Dashboards versus Scorecards
I've been talking to a lot of folks about the new Business Scorecard Manager. It demos well and has a very strong “business impact” story. One of the questions that is asked early in the BSM discussion is “what is the difference between a dashboard and a scorecard?”.
Referring to Wayne Eckerson's “Performance Dashboards” book (see one of my previous blogs for book details)...
“The primary difference between the two is that dashboards monitor the performance of operational processes whereas scorecards chart the progress of tactical and strategic goals.”
Here's a table that helps spell out the details...
Dashboard Scorecard
Purpose Measurse performance Charts progress
Users Supervisors, specialists Executives, managers, staff
Updates Real-time feeds Periodic snapshots
Data Events Summaries
Display Visual graphs, raw data Visual graphs, text comments