Lessons Learned About Dashboards

This is the continuation of a transcript of a presentation by Stu Worman from Indiana University at an IT conference for unversity IT professionals.

Some lessons we have learned over time about our dashboards include that the more you can automate the data collection and reporting, the less time is spent on detection and the more time you can spend on resolution. So you need to get your data there where you can see it, and conserve your staff time for other activities.

We know that data properly combined together can really lead you to a gold mine of information. Also, it is invaluable to me to be in a senior management meeting when you are competing for funds, and I can say “I know yesterday x happened.”

It’s hard to argue with that, it’s hard to argue with facts. So it is really good for you to have facts that you get from a good dashboard. We know also linking the wrong pieces of data can yield misinformation. So make sure you are checking on that and drawing the right conclusions. Ask the right questions, perform the proper analysis and draw your conclusions carefully.

Some things that you might want to keep in mind. You need to look at what your key performance indicators are. You’ll make mistakes. That’s ok. Just start. That’s what I always tell the managers that work for me. We’ll figure out what makes a difference and what doesn’t. Don’t worry about that. Let’s just start. Let’s start with what we have and we’ll figure that out later.

The dashboard is going to really improve the ability for you to respond quickly to changes in your school and know what is going on. Sometimes you will be surprised. Sometimes you will not know that something is happening, and that you need to check this out.

The trends are approximately the same in each academic year. That has really surprised me. I have just been shocked at that. Often the trends are reflected in multiple organizations.

And the last lesson, we need to use the technology that we have to help us with our technology business.