About the Book

This book shows how to create robust, maintainable and dynamically updated scorecards and dashboards using Microsoft Reporting Services. No other book covers both scorecards and dashboards with Reporting Services.

About the Author

Christopher Price is a Senior Business Intelligence Consultant with Pragmatic Works. He specializes in data integration, ETL, and data warehouse architecture and design. Adam Jorgensen is President of Pragmatic Works, Director at Large for the Professional Association of SQL Server, and a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. Devin Knight is a Senior BI consultant with Pragmatic Works, a coauthor of six Knight's 24-Hour Trainer books for Wrox, and a conference speaker.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I Foundations of Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards Chapter 1 Introduction to Balanced Scorecards Origins of Strategic Management Systems Tools of Today's Management Balanced Scorecards Strategy Maps Dashboards Benefits of Today's Scorecards Team Strategy Information Technology Alignment Data Strategy Organizational Alignment Strategy to Action Conversion Choosing the Right Technology for the Task Designing for Audience Usability Executives Sales and Marketing Field and Global Workforce Operations and Production Organizing Your Balanced Scorecard Defining Your Strategic Function Why is the Strategy Map so Important? How Do You Know It's Working? Moving Forward with your Scorecard Initiative Summary Chapter 2 Planning Your Dashboard and Scorecard Initiative Defining Scope and Gathering Requirements Executive Involvement Defining Measures Selecting the Right Performance Metrics Planning Development and Implementation Managing Expectations and Scope Summary Part II Building and Extending Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards Chapter 3 Building Your First Dashboard and Balanced Scorecard Anatomy of a Reporting Services Project Introduction to Data Sources, Datasets, and Controls Design and Preview Building Your First Dashboard Scoping and Requirements for Your Dashboard Considerations Before You Get Started Identifying Metrics and Gathering Data Working with Metrics and KPIs Designing the Dashboard Summary Chapter 4 Enhancing Your Dashboard and Balanced Scorecard Organizing and Achieving Visual Consistency Placement and Layouts Dashboard Headers and Footers Reports, Subreports, and Paging Formatting Dashboard Elements Fonts and Text Boxes Borders, Lines, Color, and Images Text, Numbers, and Dates Conditional Formatting Expressions Conditional Formatting Step-by-step Custom and Data-driven Labels and Titles Creating Custom Labels Working with Dates and Times Summary Chapter 5 Interactive Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards Common Interactive Features Drillthrough Expand / Collapse Groups Interactive Sorting Bookmarks Parameterization Introduction to Reporting Services Parameters Data-driven Parameters Working with Cascading Parameters Step-by-step Drillthrough Report Summary Chapter 6 Visual Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards General Guidelines for Data Visualizations Know your Audience Select the Right Medium Kill Cute Use Colors Carefully Working with Charts and Graphs Getting Started with Charts Extending the Reporting Services Chart Working with Sparklines and Data Bars Sparklines Data Bars Working with Gauges and Bullet Graphs Gauges Bullet Graphs Working with Indicators Working with Maps Summary Chapter 7 Mobile Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards Planning for the Right Audience Browser or Native? Choosing a Mobile Platform The Pros and Cons of Reporting Services The Pros and Cons of PerformancePoint General Considerations for Mobile Dashboards Performance Security 1 Design Considerations Summary Chapter 8 Extending Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards with Custom Code Choosing to Embed Custom Code Direct Inputting Code Writing a Function Creating Assemblies for Reusability Building a .NET Assembly Deploying an Assembly Using an Assembly in a Report Summary Chapter 9 Publishing Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards Choosing a Deployment Location Configuring and Publishing to a Native Report Server Setting Up and Configuring Reporting Services Planning for Growth and Scalability Deploying to SQL Server Reporting Services Managing Security 1 Configuring and Publishing to SharePoint Configuring Reporting Services for SharePoint Deploying to SharePoint Data Alerts Summary Part III Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards in Action Chapter 10 Dashboards Case Study: Adventure Works What to Measure and When Developing the Dashboard Summary Chapter 11 Strategy and Process Maps Strategy Maps Perspectives Strategic Themes Objectives and Casual Links Designing a Strategy Map Process Maps Process Flow Map SIPOC Map Value Stream Map Case Study: Contoso Plastics Background The Situation Process Improvement Design Sessions Anecdotal Results Implementing Strategy and Process Maps Working in Microsoft Visio Alternative Implementation Options Summary Chapter 12 Balanced Scorecards Case Study Designing a Balanced Scorecard for a Marketing Firm Defining Objectives Selecting Metrics Choosing Appropriate Targets Bringing the Balanced Scorecard Together Wrangling the Data Building the Balanced Scorecard Summary Chapter 13 Decision-making Charts Box-and-whisker Charts Box-and-whisker by Example Building a Box-and-whisker Chart Pareto Charts 80-20 Rule Pareto Chart Building a Pareto Chart Variance Charts Gantt Charts Summary Chapter 14 Forecasting Trends and Data Smoothing Smoothing Data Simple Moving Average Weighted Moving Average Exponential Weighted Moving Average Forecasting with Moving Averages Forecasting Forecasting with Microsoft Excel Forecasting with SQL Server Analysis Services Case Study: Health Care Forecasting Gathering and Preparing the Data Building the Time Series Model Making the Forecast Summary Index