A Matter Of Degree

Choose Your Resource: Two visualizations of the Business Intelligence Options in SharePoint 2010

[Update 9/3/11 - both charts have been edited to reflect Derek's input (see comments)]

I've been wanting to share this SharePoint resource for a while: two different views of the options for Business Intelligence / Data Visualization on the 2010 platform.  Both views break down the options in terms of dataset size and dynamic vs. static presentation; you can choose the format that works best for you:

2010 BI Solutions - Venn View:

 

2010 BI Solutions - Quadrant View:

  

My thanks to Chris McNulty, whose matrix of different BI options in SP 2010 provided the seed for these visualizations (the matrix can be seen on slide 28 of our joint presentation "See Beyond The Numbers"), and to Matt Jackson, who suggested the quadrant view and provided input on both views.

As always, I welcome feedback and suggestions.

How's Your Health? Diagnostic Tools for the Technical and Human Sides of SharePoint.

Last night, two of my friends and colleagues in the SharePoint community sent me links to new diagnostic tools, one specifically for SharePoint and one applicable to SharePoint, which complement each other nicely - one is about the technology, and the other is about community.  To receive them both in the same evening was such a happy coincidence that I wanted to share them together.

The first, sent to me by SharePoint developer Julie Turner, is the SharePoint Diagnostic Studio, announced on 4/23/11 by the SharePoint Product Team. 

 
 
It's a complement to SCOM and the SharePoint Health Analyzer which, in the product team's words, "presents server diagnostic information in a visual and structured way that enables Developers and IT Professionals to quickly diagnose and act upon intermittent performance, reliability and functionality problems in a SharePoint 2010 environment."  Essentially, it provides graphical reporting in the categories of base, capacity, performance, availability, and usage, and provides insight into the issues that impact these areas.

For more information:

• read the full announcement
• read the TechNet article
• download the free toolkit

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 The second, sent to my by Mark Miller of NothingButSharePoint, is the Lithium Community Health Index. 

 

This is a free, downloadable 20-page paper which presents a model for measuring the health and activity of online communities.  It defines a set of common characteristics, briefly listed here:

• Members (growth)
• Content (usefulness)
• Traffic (popularity)
• Responsiveness
• Interactivity
• Liveliness

and also:

• Positive Atmosphere
• Civil Behavior
• Degree of Trust

It then shows how these standard metrics can be used not only to measure an individual community but to compare against other similar communities.  But more than helping to measure community health and providing a means for benchmarking, it can also validate perceptions, and serve as a basis of ROI calculations.

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 Both of these tools would be excellent for anyone considering their SharePoint maturity in the Infrastructure & Administration and/or People & Communities competencies, and I've posted them as resources on sharepointmaturity.com.  Personally I appreciate their focus on visualization and graphical display of information. If you decide to give one or both of them a try in your own environment, please leave a comment and let me know how it goes!

Comforting Data Visualization from TurboTax

 
It doesn't tell me the scale or what the actual metrics are behind this graphic, but I find this visualization so much more effective than just seeing the text "Your audit risk is low" on the page.  It makes it easier to know I am ready to click that "Continue" button.  

Just one of those daily reminders that graphics and visualizations do improve the user experience and aid decision-making.  I would go so far as to say they can even provide psychological benefit (if the news is good).