Performance Dashboard Design

Dashboards have been a feature of vehicles for a very long time, but organisations have only recently adopted the concept. Managers are becoming increasingly dependent on dashboards to assist them in running their organisations. Performance dashboards translate strategy into objectives, metrics, initiatives, and tasks that are customised for individuals and groups within the organisation. The dashboard provides information that can improve decision-making and the optimisation of business processes in the organisation. The benefits of performance dashboards, as discussed by Rasmussen, Eckerson, Lawson, Stratton, and Hatch, and Few, are strategy communication and coordination, improvement in business performance, and performance management. Dashboards can be organised into three principal types. Strategic dashboards support organisational alignment with strategic goals, and are typically used by executives to review monthly performance. Tactical dashboards support measuring progress in key initiatives and departmental processes - mainly for analysis - and are typically used by executives and managers. Operational dashboards support monitoring, managing, and controlling specific business activities and processes using detailed data, and are typically used by front-line workers. This research focuses on the design of operational dashboards in an organisation, as these ensure that strategy is communicated and executed through all organisational levels.

BI tools have been shown to improve productivity and financial performance. The research has revealed that organisations have found success in performance when implementing dashboards.

Having explored the contribution of BI to achieving strategic goals, and having acknowledged the benefit of performance dashboards as a BI tool, the research continues by evaluating the success and common problems of performance dashboards in industry, and identifying the fundamental design principles for successful performance dashboards.

The research did not yield case studies for manufacturing organisations, nor did it offer critical reviews of dashboards against theoretical criteria; and it described the benefits only qualitatively.