Part 30 (1/2)

Tools si at the infor on your root question and what you are trying to learn from your metric, you can use many different forms of analysis The tools I cover in this appendix are the few that I find useful and simple They are simple for me to produce/use and simple for my audience to understand Always re your et to your answers, you may need to find ways to display them in more simplistic terms

Microsoft Excel

I've found Excel to be inally created to assist with accounting or bookkeeping Ages ago, I used to explain that spreadsheet progra on numbers If you wanted to perforo Today, Microsoft Excel has grown to be lorified calculator I use it for much of my metrics work Like most current software applications, Excel has more capabilities than most users realize or will ever use Besides the breadth of functionality, Excel also provides a lot of flexible power, as in rams) and add-ins like PowerPivot I collect, analyze, and produce graphs for most of my work in Excel With Excel add-ins, I can also perform more complex analysis inside the spreadsheets With Excel 2010, I can handle as many records as I need I use Excel as the foundation for my work

Excel has a statistical add-in that comes with the full version, but you have to ”turn it on” It doesn't coive you soression tests

Sigh Excel It creates a more intuitive set of menu items in its own tab than the statistical add-in that comes with Excel I was especially happy to find that it had a BoxPlot tool (graph), which I was unable to find in any other add-in I a on maXL Before the honeymoon was over, my instructors told me about Minitab They described it as better, sest problem with statistics is they're just too hard to deal with, especially for the benefits gained SigmaXL makes it worth the effort; and if Minitab is better (I haven't used it yet), I want a copy

Visualization Tools

Visualization tools are prined to provide access to your data-in the form of dashboards, scorecards, or other visualizations These can be used for metrics per my definition

Theoris Vision Software

Theoris Vision Software provides a dashboard and reporting solution that includes charts, graphs, scorecards,is driven from the dashboards I like that I can createcontent pretty easily From what I've seen, the real power of this application lies in the unique ability it has to map to various data sources and files, instead of the traditional approach of pulling everything together into a spreadsheet or database

Vision is not a n tool per se, but it is a powerful tool for visualizing your measures It also allows others (stakeholders) to access your metrics on their own I especially like the ability to set up hierarchies in the data, which in turn allows viewers to drill down into their data further This capability is further expanded to allow the creation of ad-hoc reports at different levels of infor on the level of maturity of your audience-but for the most part, it's pretty slick Overall, this is really an i those critical conversations Currently, Vision is mostly focused on the health industry, but the competition had better watch out as Vision branches into other industries A really nice tool which I've added to my wish list

iDashboards

iDashboards is exactly what you'd i and displaying dashboards-or compilations of Key Process Indicators (what I'd call measures) With iDashboards, you could use your iven question

I like both Vision and iDashboards for this purpose The question forof obtaining a tool for displaying your data in thisboth products This one is also on my wish list-and I'll be happy with either as a surprise for Christmas

Tableau

Tableau is not an add-in, but it works ith Excel You can easily import data into Tableau from Excel or other common tools Tableau's power is in the ability to quickly and easily try different graphical representations (visualizations) of your data I know soh analysis I haven't found it works for me, but I do see the potential value (I have a copy, but haven't been able to put it to a lot of use)

Survey Tools

The following three survey tools each offer different benefits In order, the first provides some useful analysis of what's important to your customers as well as hoell you provide those services The second is a third-party service (not really a tool in the true sense) and makes the survey work easy The last is a favorite ofyour surveys to fit your requirements (and the cost is attractive)

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