1. Creating Requirements Specification For Asset Management Dashboards
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP
Creating Requirements Specification For Asset Management Dashboards
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
Before I begin let me say that the topic of dashboards and requirements specification is huge. We will only scratch the surface today .
If anyone has questions they would like some follow up on, give me your card at the end of the meeting and I will get back with you individually.

2. Introduction
Dashboards, if properly designed, can help you manage your operations more effectively and efficiently
A properly designed dashboard caters to the needs of the user and is built around well-defined requirements specification
The user must play an integral role in developing the requirements specification
Asset management is about having the right assets, in the right places, at the right time, to support the mission of the organization. As such, asset management is a mission enabler that needs to be closely aligned with the 4 basic phases of organizational management. These are: developing strategy, developing policy, conducting operations, and conducting assessment. This alignment, when present, helps to advance organizational maturity and effectiveness. A key enabler to achieving effective asset management is the establishment of a state-of-the-art capability for monitoring, assessing and analyzing critical performance management parameters by developing an organization-wide asset management dashboard system. This presentation provides an overview of Dashboards and a perspective on how asset management organizations may approach the development of requirements specification for a Dashboard.
A little about me. I come to you as a systems user who through the process of effective requirements specification, worked with systems developers to help them create some successful systems for the Army and DoD.
Balanced Scorecard for Army Staff
Active Army Strength Forecasting Model (A2SF)
Prior Years Module for OUSD(C) Dashboard
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3. Dashboard Fundamentals
Key Definitions & Concepts
Characteristics
Benefits
Before we get into developing requirements specification for dashboards we should understand a few fundamental ideas about them.
My approach to the Dashboard fundamentals will be very basic and focused on the user.
I will cover a few key definitions and concepts, then describe a few characteristics of dashboard, and end this section with some benefits of dashboards.
Copyright © 2011 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

4. Key Definitions & Concepts
Dashboard: A user interface that organizes, integrates, and presents mission critical information, pulled from multiple sources, to users in a way that is easily read and understood. Performance Management: Process of measuring progress toward achieving key goals and objectives in a manner designed to optimize organizational performance.
Business Intelligence (BI): The tools, techniques, and processes involved in turning data into information, and information into knowledge in a manner designed to optimize decision making. BI encompasses technologies for data warehousing, data mining, data integration, reporting and analysis.
Dashboards integrate and synthesize Performance Management and Business Intelligence.
The combination of Performance Management and Business Intelligence can provide a powerful new way to communicate strategy within an organization and monitor and analyze organizational activity.
So what is a dashboard? At the most basic level:
It is a user interface
It organizes and integrates mission critical information
It typically pulls data from multiple sources
It is easily read and understood
Dashboard function by integrating and synthesizing performance management and business intelligence. S0, lets look at these two concepts.
Performance management is the process of measuring progress through the use of established metrics, to help an organization achieve its goals and objectives.
Business Intelligence, on the other hand, comprises the tools, techniques, and processes used to turn data into information, and information into knowledge.
Information in his context refers to structured and organized data.
Knowledge in this context is the presentation of the information in such a way as to allow the viewer to instantly extract meaning, and gain understanding of how the organization is performing in critical areas.
The power and beauty of the dashboard therefore is its ability to produce this knowledge, in a very timely manner, and combine it with related metrics to communicate strategy within an organization, and monitor and analyze organizational activity.
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5. Dashboards Characteristics
Three Primary Applications:
Monitoring
Analysis & Reporting
Management
Three Layers: Most distinctive feature. Allows user to peel back layers of information to get to the root cause.
Graphical abstracted data – designed to help monitor key metrics
Summarized dimensional data – designed to help identify root causes
Detailed operational data – designed to help identify needed corrective action
Three Types:
Operational Dashboards – emphasize monitoring
Tactical Dashboards – emphasize analysis
Strategic Dashboards – emphasize management .
Dashboards are supported by three main characteristics.
The first characteristic consists of three main applications. These applications are:
Monitoring, which is focused on conveying information at a glance;
Analysis and Reporting, which is focused on analyzing exception conditions; and
Management, which is focused on improving coordination and collaboration organization wide.
These three related applications are woven seamlessly into each dashboard and built on information designed to fulfill the needs of the user.
The second characteristic consists of three layers and is the most distinctive characteristic of the dashboard because it allows the user to peel back layers of information to get down to the root cause of the problem .
The first layer consists of Graphical abstracted data which are single, concise, visual information summaries that monitor key performance metrics and are immediately understandable, e.g., pie charts
The second layer consists of Summary dimensional data that identifies component trends and helps to identify root causes.
The third layer consists of Detailed operational data that helps you to identify the corrective actions that are needed.
The third characteristic consists of three types: operational, tactical and strategic. Each type applies the 3 main applications and the 3 layers in slightly different ways.
Operational dashboards track core operational processes, and emphasize the monitoring application.
Tactical dashboards track departmental processes and projects and emphasize analysis over monitoring or management.
Strategic dashboards monitor the execution of corporate strategic objectives at each level of the organization and emphasize management over monitoring and analysis.
A fully developed dashboard system will have all three types of dashboards deployed at different levels within the organization.
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6. Dashboard Benefits Dashboard Benefits include:
Communicating and managing strategy: Dashboards can serve as agents to help
organizational change.
Monitoring and oversight: Dashboards can provide each group of users with
information and analytical capability that is tailored and appropriate to their role.
Consistent view of the organization: Dashboards can provide an organization with a
single, concise and common vision of truth.
Timely delivery of actionable information: If designed and used properly, Dashboards
can deliver the right information to the right user at the right time to help decision-
making, enhance efficiency and accelerate bottom-line results
Feedback from Dashboard User: Greg Kuechler, Dir. OUSD(C) Performance Measurement Team
When properly designed and deployed, dashboards provide several benefits to executives, managers, and staff which are derived in part from their characteristics.
They communicate and help to manage strategy:
They provide monitoring and oversight:
They provide a consistent view of the organization ,and
They deliver timely and actionable information
This extract from an interview conducted by Patricia Dees with Greg Kuechler of OUSD (C) sums up the timeliness factor.
“What’s best about the Dashboard designed for us is that it made us high speed and low drag relative to the painful process we used to follow to generate performance information. What’s more, by making the metrics so easy to get to with just a few clicks of the mouse, the Dashboard has really helped us socialize and internalize our focus on performance.” 1
1Patricia Dees, “Putting the “Dash” in Dashboards,” American Society of Military Comptrollers, January 2009.
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7. Dashboard Benefits (continued)
Dashboard Benefits Include:
Integration of data from multiple sources: BI tools allow data from multiple data silos
to be represented on a single Dashboard
Reduced costs and redundancy: BI capabilities can help analysts to gain quick insights
from large amounts of data in ways that would be otherwise impossible or cost
prohibitive.
Root Cause Analysis: Dashboard can allow users to drill down into the details when
abnormal trends are spotted in the summary reports.
Advancing organizational maturity: Dashboards give a clear view of key data points
that may be used to assess the organizations progress toward specific goals.
Other benefits include:
The integration of data from multiple sources:
Reduced costs and redundancy: BI capabilities helping analysts to gain quick insights from large amounts of data in ways that would be otherwise impossible or cost prohibitive. An example of such a BI capability is the Pivot Table which easily and quickly provides multidimensional views and analyses of huge data files. Without a Pivot Table such analyses would be difficult, time consuming and expensive.
Root Cause Analysis: Dashboards allowing users to drill down into the details after spotting abnormal trends in the summary reports. And finally,
Advancing organizational maturity: Dashboards giving a clear view of key data points that may be used to assess the organizations progress toward specific goals. Knowing what is going on in your organization is not merely good; it is a prerequisite to success.
An excellent example of growth in organizational maturity is the case study on the City of Oxnard, CA, a thriving city about one hour northwest of Los Angeles. Up to 2005 they managed the cities fleet of vehicles using primarily manual records.
Case Study – City of Oxnard, California, AssetWorks, 2009
In 2005 the City of Oxnard, CA, established multiple key performance indicators and set up Dashboards to illustrate them. Its goal was to transform data into practical usable information to analyze and guide resolution of problems. The City called it true management through facts. In 2008 it was recognized by Government Fleet magazine as the #3 Public Sector Fleet in the USA. 2
2Case study – City of Oxnard, California, AssetWorks, 2009.
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8. Dashboard Deployment Beware of “Quickie” Dashboards Embrace Leading Practices Conduct Thorough Requirements Specification
With these concepts and capabilities in mind let now change focus to look at the deployment of dashboards and the requirements specification process.
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9. Beware of “Quickie” Dashboards
Effective Dashboards require careful planning, design and implementation. Dashboard requirements should be determined by thorough assessment of important organizational needs. Rushed and poorly designed dashboards can result in some of the following:
Limited drill-down capability – does not allow execution of root cause analysis.
Difficult to use and maintain – requires extensive IT expertise and time to maintain and modify.
Data silo – cannot provide single view of performance across organization.
Fancy but functionally ineffective graphics – does not show the data dimensions necessary to make a decision clearly and accurately.
Sometimes when leaders come to appreciate the capabilities and benefits available from dashboards they make the mistake of trying to get one implemented too quickly. When dashboard design and implementation are rushed the user can be left with the following challenges:
Limited drill-down capability which prevents execution of root cause analysis.
Difficult to use and maintain, requiring extensive IT expertise and time .
A dashboard that constitutes a data silo and does not provide a single view of performance across the organization.
Fancy but functionally ineffective graphics that do not show the data dimensions needed to make decisions clearly and accurately.
These challenges, however, can be prevented by the development of thorough requirements specification which will guide the building of the dashboard.
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10. Dashboard Deployment Leading Practices
The adoption of industry leading practices, operating tactics and winning strategies helps organizations chart courses to superior dashboard performance. Leading practices include:
Develop a Clear Strategy – Develop clear strategy on what is expected from the Dashboard solution so it can be designed to live up to its purpose as an efficient and actionable BI tool.
Develop Effective Metrics – Involve both functional and technical personnel in developing metrics.
Plan for Real Time – A performance management system populated with more real time data will allow executives and managers to keep their fingers on the pulse of the organization.
Plan for the Long Haul – Prepare for 20% growth in users, 15% growth in queries, and four to five new data sources each year. Design system to accommodate this growth.
Develop on a Single Platform – The risk of failing to do so is that when managers build their own Dashboard solution independent of each other, the resulting Dashboard silos eventually compete with each other for resources.
An important factor that should be integrated into the requirements specification process is the adoption of industry leading practices, operating tactics and winning strategies. The major source used in compiling these leading practices is The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) – a premier provider of education and research in BI and data warehousing.
1st Develop a Clear Strategy. Develop a clear strategy on what is expected from the Dashboard solution to make it live up to its purpose as an efficient and actionable BI tool. Keep in mind, however, that after deploying a new dashboard end users typically start to see and think about information in new ways. This new thinking about information may unlock some intellectual creativity and generate ideas that will enhance the system.
2nd Develop Effective Metrics. Involve both functional and technical personnel in developing metrics. Ensure the people whose performance is being measured understand, accept, and endorse the metrics. Avoid cluttering the Dashboard with more metrics than a user can understand and act on. As a rule, plan to have no more than seven metrics for a single screen.
3rd Plan for Real Time. A performance management system populated with more timely data will allow executives and managers keep their fingers on the pulse of the organization in ways they never could before.
4th Plan for the Long Haul. Prepare for 20 percent growth in users each year. Design the initial footprint of your system to be 15 percent more than your most optimistic forecast to help accommodate growth is system use.
5th Develop on a Single Platform. When managers build their own dashboard solutions, independent of each other, the resulting dashboard silos eventually compete with each other for resources, and undermine the organization’s ability to get a single picture of performance.
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11. Dashboard Requirements Specification
Requirements specification process provides a structured methodology for defining the full range of organizational and technological requirements. Steps in the process include:
Define the need
Define the user
Define dashboard type
Assemble stakeholders
Now we are ready to get into the actual requirements specification process. Requirements specification is a structured methodology for defining the full range of organizational and technical requirements. The first three steps are usually executed by a small team from the office of the Champion for the dashboard. This core team then enlarges when you assemble the stakeholders. Additionally from the inception of the process you should have a technical advisor to help you define the technological requirements and vet the technical feasibility of user requirements.
Steps 1 and 2 are essential to get the process off on the right track. There must be a clearly defined need for the dashboard and the primary user has to be identified. The primary user will drive the decision for the type i.e., whether Operational, Tactical or Strategic.
Your stakeholders are all the groups of people who will be impacted directly or indirectly by the dashboard. Ensure you have a representative from each impacted group.
Fixing system boundaries helps in clarifying how the dashboard will integrate with the business process, and what its scope and limitations will be.
During requirements elicitation the lead for the requirements specification process draws from the stakeholders their requirements for the dashboard and what they expect it to accomplish. Based on the number of stakeholders, the initial list of requirements gathered could run into several pages. Examples of requirements asset managers might desire include: What assets do I have; Where are they located; How much did they cost; Are my inventories being performed on schedule; What is my inventory accuracy rate, etc. etc.
In this final step, the requirements are clarified, analyzed for feasibility, integrated where possible, and any conflicts resolved. The requirements are then prioritized and a decision made on the final set of requirements that will be provided to the dashboard developer. This final step is usually quite intense and I would recommend conducting it at an offsite location to facilitate focus and prevent work distractions.
Fix system boundaries
Requirements elicitation
Analyze, prioritize, specify
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12. Conclusion
Well designed and developed Dashboards generally result from careful planning driven by thorough requirements specification.
Well designed and developed Dashboards can offer insight, explanations, and shared understanding of critical organizational information, and then allow the users to act upon the information when and where necessary.
This afternoon I have provided you with a brief overview of dashboard concepts, characteristics and benefits.
We have also looked briefly at some dashboard deployment factors, all from a users perspective. These factors included:
The result of rushed dashboards
Leading practices in deploying dashboard; and
The requirements specification process
As we close there are two key points I would like you to take away with you.
First: Well designed and developed dashboards require careful planning driven by thorough requirements specification.
Second: If you take the time to do it right, your dashboard can provide insight, explanations, and shared understanding of critical organizational information, and allow users to act on this information in a timely manner when needed.
Thank you for attending this presentation. You have been a great audience.
Copyright © 2011 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

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