CDOT Performance Data Business Plan - Cambridge Systematics

CDOT Performance Data Business Plan
Visualization Tools to be Used
As the primary purpose of the CDOT dashboard is to communicate timely
performance information about the department’s activities, it is important
that this information be displayed in a way that is understandable to the
public and simple to interpret.
Stephen Few (author of Information Dashboard Design and considered a world
leader in data visualization) defines a dashboard as “a visual display of the
most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives;
consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be
monitored at a glance.”
There are three types of performance-based dashboards: 1) operational,
2) tactical, and 3) strategic.
Operational dashboards focus on exception alerting or detailed metrics
related to daily operations, and are based on real-time or transactional data.
These dashboards tend to be more volatile, as data changes frequently
throughout the day. However, they provide an accurate snapshot of what is
happening right now.
Tactical dashboards display data that is not as real-time as operational
dashboards. The tactical dashboard contains an aggregated, summarized, or
averaged view of data, which allows comparison against historical values,
benchmarks, and goals.
The strategic dashboard tracks performance against high-level objectives.
These dashboards tend to summarize performance over the past month,
quarter, or year.
Characteristics for each dashboard type are summarized in Table 5.2.
Table 5-2
Dashboard Types
Type of Dashboard Audience PM Type
Operational – for monitoring in real
time
Tactical – for analysis and
benchmarking
Strategic – for tracking achievement
of strategic objectives
Front-line personnel dealing with dayto-day
activities of the organization
Executives
Organizational leaders
Detailed metrics related to daily
operations
Comparative metrics to review and
benchmark data of the departments
Performance indicators with respect
to their goals
Ganapati, Sukumar. Use of Dashboards in Government. IBM Center for the Business of Government, 2011.
Scorecards
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is one of the components that can be displayed
on a dashboard. The BSC is used to translate business mission
accomplishment into a critical set of performance measures distributed
among an equally critical and focused set of business perspectives. The BSC
reports how well specific programs are performing based on established
5-20 Cambridge Systematics, Inc.