While it’s great to have the measurements and reports needed to meet certain program objectives, executives often find they lack the tools needed to show how the organization is performing overall. This is the purpose of the executive dashboard/scorecard (dashboards and scorecards are effectively the same thing, with an implied emphasis on graphics in the dashboard, versus a more tabular presentation in the scorecard).

This figure shows an example of a dashboard that can be used as a starting point for discussions amongst senior management. It captures the measurement experiences of many organizations running many different types of programs in a single list. This allows organizations to start from concrete examples, allowing them to envision and discuss how similar techniques might apply to their organization as opposed to starting from a blank slate. This and the process of tailoring the measurements to a particular organization’s programs, organizational structures, management practices and business processes is part of the “discovery” process. The discovery process is typically performed as series of meetings (typically a web conference) involving a steering committee of persons selected for either their role in the organization or their particular insights (e.g., data or clinical insights). A typical group would involve executive management (CEO, COO, and/or CFO and associate directors), program directors, quality and compliance staff and possibly an IT representative.

Organizations that participate in the discovery process often find the meetings interesting and illuminating as they begin to see the opportunity to envision and express ways of improving processes and measurement within the organization. Staff who begin the meetings wondering why they are there, often become the biggest participants as they begin to appreciate what is possible and realize that some of their best harbored ideas could actually be put into implementation.