Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 10

How to Launch, Manage, and Sustain the Project

Launching a performance dashboard project is easy if you are a senior executive with a vision for a metrics-driven organization. But what if you are a mid-level manager or information technology (IT) professional? How do you convince executives and the rest of the organization about the value of performance dashboards? How do you obtain sponsorship, funding, and staff resources? How do you fight cultural resistance to change and quiet the naysayers? How do you set up a team and define the project scope? And how do you sustain momentum and ensure success? In short, how can you translate your vision into a tangible reality?

This chapter outlines three major elements of a performance dashboard project and offers strategies and tips for succeeding in each of them:

1. Sell the project. You can’t deploy a performance dashboard unless someone pays for it and people use it. Thus, the first step is to find a visionary executive and get the buy-in of mid-level managers and staff whose output will be measured by the performance dashboard. Success here requires strong communications skills and political savvy.

2. Manage the project. Once you get a green light, you need to create a team, scope the project, and keep it on track. This requires excellent team-building and project management skills and the ability to manage user expectations.

3. Sustain the project. Finally, a performance dashboard project is never done. You need to continually ...