Customer Reviews

Enterprise Dashboards: Design and Best Practices for IT

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I guess this is the first book by Shadan Malik. It looks like a manual written for internal use by a company. It is a "methodology" to develop dashboards, with several paragraphs where the author presents rules that he uses in that activity, like the way he estimates project efforts, lists of items to check for and so on.

The book may be of help, for it contains several ideas and concepts that can be used in the process of developing dashboards. It should not be the single source of information on this subject, if you compare this book with Stephen Few's Information Dashboard Design you will find several differences of opinion and concepts that one should be aware of.

The author shall have to do some additional research on the area of visual communication. (For example reading Stephen Few or Edward Tuft books). Many examples presented in the book could be used as examples of things that should not to be done according to the experts in visual communication.

The author uses acronyms(a limited use)to present some general concepts related to dashboards. I personally don't like the use of forced acronyms, they remember me of an old way of teaching where the student memorized several facts just for the examination. It is better to present and give examples of each concept to help make the point.

I gave it three stars, thinking that this is the first book of Mr. Malik. If he would be an experienced author my rating would be between one and two stars.

Shadan Malik aims to acquaint businesses with the concept of "dashboards" and the process of implementing them, from collecting information and assessing the audience to storyboarding and project planning. Other dashboard-related books discuss the value of these information platforms, but don't explain how to create them. One warning: The book is crammed with charts and images, which may turn off readers who don't absorb information graphically, though it will please those who do. Some screenshots are so poorly reproduced that you may think you suddenly need a new eyeglass prescription. We recommend this book to executives, department heads, managers and other businesspeople who wish to implement a dashboard and need some practical guidance.

I would recommend Wayne Eckerson's tome on the subject, "Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business". Much more informative and helpful than Malik, but then Malik was not trying to be definitive.

I thought it was ok at best. Maybe I just know more than I thought :) But I didn't really get a lot out of this one.

If this is the only book on dashboards you read, you won't know that it doesn't contain much help or good "best practices". There was little I found to help me in my investigation of good dashboard design. In particular, I was annoyed that nearly all graphics are fuzzy and not crisp, and none are in color. Also, the author never mentions that dashboard meters that look like analog speedometers are space-wasting, and are NOT a best practice--like Wayne Eckerson does in his book, "Performance Dashboards". The table (not matrix--the incorrect term the author uses) provided for assessing dashboards was very superficial--not something I found useful at all. The book even contained a sentence fragment in a topic sentence--something I found unforgiveable in a hardbound book in this price range.

This is a great guide and handbook for helping business leaders decide on the information they want to see in their dashboards, and for helping IT professionals provide that information to them.

This is a book aimed at the experienced business intelligence developer or the C level executive. It provides a sound methodological framework for using enterprise dashboards as a fundamental performance management tool. This is a 'must read' for anyone contemplating dashboard deployment in their organization.