What Are KPI Watchlists?

KPI watchlists are collections of KPIs that you build by adding the KPIs that are stored in the catalog. After you build and save a KPI watchlist, it is stored as a catalog object and can be added to dashboards and scorecards. Because KPIs cannot be viewed directly from the catalog by users, KPI watchlists are one of the ways, along with outputting a KPI to an analysis and including a KPI on a scorecard, that KPIs are distributed to users.

KPI watchlists provide the following KPI performance information:

• Label to identify the KPI

• Current status

• Trend status that indicates if performance has increased, decreased, or remained the same, and if any changes are desirable (See "KPI Overview" for additional information on trend status.)

• Actual and target values. Note that the content designer can make these values writeable. See "What Are Target Settings?" for additional information.

• Variance value and percent by which the current value deviates from the target

• Change value and percent identify how much the current value differs from that of the previous period

KPI watchlists are useful because you can quickly build formal or informal lists for specific uses and for specific users, or, if users are given the proper privileges, they can build their own KPI watchlists that meet their specific information needs. For example, the KPI watchlist designer might create a KPI watchlist that contains KPIs that support a specific scorecard's strategy and initiatives. Or users might create KPI watchlists to monitor their individual objectives. For example, a sales person can create a KPI watchlist that contains KPIs that monitor quarterly sales totals within a specific region. See "About Scorecard Privileges and Permissions" for additional information about Presentation Services privileges.

The KPI watchlist designer can add one KPI several times to a KPI watchlist, and each time that the KPI is added, pin different dimensions to it so that the user can quickly see the whole picture rather than having to specify dimensions and reloading the KPI.

The KPI watchlist also provides the user with the ability to select a KPI from the watchlist and output it to an analysis, or to contact the KPI's business owner.

Figure 11-11 shows a KPI watchlist with current status, trend status, actual and target values, variance values and variance percentage values, and change values and change percentage values.