Create a plan for a PerformancePoint dashboard

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

When you create and deploy a PerformancePoint dashboard, you want it to display relevant, useful information. By carefully planning each dashboard before you deploy it, you are more likely to provide dashboard users with a valuable, time-saving tool that helps them get the information that they need.

Step 1: Identify the users and the kinds of information that they want to see

Consider your audience and the kind of information that you want to provide to your dashboard users. You can create simple or complex dashboards and display as much or as little detail as users need.

For example, suppose that you are creating a dashboard to display sales information for a sales team. You might want to include a combination of scorecards and other reports to display information, such as sales to date for a given time period, sales trends over time, sales by geographical regions or by products, and the best performing products, sales teams, or geographical regions.

As another example, suppose that you are creating a dashboard for a marketing group in an organization. You might want to include a combination of scorecards and reports to show results for different marketing campaigns, such as sales leads that were generated by a particular promotional program.

Step 2: Make sure that the data is available

Once you know what kinds of information dashboard users want to see, your next step is to make sure that data is available to you and your dashboard users. Contact the IT administrator and verify that the data exists and that it can be used with PerformancePoint Services.

Step 3: Select the kinds of scorecards and reports that you want to use

Select the kinds of scorecards and other reports that are best suited for the information that you want to display in your dashboard.

For example, suppose that you want to create a report that shows performance for a given metric over time. In this case, you might use an analytic chart. Now suppose that you want to show how actual results compare to target values. In this case, you might create a scorecard.

You can choose from various scorecards and reports in PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer. You can create some kinds of reports by using Dashboard Designer. You can also create PerformancePoint Web Parts to display reports that are stored on other servers, such as Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports and Excel Services reports.

For more information, see Learn about PerformancePoint report types (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=185512) and Learn about PerformancePoint scorecards (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=185514).

Step 4: Decide what kinds of filters that you want to include

Decide whether filters might be useful to your dashboard consumers. You can decide from filters that are individual dashboard items. Or you can connect items such as key performance indicators (KPIs) that are in a scorecard to other reports in your dashboard.

For example, suppose that you are creating a dashboard that shows sales information for a worldwide sales team. You might want to create a Geography filter and link it to the individual reports and scorecards on your dashboard. That way, when you deploy your dashboard, users can select a particular geographical location by using the filter. All scorecards and other reports that are linked to it will automatically be updated to display results that are specific to the selected region.

For more information, see Connect a filter to a report or a scorecard by using Dashboard Designer.

Step 5: Create a sketch or mockup of your dashboard

Create a sample dashboard to see whether it will meet your users' needs. You can either sketch your dashboard on paper or by using any software application that you want to use. Or you can create a sample dashboard by using Dashboard Designer. Then, you can ask your dashboard users if the information that you plan to display in your dashboards is useful. This enables you to make any needed changes before you actually deploy your live dashboards.

By taking time to plan your dashboards at the beginning, you can help ensure that your dashboards will be helpful to users.