a series of case studies highlighting how a few companies have successfully implemented dashboards and how those companies are utilizing their dashboards. Finally, the author concludes with the how to create dashboards and goes into some of the common pitfalls. He dedicates an entire chapter to architecture which gets into the technical side of dashboards; this is where I appreciated his permission to skim certain sections.
My biggest takeaway from this book was; for dashboards to be genuinely useful they have to be integrated into the company culture, and they have to be agreed on with robust data. Too often I have created Excel-based dashboards with data that was questionable at best and outright wrong at worse. The dashboards that I've built require heavy user integration, and the author makes it clear that the best dashboards are the ones where nobody has to update them. They automatically go out to a data warehouse and pull the required data. Unfortunately, most managers I’ve worked with are too impatient to wait to allow this system to be built or are unwilling to provide the funds the o develop a proper dashboard. The author does warn about this phenomenon and advises there may be dire consequences.
Overall a solid book and I would recommend it to anyone who needs to learn more about business analytics through dashboards.
The first third of this book discusses business intelligence and the need for integrated data in dashboards. The author spends a fair amount of time describing and comparing a dashboard to a scorecard, and explains the levels of dashboards and their uses and intended audiences. The middle third of the book is a series of case studies highlighting how a few companies have successfully implemented dashboards and how those companies are utilizing their dashboards. Finally, the author concludes with the how to create dashboards and goes into some of the common pitfalls. He dedicates an entire chapter to architecture which gets into the technical side of dashboards; this is where I appreciated his permission to skim certain sections.
My biggest takeaway from this book was; for dashboards to be genuinely useful they have to be integrated into the company culture, and they have to be agreed on with robust data. Too often I have created Excel-based dashboards with data that was questionable at best and outright wrong at worse. The dashboards that I've built require heavy user integration, and the author makes it clear that the best dashboards are the ones where nobody has to update them. They automatically go out to a data warehouse and pull the required data. Unfortunately, most managers I’ve worked with are too impatient to wait to allow this system to be built or are unwilling to provide the funds the o develop a proper dashboard. The author does warn about this phenomenon and advises there may be dire consequences.
Overall a solid book and I would recommend it to anyone who needs to learn more about business analytics through dashboards.
January 3, 2023
It wasn't what I expected - more so a reference book for managing the business around dashboard building, along with office responsibilities and stakeholder management. But it had great tips on seeking alignment and getting everyone to work on impactful dashboards.
February 1, 2010
Useful guide to implementing performance dashboards
If your organization already has a good handle on internal data collection and information technology, researcher and consultant Wayne W. Eckerson says it’s time to consider taking the next step: implementing performance dashboards. This entails using dashboard software applications to integrate information that follows your business processes with information on your strategic objectives to create a performance guide for employees’ activities and priorities. Eckerson’s handy book explores how dashboards can help your staffers make their everyday actions consistent with long-term organizational goals. Though the book is directed toward businesspeople who deal with information technology, getAbstract finds it perfectly useful for managers and executives who are generally interested in performance improvement initiatives.
If your organization already has a good handle on internal data collection and information technology, researcher and consultant Wayne W. Eckerson says it’s time to consider taking the next step: implementing performance dashboards. This entails using dashboard software applications to integrate information that follows your business processes with information on your strategic objectives to create a performance guide for employees’ activities and priorities. Eckerson’s handy book explores how dashboards can help your staffers make their everyday actions consistent with long-term organizational goals. Though the book is directed toward businesspeople who deal with information technology, getAbstract finds it perfectly useful for managers and executives who are generally interested in performance improvement initiatives.
October 6, 2022
If you have already read Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and optionally Nathan Yau's Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics, then this book has nothing to offer in the department of visualization.
What you may be surprised by is the ridiculously convoluted bureaucratic language developed to replace "What does this mean?" and "How does it work?"
If you can memorize and repeat phrases like "practical insights provide a strategic road map to help organizations turbocharge performance management initiatives with dashboard technology to optimize performance and accelerate results" with a straight face, then you have a bright future in Fortune 500's data teams and this book is for you.
What you may be surprised by is the ridiculously convoluted bureaucratic language developed to replace "What does this mean?" and "How does it work?"
If you can memorize and repeat phrases like "practical insights provide a strategic road map to help organizations turbocharge performance management initiatives with dashboard technology to optimize performance and accelerate results" with a straight face, then you have a bright future in Fortune 500's data teams and this book is for you.
November 29, 2016
I read this book over a very long period of time, putting it down and picking it up often. If you are new to dashboards and/or metrics in general, then you will find this book a solid beginners reference.
If you have prior experience then you may find a few tidbits that you weren't aware of before, but not much else.
The technology references are now a bit dated, but the principles expressed in the book remain the same and are of value for someone new to the topic.
If you have prior experience then you may find a few tidbits that you weren't aware of before, but not much else.
The technology references are now a bit dated, but the principles expressed in the book remain the same and are of value for someone new to the topic.
March 18, 2014
Fantastic. I loved the first 4 chapters and last 4 as I could immediately use this knowledge in the workplace. It has helped me understand what is needed to not only introduce and implement business intelligence in the workplace, but how to ensure success, make it stick and bring value to the organization. Excellent if you are interested in managing work, performance and efficiency.
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December 12, 2013More descriptive, not so much how to design and put together a dashboard. It was interesting to read the process for various companies to make specific dashboards. I'd recommend renting at a library before purchasing.
ditched
September 22, 2009good book to skim for general concepts; I'm not going to make it through reading the whole thing...
January 11, 2013
If you only read one book on business intelligence, it should be this book.
October 30, 2016
It is a good book if you want to design and use performance dashboards for your organization.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews