Scorecards Defined

KPIs are the individual measurable goals. A set of KPIs are grouped together to form a scorecard. For example, on a Capacity Utilization scorecard, each factory would represent a unique KPI. All the company’s factories would be grouped together to display a single scorecard.

A scorecard is an example of a report about the achievement of measurable goals. The scorecard shows a series of measurements, along with the target amount, and the degree to which the target has been reached. The scorecard can provide either a visual or numeric indication to show to what degree the goal has been attained.

In the PerformancePoint world, a scorecard represents the same thing: a set of measurable goals and their corresponding levels to which those goals have been attained. Ultimately, a scorecard will be displayed as a web part on a SharePoint page.

Each scorecard will contain a set of KPIs. Examples of scorecards might include the following:

• Sales volumes, with specific KPIs for each region

• Capacity utilization, with factories making up the individual KPIs

• Number of safety incidents, with per-plant line items

• Customer service complaints, based on product line

Alternatively, a plant manager’s scorecard might show a number of disparate measurements that demonstrate the overall performance of his plant. The following KPIs, when grouped together on a scorecard, might be useful in determining the plant manager’s compensation:

• Number of safety incidents

• Capacity utilization

• Units manufactured

When provisioning a new scorecard, there are three categories of scorecards from which to choose, as follows:

• Microsoft— Enables creation of a scorecard based on Analysis Services, which requires that you have a corresponding data source based on SQL Server Analysis Services.

• Standard— Enables you to create either a blank or fixed value scorecard. These two options enable you to add KPIs created and manually added to your workspace.

• Tabular— Contains several options for creating KPIs based on various table-centric data sources. Like the Analysis Services scorecard, selection of any of the scorecards in this category requires you to have a data source based on the corresponding KPI type.

Some of the scorecard types enable you to define additional KPI measurements as part of the creation process. In addition, when the scorecard is created, you can drag additional KPIs onto the scorecard.

Figure 30.8 shows a scorecard for sales per product line. Notice that some KPIs are on-target, whereas one is slightly off-target. Notice also that KPIs on a scorecard can be rolled up into a parent KPI (All Products), to show how the grouping as a whole is performing.

Figure 30.8. Sample Product Sales scorecard.