The dashboard
It pulls from information that came the proper route: from the shared place, checked, with a date and an owner.
Helen's journey · Lesson 5
Can I trust this dashboard?
Before you start
In the story
The green bar was a feeling. Now the CEO would like a word.
Back to the story
The right way: Numbers that came the proper route
Where from?
When a number matters, Helen asks "where did this come from?" and gets a one-sentence answer. When the design changes, the forecast changes with it, because the change travelled the same route.
An early warning
The bad news still comes, but early, while there's time to do something about it.
A feeling, not a forecastA private spreadsheet, a missed design change and late bad news.
The proper routeChecked, dated, owned, and bad news early enough to act on.
Ask this
Is the team actually following the process, and how do we know?
Continue Helen's journey
Story 6: The audit
A government framework is coming up, and it wants a certificate. The audit is in six weeks.
The right way, explained
The Town Hall sees the town through a window. If someone has hung a painting of last spring over the window, it's still a lovely view. It just isn't the town.
If you're the information manager
Tell Helen where every number on her dashboard comes from, and which ones aren't from authorised and accepted information yet. A dashboard is only as good as its worst source.
In the town See it in the town: which shelf is safe to run a board meeting from?
Helen's view: if it isn't on the published shelf, it shouldn't be on the board's dashboard.
Pick a stopThe last leg
Shared
- On the label
- IM calls it
- Watch out for
This is the Published state!
Information that's been authorised and accepted, and is safe to decide on.
The briefing Four lines for the board
The point
Board numbers should come from checked, shared project information, not private spreadsheets.
Why it matters
A decision is only as good as its source, and late bad news is the expensive kind.
What the standard expects
ISO 19650 expects information to be checked and shared in one common place before anyone else relies on it.
Your decision
Keep asking where the key numbers come from, until the answer is boring.
For directors Which information you can trust
ISO 19650 describes one shared place for a project's information, called the common data environment (CDE). Information moves through it in stages, and each stage tells you how far you can trust it.
| Stage | What it means | Decide from it? |
|---|---|---|
| Work in progress | Still being made, by one team | No |
| Shared | Checked and shared with the rest of the team | For coordination |
| Published | Authorised and accepted for use | Yes |
| Archived | The record of what was used, and when | For the audit trail |
For you: a number from someone's desktop isn't at any of these stages. That's the problem.
Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.