How do I Create a Dashboard in Cascade?

Click ‘Track’ > Click ‘Dashboards’ > Click the ‘Dashboards’ dropdown menu > Click ‘Add Dashboard’ > Click ‘Add a New Widget’ > Select your widget type > Use the ‘Add Widget’ sidebar to customize your widget > Click ‘Save’

Dashboards are a great tool to track specific goals or highlight information or data within the system. Dashboards are populated with widgets, there are several different styles of widget and each widget can present a different facet of system information on your dashboard. Dashboards can be created to show specific data, or several areas of data, and can be shared with specific users or the entire organization. Below we will provide an outline of each widget type, how you might utilize it, and how you can create one on your dashboard.

To create a Dashboard…

• Click the ‘Track’ icon from the menu near the top left of screen
• Click ‘Dashboards’ from the dropdown menu
• Once the dashboards page appears click on the ‘Dashboards’ button near the top right of the screen to open the dashboards folder
• Click ‘Add Dashboard’ at the bottom of the dashboard list which will bring up the ‘Add New Dashboard’ window. To create a new dashboard, ensure the ‘Create New Dashboard’ is selected (will have a dark border around it) and click ‘Save’

• Your new blank dashboard will ask you to ‘Add Widget’ to get started. Once you click this an ‘Add a New Widget’ window will appear and offer you a selection of widgets. To the left in the 'Quick Start' menu, you are offered ready-made widgets and once you click on one of those, it will automatically create either a table or graph widget that includes your system data specific to the style of widget you selected. For the 'Custom' widgets, we will detail each widget’s purpose, and how to create it below… (Once you select which widget you would like to create, the ‘Add a Widget’ window will close and be replaced with the ‘Setting up: ______’ sidebar to the right of screen.
  • Table Widget – The table widget is probably the most used widget and can be created to display goal information, progress, a list of information collected from your goals’ fields or custom attribute fields. After selecting the Table widget, select the data you wish to display by clicking on and expanding the ‘Select Data’ section in the sidebar. Once this section expands, you will see that the default setting has selected ‘My Goals’. If you wish your table to display your goals, you can leave it as is, if you wish to display other data, you will need to clear this by clicking on ‘My Goals’ and then ‘Clear’. To display alternate data you can use one of the shortcut filters or click ‘+ Add Filter’ and select a plan, specific user, goal template, organization, or data from a custom attribute field. Expand the 'Display Options' and click in the field to select which columns you will display in your table widget. If you wish to only show a certain number of goal levels or include subheadings within your table widget, expand the 'More Settings' area to include your selections. Once you have clicked 'Save' your table widget will appear on the screen and you will be able to resize and reorder your columns as you would when creating a snapshot.  If you wish to enlarge it, click and drag on the bottom right corner. For any of the widgets, to edit after the fact you can hover over the widget and click on the 3 vertical dots in the top right corner of the widget, then click 'Settings'. 

• • Chart Widget - Three types of graphs - Bar, Line, and Pie - can be produced when selecting the Chart Widget. Ideally, you would understand what type of chart you wish to present when you create your goals, and the data would be geared toward a specific chart, however, it is just as easy to work out which chart to create from the data on hand. Once you select which type of chart you wish to create, then select the goal(s) and data you will use for the chart, then select your x-axis and y-axis, how or if you would like your data broken down, and the display settings. Then ensure your chart has a title (top left of screen) and click 'Save Changes' (bottom of the Chart Settings sidebar). 
  • Updates Widget - The Updates widget allows you to highlight system or user updates for either a specific goal, that goal and its aligned goals, or for all goals in an entire Focus Area. Once you have provided a 'Widget Name:', 'Select(ed) a Goal or Focus Area:', decided whether to 'Include Aligned Goals:', which areas to 'Show Updates For:', which aspects of the goal to show as 'Display options:' and from what date you wish to display your updates from, then you are good to hit 'Save'. The updates widget is an excellent widget to accompany chart widgets to tell the story of the data.
  • Notes Widget - A notes widget can be either a static widget presenting a title and notes you have entered on it, or, if you hover over it once it appears and click on the 3 dots in the top right corner and select 'Settings', you can choose the 'Video' option, paste a video link in and use it as a video widget to share information.
  • Single Goal Widget - If you would like to present the graph you see in the 'Tracking' section of the goal hub, the Single Goal Widget is for you. Once you've selected your 'Goal or Focus Area:', you can choose to either present your goal as a combination line and bar line chart with the line illustrating your goal's cumulative progress and the bar showing the expected progress timeline progress (eg. If your expected progress is set to monthly it will display bars showing how much progress you achieved each month), or, if you select a focus area and 'Progress Bar Chart' it will display a bar chart showing the progress of each goal within that focus area. Once you have selected either a goal or focus area you can customize your 'Display Options:' accordingly, enter a 'Widget Name:' and click 'Save' in the bottom right corner.
  • Metric Tracker - The metric tracker widget allows you to compare your expected progress with your actual progress. You can also select 'Expected Progress' as your 'Sub Bar Chart' to better define your expected progress. To set up this widget, select the goal you wish to display in the 'Data Source' area, select your 'Data Arrangement' and 'Display Settings', ensure you have a 'Chart Title', and click 'Save Changes'.
  • Heat Map - Specifically designed to illustrate your exposure to risk, the heat map can take any two custom dropdown fields from any goal template and collate the data to show prevalence in the form of a heat map. As an example, if you have a risk goal template that includes the dropdowns, "Risk Likelihood" and "Risk Impact" and you have selected from the dropdowns for those two fields for each of your risk goals, you will be able to show a heat map that illustrates how many risk goals have a "high" risk likelihood and a "high" risk impact, so you'll know those goals/projects will need to be kept an eye on. (*I also recommend supplementing the heat map with a table filtered to show the goals that fall into that category). You can use any two dropdowns to create your heat map, if you are unsure how to create custom dropdown fields in your goal template, please consult your Government Frameworks consultant or complete a support ticket.
  • Risks - If your organization is using the in-built Cascade 'Risk' functionality, you have the ability to display the risk updates on this widget. Similar to the 'Updates' widget, as users enter risk updates, they can be populated on this widget. To set up the risk widget give it a name, select which users' risks you wish to display, select any filters and display options, and 'Group By:' and 'Sort By:' to select any grouping or subheadings for your risks updates.  

Once you have created all the widgets you wish to place on the dashboard you may click near the top of the widget to drag and drop them where you would like on the dashboard, and you can resize them to fit by clicking and dragging on the bottom right corner of each widget. *If your dashboard starts to work slowly, it might be overladen and you will need to split your dashboard into two dashboards. 

Here is a video showing an example of creating a series of widgets and resizing them to suit your widget...

This article was written by Lauren Galbraith-Gould.  

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