In the latest version of BSC Designer it is now possible to create a cascading strategy map.
Learn more about cascading strategy maps below, learn more about general cascading principles in video manual.
There are two options available:
Cascading projects. Create a strategy map that will represent the structure of cascaded balanced scorecards, e.g. the structure of linked .BSC projects.
Cascading projects and indicators. Another possibility is to create the detailed strategy map that will show the whole cascade structure of linked Balanced Scorecards, including indicators and categories.
To access these functions you need to run BSC Designer, select “Placement Wizard” command in Strategy Map menu and then select one of two options “Cascading projects” or “Cascading projects and indicators”:
Cascading strategy maps
Examples
You can check examples of cascading scorecards. Open _main.bsc project from “Sample Scorecards\Cascading” installation folder of the program.
Strategy maps
Here is how cascading strategy maps might look like (click to enlarge):
It’s important to keep the data on your Balanced Scorecard up to date.
If you’re just using one scorecard, that’s easy. BSC Designer allows you to set an update interval for each scorecard—a set of deadlines by which you’ll need to update the values of all of your indicators. Some scorecards may be updated monthly, others more often.
Learn more about testing and updating of indicators in the online eTraining;
But if you create a cascading Balanced Scorecard, one high-level scorecard may delegate indicators to dozens of lower-level scorecards. As a result, the indicators on a single scorecard may be updated on very different schedules. Keeping track of all of those deadlines can be confusing.
That’s why we’re introducing a new feature: the “Update Info” Panel. Beginning with BSC Designer 4.6, you can define update intervals for any indicator you like. Managers can easily control when new indicator values will be required. And everyone with access to your BSC project will be alerted when it’s time to update the values of the indicators they’re responsible for. That means top managers, line managers, and employees can all work together more easily and more efficiently than ever.
Assigning an update interval to an indicator is easy. Simply open the indicator, and click on the “Panel ‘Update Info’” button to add a new panel to the “indicator properties” display. This new panel will show you how often this indicator should be updated, when it was updated last, or if it has never been updated. To change your update schedule, just enter your new interval in days. For instance, you’d choose“30” days to update this indicator once a month.
Once you assign an update interval for a particular indicator, everyone who uses the scorecard on which the indicator appears will be alerted when it’s time for an update. If this indicator has been delegated to one or more lower-level scorecards, users of those scorecards will be alerted, as well.
On the date you chose, these users will see a clock icon next to the indicator’s name, indicating that this indicator needs to be updated today. Your employees will know that it’s time to retrieve the current values, perform the appropriate analyses, or deliver the appropriate data so that their managers can update the indicator.
The clock icon will also appear if you have set an update interval but the indicator has never been updated.
If the due date passes and the indicator has not been updated, a yellow “alert” icon appears, signaling that this indicator requires urgent attention.
You can also review your indicator update intervals on the Analysis tab, at the bottom of the page. Here, you’ll see the indicator’s current value, the date when it’s scheduled for its next update, the date of its most recent update, and how often it should be updated.
With our new “Update Info” feature, managing large cascading scorecards is easier than ever. You can delegate as many indicators as you like, and share them between as many scorecards as you like, without confusing your staff, without missing deadlines, and without using any extra tools to send out reminders to your team.
BSC Designer doesn’t just record the values of your indicators; it can help you to evaluate them.
Use our new analysis tools to:
Quickly identify your best- (and worst-) performing indicators.
Easily see which indicators are most important to your whole scorecard, and to your whole business.
Predict an indicator’s future value, based on its past performance.
And set up automatic alerts to let you know when the indicator’s value reaches a particular range.
Accessing the Analysis Features
To access our analysis tools, just open your scorecard project in BSC Designer, and click on the “Analysis” tab at the bottom of the screen.
This tab includes three important sections:
Analysis Type allows you to choose what kind of analysis to perform. We’ll look at each of these options later.
The Indicator List shows each of your indicators, and the results of your analysis. You can double-click on an indicator here to see the same indicator in the Tree view.
And in the Time Internal section, you can choose the time period on which to base your analysis. For instance, you might analyze an indicator’s performance over the past week, or the past month.
Performance Analysis
Click on Performance in the Analysis Type section to see the performance of your indicators, compared to their maximum and minimum values.
By default, the Indicator List sorts your indicators by performance, with your best-performing indicators first, and your worst-performing indicators last. To reverse the sort order, just click on the heading for the Performance column.
Progress Analysis
The Progress analysis type is similar, but here each indicator is evaluated on a scale from its baseline value to its target value.
Again, the indicator list is sorted with your best-progressing indicators first. Click on the Progress column heading to reverse the sort order.
“Absolute Weight” Analysis
Choose Absolute Weight in the Analysis Type section to see all the indicators on your scorecard, sorted according to their absolute weight—that is, their importance to the overall value of your whole balanced scorecard. This type of analysis can be very helpful in helping you to prioritize the most important parts of your business.
Forcast Analysis
The Forecast analysis type allows you to predict the future behavior of your indicators, based on linear forecasting.
There are two options:
You can choose a “Target Date,“ and BSC Designer will predict what value an indicator will have on that date.
Or, you can choose a “Target Value,“ and BSC Designer will predict when the indicator will reach that target.
For instance, Indicator 1 had a value of 10 on 1 November, 2010, and a value of 20 on 15 November, 2010.
For the target date of 25 November, 2010, BSC Designer predicts a Forecast Value… of 23.406.
And BSC Designer predicts that this indicator will reach its Target Value of 30… on the Forecast Date of 4 December, 2010.
Creating Alerts
The Analysis Type section also includes an Alerts button.
Here, you can set up alerts to notify you if a particular indicator ever reaches a particular value, or if it reaches that value at a particular point in time.
Let’s say that I want to be notified if Indicator 1 reaches a value between 20 and 30… on a date between 1 November 2010 and 30 November 2010. (I could also click the “All Time“ box, to be notified if this indicator ever reaches that value.)
The current value of Indicator 1 is inside that range, and it’s November 2010… so an alert icon appears next to my indicator. This blue exclamation point makes sure I notice that the indicator has reached the value I chose, so I can take appropriate action.
Charts and diagrams are a standard part of doing business today. Good managers know that visual representations of data save them time, and make their decisions easy.
That’s why BSC Designer has a whole set of charts built in, to show you all the most important data on your Balanced Scorecard.
When you open a project in BSC Designer and select an indicator or a category, you will see all the relevant charts. Click on any of the small charts on our main window to see a larger view.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the charts in BSC Designer.
Optimization Chart
The optimization chart shows you the current performance of your indicator. It includes your indicator’s value, and its function line.
The three points on the chart show you the indicator’s baseline value, its current value, and its target value. Just look at these three points, and you can see your progress toward your goal.
The line represents the indicator’s optimization formula—that is, the relationship between the indicator’s value, and its performance. Our default formulas, Maximize and Minimize, are both linear functions, so this will usually be a straight line.
The relationship between an indicator’s value and its performance is not always linear. It might be binary, or it might be more complex. To create a different optimization formula, just select the indicator, open the Optimization dropdown menu, and choose “Editor.” The line on the optimization chart will change shape accordingly, to show you how the indicator’s performance will change when you change its value.
The pie chart shows the relevant performance of each of the indicators in a particular category. This is an easy way to see which indicators are doing well, and which ones need more of your attention.
The weight chart shows the absolute weight of your indicators. It takes into account not only the weight of each indicator within its parent category, but the weight of each category on the Balanced Scorecard. In other words, it shows you how important each indicator is to the overall value of your Balanced Scorecard—that is, to the overall performance of your company.
The gauge chart shows you the performance of each indicator:
The small red arrow represents the indicator’s baseline value.
The small black arrow represents its target value.
The large arrow shows its current value.
And the colored scale matches the colors and thresholds you chose for your stop lights. Open the Tools menu and choose “Application Options” to choose what colors to use, what values they should represent, and whether they should measure your indicator’s performance, or its progress.
The diamond chart, also known as the Radar Chart, shows you the baseline value, current value, and target value of your indicators. This is an easy way to identify the best and worst performing indicators in a category.
The Time Chart shows you how the values of your indicators and categories have changed over time.
When you select an indicator, its Time Chart shows each change in the value of the indicator, compared to its baseline and target values.
When you select a category, the Time Chart shows you how the overall performance of the category has changed over time, compared to the baseline and target values of the indicators in that category.
The colors in the background match the colors of your stop lights. Go to the Tools menu and choose “Application Options,” and you can decide what colors to use, what values they should represent, and whether they should measure your indicators’ performance, or their progress.
The Risk Chart is designed specifically for risk indicators. It shows the impact and the probability of the risk. And again, the colors in the background match the color scheme you chose for your stop lights.
By default, BSC Designer’s toolbar gives you instant access to all of these charts. If you decide you don’t need one of the charts, you can right-click on any chart to open the Charts Visibility menu. Here, you can choose which charts to show, and which ones to hide.
Dashboard View
On the other hand, if you’d like to use all of our charts, BSC Designer includes a handy Dashboard view, where you will see all of our charts at once.
Just click on the Dashboard tab at the bottom of the window to switch to the Dashboard view. This is a quick, easy way to visualize and analyze an indicator.
There are three different ways to bring data from an external source into BSC Designer. You can import indicator values, import an indicator, or use SQL Indicators. It is important to understand the difference between these approaches.
Import Values
When you use the “Import Values” command, you are simply copying data from a spreadsheet into your Balanced Scorecard project. If you update the spreadsheet, the data in the BSC Designer project file will not change. You will need to import the new values manually.
When you use the “Import Indicator” command, you are not copying data. Instead, you are creating a link between two BSC Designer projects. If you update the values on the source scorecard, they will be updated on your scorecard, as well. “Import Indicator” is designed to give you access to data in other BSC Designer scorecard projects.
SQL Indicators establish a connection between your current scorecard and an external data source. When that data source changes, the indicator changes, as well. In this way, SQL Indicators are similar to Imported Indicators. The difference is that an SQL Indicator does not get its data from another balanced scorecard. Instead, it uses an SQL Statement to query an external data source, like your company database, ERP system, or CRM system.
BSC Designer provides a wide range of visual cues to help you understand the current state of your Balanced Scorecard.
Learn more about managing stop lights and dynamic threshold in BSC Designer manual.
The Strategy Tree view includes stop lights and dynamic indicators to help you understand how the performance of your indicators has changed.
Stop Lights are small colored circles that show the current state of the indicator. Typically, stop lights will be green, yellow, or red, depending on whether the indicator’s value is good, marginal, or unacceptable.
Dynamic Indicators are arrows which show whether the indicator’s performance has improved, remained the same, or gotten worse since the last time point.
Application Options
Stop lights and dynamic indicator arrows are fully adjustable. To access these settings, just open the Tools menu and choose “Application Options.” Here, you can choose:
Which arrows to use, and which stop light colors to use.
What the threshold values should be—for instance, at what value a green light should become yellow or red.
Which view to use for your Strategy Tree: the Column Tree View, or the Simple Tree View. We recommend the Column Tree View, which presents your strategy tree as a simple table. You can hide any columns you don’t need. Just click on the header at the top of the table, and check off which columns you’d like to display.
Strategy Tree Reports
If you’d like to share your Strategy Tree with your colleagues, just open the Reports menu and choose “Tree Report.” BSC Designer will generate an HTML document with a graphical image of your Strategy Tree. Notice that the Reports menu also includes a wide variety of other useful reports, so you can review, analyze, and share your progress at each step of the Balanced Scorecard process.
The Balanced Scorecard is not a static document. It changes over time: the values of the indicators change, their weights change, the total performance of the scorecard changes. BSC Designer allows you to define time points to measure and manage these changes.
Each indicator on your scorecard has a current value. When you select an indicator on your Strategy Tree, its current value will be displayed in the Value field.
Each indicator on your scorecard has a current value. When you select an indicator on your Strategy Tree, its current value will be displayed in the Value field.
Indicators and Time Points
The value of an indicator is not fixed; it can and should change over time. Therefore, BSC Designer allows you to define not just one value for each indicator, but the value of the indicator on any particular date.
You can use the calendar in BSC Designer to track how these values change.
If a date appears on the calendar in boldface type, that means that at least one of your indicators, somewhere on your scorecard, has a specific value for that particular date.
If a date appears in normal type, then none of your indicators have special values for that date.
If a date appears on the calendar in boldface type, that means that at least one of your indicators, somewhere on your scorecard, has a specific value for that particular date.
You can also click on the calendar to see the value of a particular indicator on that date.
Exact Value
Last Known Value
No Known Value
If the indicator you chose has a specific value for the date you chose, the Value field appears in blue.
If this indicator does not have a specific value for the date you chose, BSC Designer will show you the last known value of the indicator. In this case, “Value” appears in gray.
If you have not defined any date-specific values for this indicator, “Value” will appear in black.
Changing an Indicator’s Value
There are several ways to change the value of an indicator on your Balanced Scorecard.
Enter the data manually. Just select the indicator, and enter its new value in the “Value” field.
Use the Value Editor. Open the Strategy Tree menu and select “Edit Values” to access the Value Editor. Here, you will see all of the time points you have defined, and all of the indicator’s settings for each one: its weight, min and max values, baseline and target values, and its current value. You can edit any of these values, or even Add or Delete new time points at the bottom.
BSC Designer provides all the features you need to manage the categories and indicators on your Balanced Scorecard.
Creating Categories and Indicators
To add a new category, just go to your Strategy Tree, select the root level of your Balanced Scorecard, and click on the “New Category” button on the toolbar.
To add a new category, just go to your Strategy Tree, select the root level of your Balanced Scorecard, and click on the “New Category” button on the toolbar.
To create a new sub-category, just go to your Strategy Tree, open one of the categories on your Balanced Scorecard, and click on the “New Category” button on the toolbar.
To create an indicator, open a category on your Strategy Tree, and click the “New Indicator” button.
To create an indicator, open a category on your Strategy Tree, and click the “New Indicator” button.
Remember:
You can add categories inside other categories, or on the root level of your Balanced Scorecard.
Indicators can only be placed inside categories.
Changing Categories and Indicators
It’s easy to move indicators and categories on your scorecard. Just use the up and down arrows on the toolbar, or drag and drop.
It’s easy to move indicators and categories on your scorecard. Just use the up and down arrows on the toolbar.
You can also cut, copy, and paste indicators and categories from one place to another in BSC Designer.
Copy As a Text
Need to copy an indicator or a category to another program, like your word processor? Just use our “Copy as a text” feature. The name, weight, and performance of your indicator will all be added to your clipboard as one block of text, which you can paste into any program you like.
Need to copy an indicator or a category to another program, like your word processor? Just use our “Copy as a text” feature.
Other Properties
Each indicator on a Balanced Scorecard also includes other details. Just click on indicator on your strategy tree, and you’ll see all of its properties:
Name. This is the name of you indicator, as it will appear on your strategy tree and all of your reports. Ideally, you should choose a descriptive name.
Weight. This is the weight of the indicator: its relative importance, compared to other indicators in the same category.
Description. Use this text field to explain what the indicator means, and how to measure it. Your employees should be able to clearly understand the method or algorithm to use to find the current value of the indicator.
Measure Units. Use this dropdown menu to choose the units you use when you measure this indicator.
You can choose a standard measurement unit from the list.
You can choose “Risk.” BSC Designer will automatically switch the optimization method to “Minimize” this risk, and it will also display the Risk diagram next to the indicator for this risk.
Or, you can define your own measurement unit. Just click on the last option on the list, “<new>,” and type in your measurement unit in the dialogue box.
Each indicator on a Balanced Scorecard also includes other details. Just click on indicator on your strategy tree, and you’ll see all of its properties
Target Description and Initiatives. These properties allow you to specify your action plan for the indicator. If your plan is simple enough, you can describe it briefly in the “Target Description” text box. For a more complex plan, choose “Initiatives,” and you can attach any documents you might need.
Target Description and Initiatives. These properties allow you to specify your action plan for the indicator.
BSC Designer shows relevant weights in KPI Tree using different icons.
Relative Weight in BSC Designer
Relative Weight – shows the importance of indicator in comparison to the importance of another indicators in the same category;
Change the weights of the item
Select any indicator or category. Find “Weight” field in item’s properties;
Change item's weight using weight field in item's properties
By default the maximum weight is 10, this value can also be adjusted. Select “Document Properties” command in File menu. Find “Max Weight” text box there:
The recommended value for the max weight is 10, but it can be changed if needed.
Absolute Weights in BSC Designer
Absolute Weight – takes into account the weight of indicators and weights of its parent categories, giving as a result the absolute value of the weight;
User can check absolute weights on the Weight Chart.
We find BSC designer a very ergonomic and intuitive tool. It quickly adapts to your way to carry out the information analysis. It is simple, fast and effective. It avoid using and maintaining home-made Excel sheets and produce professional results.
Emmanuel Jaunart, founder of Mielabelo
Strategy Maps
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