Define a useful business measure

Before building a dashboard, decide what question it should answer. “Are we ready?” is too broad: one person might count completed tasks while another counts approved reviews.

A useful measure has a clear population, time period and definition. This lesson helps you agree those choices before adding charts.

Define the question

1. Name the decision. Who will read the result, and what will they do with it? For example: “The project coordinator needs to find preparation items that still need review.”

2. Choose the records. Define which items belong in the measure. You might include active preparation items due this week and exclude cancelled items. State what one row represents—an item, a review event or a transaction.

3. Choose the time basis. A due date tells you when work is expected. A review-event time tells you when a decision happened. Pick the relevant field and a cutoff; do not mix them silently.

4. Define a qualifying result. If you measure reviewed items, decide whether the latest review must be approved and supported by the required material. An earlier approval should not hide a later request for changes.

5. Keep the counts behind the percentage. Divide the qualifying item count by the eligible item count, then multiply by 100. Count each item once, even if it has several review events.

A small example

If three of nine eligible items meet the agreed review rule, the rate is 3 ÷ 9 × 100 = 33.3%. That means 33.3% of the defined items meet that rule—not that the whole business or project is one-third complete.

Use the measure in BI

Open BI → Explore and check Switch BI Space before looking at a dashboard. A saved dashboard with no widgets or a dataset that is not ready cannot yet answer your question.

Your result is a shared definition that someone else can calculate the same way. If there are no eligible records, report Not applicable rather than inventing a percentage.