SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services : Understanding and Working with Indicators

Examining Indicator Styles

In PPS there are two types of indicators:

• Standard indicators

• Centered indicators

Standard indicators are indicators that have increasingly better statuses. For example, a metric with no upper limit to its goodness, such as profit, would be best represented by a standard indicator. Likewise, a metric such as spending that gets better as it decreases should also be represented by a standard indicator. The decision to choose which end is better can be made when creating the KPI to be associated with the indicator, not when you are creating the indicator.

Centered indicators are used for KPIs that aim for a specific target. For example, monitoring headcount in a department is the type of metric that could use a centered indicator. With headcount, a manager generally has a target number, which means it could be bad to go too far above or too far below the target number.

Examining Indicator Sources

Indicators are stored as objects within the SharePoint content database. In PPS, there are two indicator sources:

• Built-in indicators

• Custom indicators

PPS comes with a variety of free indicator images out of the box. All of these built-in indicators can be used royalty free.

It is also possible to upload your own images and make custom indicators, either from scratch or by modifying an existing indicator. Custom indicators are useful for adding corporate branding or a personalized touch to scorecards.

Creating Custom Indicators

Custom indicators are best created through Dashboard Designer. Follow these steps to create a custom indicator:

1.	Open Dashboard Designer, shown in Figure 1, and then open the PerformancePoint content list in which you want to create the custom indicator. Figure1. Use Dashboard Designer to create custom indicators.
2.	Select the Create tab on the ribbon, shown in Figure2, and then click the Indicator button to launch the Select an Indicator Template Wizard. Figure 2. Click the Indicator button from the Create tab.
3.	From the Select an Indicator Template Wizard, shown in Figure 3, select Blank Indicator, and then click OK. Figure 3. The Indicator Template Wizard helps you create custom indicators. Tip In this example, you use the Blank Indicator template, which allows the greatest amount of customization. However, if you just want to modify an existing indicator, choose a built-in indicator with which to start. For example, you can choose a built-in indicator to change the background highlight of the indicator’s display cell. After you have created an indicator, it is only possible to change images and colors. You cannot add or remove levels after an indicator has been created.
4.	When the Create New Indicator dialog page appears, shown in Figure 4, you have the option to choose which style of indicator you want, such as standard or centered. You can also choose the number of levels in the indicator. Choose suitable values for this task, and then click Finish. Figure 4. Select the suitable type and number of levels.

At this point, Dashboard Designer creates the indicator for you in the root of the PPS Content List currently selected, as shown in Figure 5. In addition, the Dashboard Designer displays the Indicator editing page.

Figure 5. This is an example of the Indicator editing page in Dashboard Designer.

Editing a Custom Indicator

When your custom indicator has been created, Dashboard Designer has functionality that enables you to modify some of the custom indicator’s properties. Much like other objects within the PPS world, changes you make are viewed and applied locally in Dashboard Designer. These changes become “live” for all users when they are saved to the server. You can make changes to the following values on the Editor tab when viewing an indicator:

• Display name

• Image

• Text color

• Background

Edit Display Name

The display name is an edit box field. Edit the field by selecting the cell and then changing or entering the new text to display in the field.

Edit Image

The image used for the indicator can be in JPG, BMP, GIF, or PNG format. Select the image by selecting the Image cell on the level where you want to edit the indicator. Next, you can either use the Edit—Picture from File option or double-click the cell. Select the picture file you want to use as an indicator.

Indicator images must be 255-by-255 pixels or smaller. When using larger images for indicators, consider how many of those types of indicators you want to have on a scorecard.

Edit Text Color

The Text Color field controls the color of the text displayed in a cell on a scorecard. When a KPI on a scorecard has a value corresponding to that level, the text color of the target cell for that value changes to the color selected.

Edit Background Color

The Background Color field is similar to the Text Color field. When a KPI on a scorecard has a value corresponding to that level, the background color of the target cell for that value changes to the color selected.