DEFINITION OF DASHBOARD

A Dashboard:

1. is a support decision instrument.
2. gives instantaneous information about the organization's main drivers.
3. tries to present the information on a single screen/page.
4. uses a simple, direct, intuitive and elegant graphical display.
5. uses design methods to convey the information efficiently, emphasizing what really is important, and guides the user through its reading, etc.
6. try combine the information under different perspectives, in order to expose relations which would be hard to detect individually.
7. should permit interaction between user and information (ex.: customize, segment, select, deepen, etc.)

Like other instruments, shows results, presents deviations, helps to identify causes, suports corrections, shows tendencies, helps and suports to take preventive measures, promotes management accountability, etc.