A project controls colleague of mine recently wrote:
“Really, I never had to deal with delivery directors / managers who did not understand or appreciate the effort which goes behind a digital data fed dashboard”
Sarcasm, according to Oscar Wilde, may be the lowest from of wit but it’s the highest form of intelligence. While being humorous at the expense of those who demand dashboards it’s a sad truth that most demanders have no idea as to the effort required in producing a dashboard. For them dashboards can be instantly tailored to any whims or fancies at the flick of a switch or the stroke of a key on a keyboard.
In reality, and contrary to popular belief, they can’t be magicked up miraculously. The project metrics that indicate a project’s health status should be predetermined based upon their relevance, such metrics aren’t just pulled out of a hat, nor at the drop of one.
Dashboards, managerially, have been around since the 1970’s and were developed to augment decision support systems. The selective use of the most appropriate information from a veritable sea of data is important to decision making but only if it’s relevant. If it’s not, then we should remember the idiom of ‘bullsh*t in, bullsh*t out”. A dashboard’s principal purpose is to the contrary…which is why they’re important.
Physical Dashboards
Dashboards, originally, were an integral part of horse-drawn chariots. The Egyptians, amongst others in Mesopotamia and the Steppes and farther afield in China, developed chariots for mobile warfare around 3,500 years ago. The dashboard protected fast moving charioteers from the flying debris kicked up by the horses as well as the inevitable byproduct of the propulsion system, horsesh*t. It allowed the occupants to focus on their principal task, combat…as well as avoiding the enemy’s sh*t.
The chariot evolved into carriages and coaches and, for several thousand years, it prevailed as mankind’s principal form of personal transport. Of course, this was curtailed with the inception of the motorized carriage in the late 1700’s, its advent in the 1890’s, the commencement of its dominance after WW1, and its predominance today.
The ’carriage’ became the ‘car’. The protectional intent of the dashboard prevailed defending the driver from the heat of the engine and oil, at least initially. As designs became more sophisticated the physical dashboard disappeared, but its name, in favour of ‘instrument panel’, remained. The instrument panel contained a speedometer, oedometer, fuel gauge, and oil temperature indicator. The information from the ‘dashboard’ allowed drivers to determine the ‘status’ of their performance, progress and the need for refueling. A malfunctioning dashboard, or not paying an attention to it, can mean running out of gas, breaking speed limits, or missing milestones.
Modern day dashboards are more complex than their predecessors. The four or five basics of yesteryear are now augmented by arrays of secondary gauges and even ‘heads-up’ displays as technology has advanced. Despite access to more and more information an inadequately designed dashboard is difficult to interpret. If drivers have difficulty understanding it or take their eyes of the road for too long, that’s when the things can go wrong and accidents happen; projects are no different.
Project Dashboards
Project Dashboards are the instruments by which key summary information is conveyed to project decision makers. That’s one definition. Another is that it’s a set of charts and graphs showing progress or performance against important measures of a project. The dashboard is not raw data but data that has been converted into information and is presented in a readily digestible form and, typically, on one sheet.
Dashboards aren’t just about showing large quantities of information on a project’s key metrics. They’re about providing pertinent information succinctly summarised so that decision makers are made aware of any shortfalls or strengths in performance. These anomalies may then be analysed so that an erudite decision may be made to arrest any adverse trends and prevent problems or capitalize on opportunities thereby guaranteeing success. That’s another definition. However, and all too often, organisations use the project dashboard as a reporting means only and, good news reporting at that. After all how many people like bad news or want to deal with it!?
Dashboards take time and effort to prepare, not the graphs or charts but converting the data into information. Some organisations may have a preferred format, and some may even have their project controls system tailored to provide the requisite data, but processing data takes time. As with most reports, dashboards are out of date when they are published and, even then, are based upon on lag rather than lead measures. Consequently, any decisions, if any, are reactive rather than proactive as are any reactions. Dashboards are, nevertheless, useful but to whom and why?
Dashboard Darlings and Despots
The original purpose of project dashboards was to provide a tool to support decision making. Dashboards, if prepared properly and diligently can be an invaluable source of information. As well as an executive summary they enable the identification of potential problems and emerging issues so there can be positive and constructive intervention.
Some people see dashboards as the be-all and end-all of reporting. These dashboard darlings consider that they are either too busy or too important to read an entire report and only have enough time to assimilate a summary. Just as Lambs’ Shakespeare is not Shakespeare, a dashboard cannot contain everything; the veneer of understanding may remain, but the underlying essence and meaning are lost.
Information, or rather it’s control, is power and if it’s irrelevant then the resultant bullsh*t can, quite easily, baffle brains. Uncluttered and well-presented dashboards with an orchestrated and colour-coordinated scheme can easily give the impression that all’s well which, with a positive spin, can preclude any pessimism. This prohibits any probing into potential problems and the dashboard remains robust; why rock the project boat based upon the inkling of a nagging doubt, or an ‘obvious’ and explainable ‘glitch’.
Dashboard darlings can be bewildered by graphics in the form of pie charts, tornado diagrams, histograms and graphs, bewitched by the minimal use of text, and beguiled by elegant brevity. Dashboards can be manipulated so that there is an optimistic bias to the reporting so we have ‘good news’. Or, in good-news-speak, “purveying an optimistic side to any ambiguity which, when woven into the rich tapestry of data, paints the rose-tinted view of a project”. They ignore that there is a paucity of real data and accept well-presented optimistic drivel; brains have been baffled.
However, there are those who interrogate dashboards. They quickly pick up on optimism and, in the light of ‘good news’ reporting will exercise their authority oppressively. Woe betides those who find themselves in the cross hairs of a dashboard despot. A dashboard should reveal the truth but, for a despot, this can become a fast-track means of shooting whichever messenger dares report the truth if the truth is unpalatable. We should remember that messengers are all too often shot; dashboard despots tend to show little, if any, mercy which is why, presumably, dashboards are inevitably optimistic.
Conclusions
Dashboards…they’ve been around in one form or another for millennia. They provide a tool allowing decisions to be made without the influence of physically controllable distractions as well as providing information on the selfsame distractions.
On ancient chariots, horse-drawn carriages, and coaches, and our first motorcars, dashboards were a physical measure preventing propellent emissions from disrupting or distracting the decision-making abilities of the driver. In antiquity an inadequate dashboard would mean a chariot crew covered in horsesh*t and a less than satisfactory outcome to their exploits.
In project management our dashboards (should) impart the information that allows project managers to make informed decisions. A dashboard is not a panacea for project problems but is a solution to enable decisions. If the information isn’t relevant then the resultant dashboard, despite any attractiveness or brevity, rather than obviating horsesh*t, promotes bullsh*t…and that’s no sh*t!
Bio:
Malcolm Peart is an UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.