*********************************************************** DSS News D. J. Power, Editor June 17, 2007 -- Vol. 8, No. 12 A Free Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM more than 2000 Subscribers ************************************************************ Check Bill Inmon's Reflections at DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Featured: * Ask Dan: What are "best practices" guidelines for designing business intelligence reports from data-driven DSS? * Report from Second Life IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007 * Upcoming DSS-related Conferences * DSS News Headlines ************************************************************ Ask Dan! What are "best practices" guidelines for designing business intelligence reports from data-driven DSS? by Dan Power Editor, DSSResources.com Structured reports remain at the center of data-driven decision support for managerial decision making. The reports may be in portable document format (PDF) and the reports are probably web accessible, but we still have reports. In the "good" old days, one would see piles of computer printouts in manager's offices. The printouts today may be a bit smaller and might include graphs in color with professional looking tables, but we still have reports. Managers can quickly scan a paper report while multi-tasking and many managers are reluctant to read reports online. Reading emails is already a burden, so we still have paper reports. Most reports are hurriedly constructed, repetitive and have information overload. Managers think they know what they want in reports and that and more is what they get from an accommodating IS/T staffer. After all, the IS/T staffer doesn't know exactly what information a manager needs, and when, to help manage the business. Also, most IS/T staffers have not been taught how to design decision relevant reports. IS/T keeps hoping reports will "go away" with web-based and end user access. What's happening is that some managers and staff are creating reports, but we still have reports. Report training is focused on technical capabilities in report writers and report wizards step a manager or staffer "through creating simple reports without writing any code". So most reports are page after page of data. Too many fields are often displayed, table headings are cryptic or field names from the data store, basic context information like date of the report, who prepared it, and a title that suggests the purpose of the report are forgotten, and gratuitous charts and cross tabulations are included because it is easy to do so not because of user needs. Many reports slow decision making rather than increase decision effectiveness. Both periodic and ad hoc business intelligence reports may be primarily informational, analytical or comparative. The informational reports summarize what has happened for a time period and may focus on key performance indicators and critical success factors. Analytical reports do more than summarize, such reports emphasize averages, deviations, trends and cross tabulations. Comparative reports usually focus on internal comparisons like actual versus budgeted or sales by category compared to a prior quarter or year. Some comparison reports include external data. Some periodic reports are generated in the operational data-driven DSS automatically. These reports often answer the "what is happening right now?" question. Other periodic and ad hoc reports are intended to answer specific decision related questions. Pre-defined reports are usually still developed by the IS/T department in response to a user request. With easier to use report generator tools, many users generate their own reports. Neither IS/T nor most users do much report planning. The tools make it so fast to get the data into a report that the objectives, purpose and best design for the specific report are often forgotten. The message is clear that we need to teach people who create reports how to do it better. Reports will not go away! Microsoft Technet notes "Report design is usually a two-part process that consists of defining data and arranging items on a page. ... A report consists of three main areas: a page header, a page footer, and the body. ...The placement of report items in a report is completely freeform." In reality, report design is a three-part process, and the first step is defining the objective of the report, then one can move on to "defining data and arranging items on a page". So what are some "best practices" guidelines for designing reports used to support decision making? We have more guidelines for email and website usability than we do for business intelligence reports. But we don't want guideline overload, "Website Usability -- 144 guidelines for improving the design" or "Email Newsletter Usability -- 165 Design Guidelines for Content". The following is my short list. 1. Keep it simple and short! Shorter is better and for performance monitoring a one page report is ideal. Don't create complex, hard to understand reports. 2. Charts and graphs should add value and convey a single message. Just because it is easy to create charts doesn't mean you need them. It is true that a chart often conveys a lot of of information in a decision compelling way, but a chart needs annotation, descriptive title and labels. 3. Don't overload the user with too many numbers. Pages of detailed data is not a report. Some managers want all of the detail in a report. That's usually because they don't trust the accuracy of the summarized data. After some period of time, the manager may gain trust in the data and request more summarization. Then a real report can be designed. 4. When possible use color, shading or graphics like arrows to highlight key findings, discrepancies or major indicators. In a paper or web-based report you cannot rely on color alone to convey differences in charts or tables. 5. Create and follow report design guidelines. Educate people who create reports about effective reporting. 6. Talk to managers/users. Discuss report design with the person who requests the report and be willing to help end users who are creating ad hoc reports. 7. Make the context of the report obvious to anyone who sees the report. Use a text box at the beginning of the report to quickly state reporting objectives, authorization, important background facts, and limitations of the data. Always include in the header the date and title of the report. Use page numbers and specify restrictions on distribution and confidentiality. 8. Make a plan. Sketch tables and charts and plan the order of information that is included. Decide what data to put in each report section and decide how to arrange the detail data. Make decisions about titles, headings, and data formats. IS/T need to work with the managers who will read and use the reports, the problem of bad or ineffective reports is usually "people-related" not "technology-related". Great reports lead to better and faster data-driven decisions. As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. References Guide to designing Microsoft Access reports at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA102056141033.aspx Welcker, B., C. Hayes and D. Steinmetz, "Report Design: Best Practices and Guidelines," June 1, 2005, Updated: November 15, 2005, at URL http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/rsdesign.mspx . ************************************************************ Check the interview with Tom Davenport "Competing on Analytics" at DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Trip Report Report from Second Life IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007 by Dan Power In May, I was invited to attend the IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007 in Orlando, Florida June 10-14, 2007. That didn't fit with my plans, but Rational was hosting a parallel conference in Linden Lab's Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) virtual environment. So I decided to attend virtually. I went through the Help Island tutorials prior to the conference. I learned to walk and fly. My walking is still a bit jerky! I even learned some scripting so I could talk to the rational geeks. The virtual conference schedule started with replays of the videos from the real conference. With a little help I got my IBM RSDC Welcome kit with an agenda and I picked up the IBM codestation labyrinth kit. There was never a conference registration booth with an avatar helping people like me. The first event was scheduled for Tuesday, June 12, 2007 from 10 am - 1:00 pm Pacific Time. It was the keynote address replay "What Keeps Business Rational?" with speakers Scott Hebner, IBM Rational Vice President, Marketing; Danny Sabbah, IBM Rational, General Manager; and Jamie Thomas - IBM Rational, Vice President Development. The scheduled location was the IBM Theater in Second Life. I got to the theater early and read the seat instructions. Very nice facility. But you could tell this is all in Alpha testing. Yossarian Seattle, IBM architect, and Jay Clarke, codestation maintenance, were running the show. Those are avatar names not real names. In all at 10am PDT, seven avatars were in the 300 seat theater. The poor turnout again suggested this idea needs some more work. The chat session follows: [10:00] Jay Clarke: Thanks for coming in to attend the replay portion of the RSDC 2007 keynote addressses in Second Life [10:00] Jay Clarke: We are still sort of getting setup for this....so thanks for your patience [10:02] Jay Clarke: Our first presentation will be yesterday's keynote from Jamie Thomas - IBM Rational, Vice President Development [10:02] Jay Clarke: this presentation lasts roughly 20mins [10:02] Rhuelse Homewood: Hello [10:03] Jay Clarke: as ppl are joining in.....we will probably let ppl play them as they wish for about an hour or so [10:04] Jay Clarke: the last presentation will be the keynote from Danny Sabbah, IBM Rational, General Manager [10:04] Jay Clarke: be back here for that presentation in about an hour [10:06] Jay Clarke: Ok so, sorry about the wait....we will be ready in just a few mins [10:06] Jay Clarke: Thanks. [10:07] Jay Clarke: I will be back shortly everyone.....thank you! [10:13] Jay Clarke: Hi [10:13] Jay Clarke: try viewing the videos from IBM CODESTATION [10:13] Jay Clarke: this may work better. [10:13] Remo Tone: ok Jay [10:14] You: can you set up a tp? [10:14] You have offered friendship to Jay Clarke [10:14] Jay Clarke is Online [10:14] Remo Tone: can you say the slurl to the chat? [10:14] Jay Clarke: yes [10:14] Jay Clarke: http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%20CODESTATION/124/159/25/ [10:15] Remo Tone: thanks!! [10:15] You: thanks [10:16] You: Please send me a tp The videos weren't working at the code station either. On Wednesday, June 13, 2007, the SL grid was closed from 6 am PDT - 12 pm PDT for scheduled maintenance. So what are my initial conclusions. Second Life is open source software so businesses need to pressure Linden Labs to create a Business Life virtual venue where people register their avatars with their real names. Identities in Business Life need to be verified. In my opinion, the powerful Linden Labs simulators can really benefit business and education, but Second Life is not the right environment. I'm thinking about offering my decision support course using Second Life (SL) in the Fall, but I am concerned about some of the mature content and the anonymity. Business and credible education occurs in a trusted environment and SL is not and never will be that! SL is entertainment. We can organize great conferences, conduct decision support special studies, do virtual consulting and teach people in Business Life. We need to make this happen. ************************************************************ Link to Dan Power: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danpower ************************************************************ DSS Conferences 1. AMCIS 2007, Americas Conference on Information Systems, Keystone, CO USA, August 9-12, 2007. SIG DSS mini-tracks. Check http://www.biz.colostate.edu/amcis07/ . 2. DaWaK 2007, 9th International Conference on Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery, Regensburg, Germany, September 3-7, 2007. Check http://www.dexa.org/ . 3. Pre-ICIS SIG DSS Workshop, Sunday, December 9, 2007, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Check http://sigs.aisnet.org/sigdss/ ************************************************************ Purchase Dan Power's DSS FAQ book 83 frequently asked questions about computerized DSS http://dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power2005.html ************************************************************ DSS News Release Headlines - June 4 - June 15, 2007 Read them at DSSResources.COM and search the DSS News Archive 06/14/2007 Google vs. Baidu: localization vs. internationalization. 06/13/2007 Intuit’s QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions embraces Linux. 06/13/2007 Manufacturing executives call for improvements in next-generation product lifecycle management (PLM) tools. 06/13/2007 Precedent Insurance Company selects Corticon Business Rules Management for innovative health insurance solution. 06/13/2007 Business Intelligence Network and TDWI announce the launch of BI-BestPractices.com. 06/12/2007 Teradata plans second Global Consulting Center in India. 06/12/2007 Sabre Airline Solutions wins revenue management role at Aegean Airlines. 06/11/2007 Does the media influence stock trading volumes?. 06/11/2007 Cognos launches virtual finance forum to share best practices for performance management. 06/07/2007 Nielsen launches a flexible, real time marketplace intelligence solution. 06/07/2007 Wharton Online Data Service reaches new milestone. 06/07/2007 New product connects Microsoft Office users with SAP R/3 and SAP Business Warehouse Data via performance dashboards and scorecards. 06/07/2007 Noetix speeds up business intelligence reporting at Burlington Coat Factory. 06/07/2007 SAP launches inaugural North American Academic Symposium to showcase role of academia in business innovation. 06/06/2007 SierraCRM releases new process management engine for SugarCRM open-source software. 06/06/2007 Fred’s Inc. selects IRI space planning solutions to improve category performance and drive sales. 06/06/2007 Six "laws" of mobile security. 06/05/2007 Supply chain planning and design critical for merger and acquisition success. 06/05/2007 ID Analytics announces availability of ID Score(R)-Optimizer to reduce application review time and improve customer experience. 06/05/2007 Harvard Pilgrim Health Care selects Clarity Systems to drive its corporate performance management initiative. 06/05/2007 Applix Executive Viewer takes control of business analytics across multiple departments at Johnson Matthey. 06/04/2007 Sun extends software compiler and tool technologies to multi-core processors and multithreaded applications. 06/04/2007 Microsoft details dynamic IT strategy at Tech-Ed 2007. 06/04/2007 Parsin to discuss leveraging embedded decision support to drive better strategic and operational product decisions. ************************************************************ Please tell your DSS friends about DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2007 by D. J. Power. Please send your questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com |