A few months ago, while doing the research for the most recent edition of our performance spreadsheets, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. If I searched for "performance testing", or "performance reporting" or anything like that, I came up with a lot of LoadRunner graphs or perfmon graphs, or things that looked a whole lot like them. The problem is that I was looking for a better, clearer way to communicate the information. LR graphs have their place, and can be useful. But, clear, concise communication is not their forte.
On the other hand, if I followed the links for things like "business intelligence", or even better "visual business intelligence", I struck gold. Yeah, I'm a geek. I not only admit it, I'm right proud of it. "Business Intelligence" was not the first place I'd've thought to look for information on how to better present technical data. It just didn't occur to me. But, let me pass on a quote from Perceptual Edge:
We are overwhelmed by information, not because there is too much, but because we don't know how to tame it. Information lies stagnant in rapidly expanding pools as our ability to collect and warehouse it increases, but our ability to make sense of and communicate it remains inert, largely without notice.
Computers speed the process of information handling, but they don't tell us what the information means or how to communicate its meaning to decision makers. These skills are not intuitive; they rely largely on analysis and presentation skills that must be learned.
Sound familiar? It sounded to me a whole lot like reporting on a performance test – great rivers of data, and no paddle in sight. It got me hooked. I've been tracking some of the material in this area for a while now, looking for tidbits to help communicate the things that we see. This week I noticed an article from Stephen Few on what he calls "Statistical Narrative" – that is, communicating the important parts of a whole lot of data by means of a story.
I was going to quote a few bits here, and add a few comments – the usual sort of blog activity. But, the more I started working on it, the more I realized that there really wasn't anything there to pare down. So, instead, I present the link. If you want a few pointers on better presentations and better ways to communicate what we need to communicate, this is the paper to download.
If you check it out, let me know what you think.
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