Category Archives: Executive Dashboards

  • 6 Key Steps In Creating Metrics That Matter

    There are lots of whitepapers, presentations & blogs out on the Internet that tell you to create one metric over another metric.  It’s great to know about the variety of different metrics available but do you really need all of them? This presentation reduces the complexity to 6 key steps in creating actionable metrics that […]

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  • STOP Wasting Money Due To Lack Of Analytics

    I read an article the other day written by Joe Curtis called “Firms ‘wasting money on data centres of lack of analytics’” Mr. Curtis was correct that firms are wasting money due to the lack of analytics but not just on data centers. Firms are wasting money on resources, software, hardware, and much more due […]

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  • Don’t Cram and Jam

    There is so much data available and so many pretty charts that you can make but do you really need to see all of them? Do you really need to see all of them on the first page? Don’t cram and jam all of the charts on the same page. Below are some items to […]

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  • The Top 5 KPIs For Your Business

    There are so many different types of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) available in so many different formats. You could go out and build them all but what value would that actually give you? Let’s first look at what a KPI is: According to Wikipedia, KPIs are financial and non-financial metrics used to help an organization […]

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  • Don’t Be The Last To Know

    Did you know that your project missed a critical milestone three weeks ago? Did you know that the project went over the budget four weeks ago? Someone in your organization knew that the milestone was missed. Someone also knew that the project went over budget. Did you know before these issues happened? My recommendation is […]

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  • The Devil Is In The Details

    Ever notice how dashboards never tell the whole story? Don’t you want to know what’s causing that spike in the chart? Example: Testing dashboard shows the number of test cases by status (passed/failed/not executed/etc.). They may even show the number of test cases by status per module/functionality for the application under test (AUT). That’s all […]

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  • Don’t Go Overboard. Keep It Simple Stupid!

    Just because you can make pretty charts and pictures for metrics doesn’t mean you need to go haywire. When you are putting metrics together always keep K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) in mind. When putting any metric together ask yourself these questions: What do you want to show/prove? You can make charts for basically anything […]

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  • Do You Know Your ABC’s of Software Metrics?

      Which letters do your metrics include?

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  • How Can You Manage What You Can’t See?

    Metrics can be found everywhere but are they really showing you what you want/need to see? Take a look at the last defect metrics you put together or received. Does it look something like the image below? If your metrics look like the one above the questions that comes to mind should be but not […]

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  • Are Metrics Good or Evil?

    People are constantly trying to measure something but are metrics good or evil? The answer can go either way depending on how you look at it. Metrics can be evil when: You try to measure data that is invalid and/or inaccurate You try to measure one data set to another that is not the same […]

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