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Control Panel: Overview

The control panel displays both the user's contribution to the organisation's performance as well as the organisation's performance overall via a number of tabs and reports). Performance progress is displayed using a combination of graphic, literal and colour coded icons (see control panel display below - click on objects in the figure below for more information on each):

Tasks Reports Staff All Users Action Plans Indicators Dashboard Customize Customize Dashboard Click here to see an example performance target summary report Click here to see an example action plan summary report Click here to see an example action plan summary report Tools Click here to see an example action plan assessment report Click here to see the corporate performance overview report related to performance gauges and strategy  map

Access to performance information will reflect user's responsibilities and privileges within the organisation as well as the posts they are assigned to and the number of staff (if any) assigned to report to those posts. All users will be able to view their own contribution and the organisation's complete strategy map but only users with administrative privileges will be able to view all aspects of the organisation's performance including those of the other users in the system.

On logging into the system the user will default to their control panel. If there are any due or over due measurement and/or validation tasks assigned to that user they will be displayed here on the control panel dashboard.

The toolbutton accesses the system tool window displaying the tools available to the user. Availability depends on the user's access levels.

The Toggle Menu button displays the classic view with the tool menu options in the control panel on the left hand side. The list depends on the user's access levels. Because this view preceedes the creation of the system tool window the list only contains tool options available before its creation. Clicking the button again will return to the current view.

Note: This feature will be removed in release 5.0.

The Control Panel button returns the control panel view, for example if a user is in any of the tool options and wishes to return straight to the control panel.

Control panel tabs

The control panel is comprised of a number of tabs: Tasks, Indicators, Reports, Staff, All Users, and Action Plans. The tabs displayed depend on the user's privileges and allocation of tasks and responsibilities within the organisation. For example, if the organisation doesn't set up action plans there won't be an action plan tab displayed for any users. Similarly, users with no staff assigned to them shouldn't see a Staff tab.

Dashboard
All users will have a Dashboard tab that is the default start up page when entering the control panel and is effectively the user's one stop shop for all their performance needs. The dashboard displays the graphics for performance targets, the strategy map, action plans and assessment projects that the user needs to see and all of these graphics can be drilled down into reports. Click on link for more information.
Tasks
All users will have a Task tab that displays the user's measurement, validation and / or action plan tasks due and/or overdue. Click link for more information.
Performance Targets
All users will have an Indicator tab that displays those indicators they are responsible for measuring. Click link for more information.
Reports
There are six report categories available (depending on the user's privileges and assignments): Executive/Overview, Administration, Group, Validator, Performance Indicator and Action Planning. These comprise both overviews of the organisation's performance as well as the user's contribution to the organisation's vision. The two most comprehensive organisation reports are the Corporate Performance Overview and the Corporate Performance Plan (both in Executive/Overview reports). The individual user's contribution to the entire vision in relation to others is clearly displayed in the My Strategy report (in Group reports). Click link for more information.
Staff
If a user has staff assigned on the system their control panel can be viewed from this tab. Click link for more information.
All Users
Administrators only. This allows access to all system user's control panels including staff (if assigned). Click link for more information.
Action Plans
This tab shows the existing organisation's action plans, their status and related items. If the organisation has not created any action plans this tab will be not be displayed. Click link for more information.

Customise control panel tabs

The display of these tabs can be controlled (depending on the user's privileges) using the Customise link in the top-right corner. Click on the link and select the tabs to be displayed and press "Save":

Note: the tabs a user can see can be set in the Users module.

Control Panel Display

The display of performance information in the system is based on a wide series of icons and colours (on a black and white printer the icons alone would provide the performance status information) but also incorporates text and graphical representation. Because the Control Panel acts as the nexus for the whole system the colour coding and icon use is explained in this section rather than elsewhere though this symbolism is used throughout the system.

These traffic lights based icons are shown below along with information on the default performance thresholds associated with these icons.

Note: Escendency can vary these thresholds for user at user's request.

audit icon
Performance measurement validation task due
not audit icon
Performance measurement validation task overdue
caution icon
Caution! Task needs checking
due icon
Performance measurement due
overdue
Performance measurement overdue
better icon
Status improved since last measurement
worse icon
Status declined since last measurement
dark triangle icon
Report drill down option - available only on measurable items in the tree

The default Traffic Light values corresponding with the main status icons are as follows (note: system administrators can change these values by contacting Escendency):

High is good Low is good
tick with star Performance target completed successfully Performance target completed successfully
tick with warning >110% of performance target/phase target <110% of performance target/phase target
tick 100% of performance target/phase target 100% of performance target/phase target
warning 80-99% of performance target/phase target 101-120% of performance target/phase target
double warning 79% or less of performance target/phase target 121% or more of performance target/phase target
warn not assessed Target not assessed  

In addition, blue is sometimes coded for over exceeding targets, for example in performance target displays:

Drill down options on many reports, additional status indicators and actions are also icon based:

tree viewOrganisation view exportExport report
histogramGraph flagAction Plan
histogram with personMeasurement breakdown at post level personOrganisation item (see organisation help for full key of post icons)
histogram and treeMeasurement breakdown at organisation level graph paperReport
CD and histogramHistoric / Archived Performance Indicator values pie chartDirectorate organisation item
documentPerformance Indicator template chart/descendPerformanc target is currently in lower quartile
flow diagramPerformance Indicator definition chart/ascendPerformance target is currently in upper quartile
binocularsLook up more details bookmarkDocumentation link (usually a URL)
textImport to an Excel spreadsheet thumb downTask responsibility not accepted yet
XNot approved (measurement and action plan validation) thumb upTask responsibility accepted

A good location to see many of the Escendency icons at work is in the Corporate Performance Overview report accessed from the reports tab (figure 3 below):


Note: strategy map items are selected from several options by the organisation administrators so the key above is not generally applicable for all strategy maps.

Performance status is shown relative to the current indicator's phase target if there is one (or performance target if there isn't), and to the performance target's duration. Strategy map items with no active performance target (and subsequently no assigned performance indicator) have no status display.

Data for "range" performance targets will be inside the range (good) or outside the range (bad). Data for yes/no performance targets will be "yes" or "no":

A performance target's measurement type (high, low, range, date, yes/no, %, or numeric) is set when its relevant performance indicator is created.

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