Dashboard reporting: How NASA manages budgets during everchanging

Transcription

1 September 9 11, 2013 Anaheim, California Dashboard reporting: How NASA manages budgets during everchanging environment. Bob Maloney, NASA Langley Hampton Virginia Session Code: 0102

2 Learning Points Some brief background information about NASA Langley. Did you fly on an airplane to this conference and/or a recent vacation? It was made safer and has become more advanced because of NASA Langley innovations & research. Insight into how NASA utilizes dashboards to accomplish its goals How we are dealing with Sequester & other budget cuts. We would love to use the newest BI4 Suite but can t yet because of budget constraints! How we build Dashboards with a goal of delivering important management information while not overwhelming users. Management can often ask for way too much stuff (Key Performance Indicators (KPI s)) that clutters a dashboard how we squeeze it all in. How we integrate the use of Crystal Reports with our Dashboards. How we work with large amounts of data. 2

3 Learning Points Continued A few tips and tricks that we have found useful (no matter what version you are using) Dynamic visibility dealing with issues of components staying on or off when not desired (when you have lots of components to deal with) Clutter control techniques Click to hide data series on charts. Mouse-over components Developer documentation 3

4 What does NASA Langley do? Aeronautic Research Materials Fabrication & Research Climate Research 4

5 How NASA Has Improved Your Air Travel 5

6 Effects from the Sequester & other Budget Cuts NASA still using Xcelsius 2008 & 2011 until funds (i.e. the agency decision) are made available to move to the BI4 suite How we deal with large data sets without using the BI4 suite more on that later Budget cuts from Washington change short & long-term NASA initiatives Analysts & management have to scramble multiple times during the year in reaction to fallout from Washington Dashboards play a key role during the budgetary process 6

7 Best Practices Managing the Clutter Clutter Control Keeping the Functionality that the End-Users say they want AND Giving them Control of what they see VS. -- D E M O -- 7

8 Best Practices Managing the Clutter Sometimes folks like to see legends on charts; and other times, they want to preserve as much room as possible. Here s one way to get the best of both worlds. 8

9 Best Practices Pop up Data via Mouse-Overs Do you have a variance to a Metric that s important for the end-users to understand, but the logic that drives the alerts is rather complicated? Does your dashboard real estate provide no space to put the variance explanation? Here s one solution to accomplish both of those concerns put a transparent icon on top of words and/or images. Blue component shows when V4 = 81 9

10 Best Practices Dealing with Dynamic Visibility Issues Using multiple Selector components (e.g. Label Based menus, Filters, Combo boxes, etc.) can at times be challenging to manage. Charts are stacked on top of each other and Dynamic Visibility is generally used to control what is seen. But, charts can show up when you don t want them to & don t show when you want them to 10

11 Best Practices Dealing with Dynamic Visibility Issues By default you might be doing this: Using a component like a Label Based Menu with Position Insertion In this example a 1, 2, 3 or 4 is inserted into a cell in Excel You select the 3 rd tab which activates the chart below, BUT then you move to another tab The chart still stays on when you move to another tab because of the Behavior setting 11

12 Best Practices Managing Dynamic Visibility Traditional Solutions Using the Tab Set Component and/or Grouping of Components in the Object Browser 12

13 Best Practices Leveraging Excel s Functionality An Alternative Solution Leverage Excel & Put Components in Logical Groups: Use Excel if/then formulas and expand past the traditional 1 = show / 0 = don t show logic and/or position insertion functionality (Dynamic Visibility) have components point to Excel cells with if/then formulas. IF 1 st component is in 3 rd position AND IF 2 nd component is in the 1 st position AND IF 3 rd component is in the 2 nd position, THEN assign a value of 21, otherwise 0 Group charts in logical groups that work with Dynamic Visibility Key numbers. For example One logical set of charts (e.g. Commitment charts in my case) is in the series. This is what is in the above example ( 21 ) Another logical set of charts (e.g. Obligation charts) is in the series Mouse overs are in the series (like the example on slide 8) Etc. Makes the construction of complex dashboards and later de-bugging easier 13

14 Best Practices Debugging Dynamic Visibility A Debugging Trick that is Unknown or Often Forgotten Use the Snapshot/Current Excel Data function: Checks the actual values in the spreadsheet cells when specific actions are taken by the end-user. It s extremely helpful when components aren t showing up when you think they should (or vise-versa). 14

15 Best Practices Developer Documentation Developer Documentation Practices Dynamic Visibility Common developer practice: Isolating & highlighting Dynamic Visibility in dedicated section of a spreadsheet UNCommon developer practice: documenting the Dynamic Visibility logic very well, if at all! Consider using Excel s Comment functionality: The documentation is right there in the spreadsheet for future reference. You don t have to hunt around in a formal user manual looking for the logic for specific spreadsheet cells. It s green are you really going to refer to a user manual or would you rather just open the file and figure it out with some on-spreadsheet documentation! Saves documentation maintenance in the long run e.g. if you later move cell D2 to another cell (e.g. R2), then the documentation moves with it vs. having to remember to change the reference in the hardcopy/softcopy documentation. 15

16 Integration of Crystal Reports with our Dashboards SAP Crystal Reports can complement Dashboards by providing low-level detail that Financial Analysts require. Use URL Button dashboard component to link the Crystal Reports. 16

17 Integrating Crystal Reports with Dashboards Properties configuration for the URL Button use either: A local or server location or Web address 17

18 Best Practices Dealing with Large Datasets We use 3 rd Party SAP / BOBJ partner software to access large datasets a CSV connector 18

19 Key Learnings from this Session Air travel is a safe mode of travel thanks to aeronautics developments provided by NASA. Have a safe trip home! Dashboards can really help management deal with everchanging budget environments. Management can often ask for too many KPI s that can clutter a dashboard. There are tricks to scale down the clutter. Hopefully, you saw a tip or trick that you can use. 19

20 Thank you for participating. Please provide feedback on this session by completing a short survey via the event mobile application. SESSION CODE: 0102 Learn more year-round at