Chapter 22 — Dashboards and reporting
Lesson map
Lesson 22 published. Map, example, EX064.
flowchart TD
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["22.1 Users and needs"]
N2["22.2 Quality alongside figures"]
N3["22.3 Honest displays"]
N4["22.4 Maintaining dashboards"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4
N4 --> EX["Worked example"]
EX --> Q["Exercise EX064"]
Logical drawing
flowchart LR
N0["Learning outcomes"]
N1["22.1 Users and needs"]
N2["22.2 Quality alongside figures"]
N3["22.3 Honest displays"]
N4["22.4 Maintaining dashboards"]
N0 --> N1 --> N2 --> N3 --> N4 --> Q["EX064"]
[Learning outcomes]
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v
[22.1 Users and needs]
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v
[22.2 Quality alongside figures]
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v
[22.3 Honest displays]
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v
[22.4 Maintaining dashboards]
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v
[Worked example] --> [Exercise EX064]
Learning outcomes
You will (1) design dashboards for different users; (2) show data quality alongside figures; (3) avoid misleading displays.
22.1 Users and needs
Ravi designs dashboards for three groups. The repairs manager wants daily open jobs by priority and contractor. Contractors want their own performance against targets. The board wants monthly trends against regulatory targets. Each dashboard shows only what its users need. He sketches layouts on paper and asks each group for feedback before building. He notes that dashboards built without asking users often show many figures that nobody uses. The feedback removes several figures from Ravi's first sketches and adds one that he had missed, a count of jobs awaiting parts.
22.2 Quality alongside figures
Each dashboard shows a small quality indicator: the share of jobs with complete and valid data and the date of the latest load. If quality falls below the threshold, the indicator turns amber and explains why. When a contractor's file is held one day, the manager's dashboard shows that the contractor's figures are incomplete. Ravi explains that showing quality helps users judge how much to trust a figure before acting on it. The repairs manager says the indicator stopped him chasing a contractor unfairly.
22.3 Honest displays
Ravi follows display rules: bar charts start at zero, time series use consistent intervals, colours are explained and targets are shown as lines. He avoids three-dimensional charts and unnecessary decorations. For the board, he shows twelve months of trends rather than only the latest month, so that a single unusual month does not dominate. Ms. Moreau notes that honest displays are part of data governance, because misleading charts produce poor decisions from accurate data. Ravi writes these rules into a short style guide for the team.
22.4 Maintaining dashboards
Dashboards need owners and maintenance. Ravi records each dashboard in the catalogue with its owner, data sources, refresh schedule and users. He sets up a check that alerts him if a dashboard has not refreshed. Every six months he asks owners whether dashboards are still used, and retires two unused ones. He notes that unused dashboards waste effort and can mislead anyone who finds them without knowing they are out of date. Owners confirm the remaining dashboards and agree to tell him when needs change.
Worked example
Ravi designs dashboards for managers, contractors and the board with user feedback, adds quality indicators and load dates, follows honest display rules and catalogues and retires dashboards.
Synthetic case. Dashboards are synthetic.
Errors and limits
Dashboards without quality indicators invite overconfidence in incomplete figures.
Exercises
- EX064 — Board view. What does the board dashboard show? Rubric: 3 = twelve months of trends against targets;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = partial;; 0 = none.
- EX065 — Amber indicator. When does the quality indicator turn amber? Rubric: 3 = quality below threshold;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = vague;; 0 = none.
- EX066 — Retired count. How many unused dashboards were retired? Rubric: 3 = two;; 2 = partly correct;; 1 = wrong;; 0 = none.
Continue studying — lesson 22 (chapter 22 of 30)
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