What is a Dashboard?

Digital dashboards are a project management tool that can be used to get an overview of the health and performance of a project. They are simple and powerful data-driven software solutions that are used to visually ascertain the status and key performance indicators of a project, or a portfolio of projects. Digital dashboards can be constructed on top of low-cost spreadsheet programs or can be pre-defined templates and tools easily adapted to fit different projects. Dashboards provide an at-a-glance display of critical data pulled from different databases to provide warnings, action notices, and summaries of project conditions.

Digital dashboards can be set up to track the information flows inherent in projects that they monitor. Graphically, users can monitor high-level processes, and if necessary, drill down into low-level data. The success of digital dashboards depends mostly on the correct selection of project metrics (key performance indicators) to monitor. Digital dashboards can be tailored to provide key information and metrics required.

The key is to have all activities contributing to the overall project success be connected so that all project functions can be monitored and management is able to access the progress of each activity. This is a type of executive information system that allows managers to gauge how well the project organization is performing. It allows the organization to capture and report specific data points from each activity within the project so as to provide a “snapshot “of performance.

(Forman, J. B. & Discenza, 2006)

Tableau

Teachers and students at accredited academic institutions worldwide are eligible for free licenses to activate Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep.

With Tableau, you can connect to virtually any data source. Work with any shape, size, and type of data, whether on-premises, in cloud applications, or flat files. Hybrid connectivity supports both live analysis and bringing data in-memory via encrypted extracts.

Tableau Prep provides a visual and direct way to combine, shape, and clean data, as well as automate data prep flows, helping you get to analysis and insights faster. Tableau Desktop offers unlimited data exploration through an intuitive interface, encouraging curiosity, creativity, and data-driven decision-making.

Dundas BI

Dundas BI is an end-to-end business intelligence platform that simplifies the entire analytics process and empowers everyone to visualize and analyze data. Allows users to transform raw data into insights in the form of dashboards, reports, and visual data analytics.

The Dundas BI Academic Program is a free program created for educational uses. Allow students to learn critical data analytics skills in a modern BI platform. The program includes student projects, teaching materials and exercises, access to tailored analytics courses, certification in BI & Analytics, and more.

Power BI