6: Visualization

Consider the world of the manager. There are a thousand pieces of information and a thousand people vying for the attention of the manager. Management does not have the time to sift through massive amounts of complexity and detail. Visualization allows the manager to cover wide amounts of informational territory in a single glance. As such, visualization allows management to optimize their precious time.

Through visualization, management greatly reduces the amount of time needed to understand the vital numbers that are used to run the organization. While surveying wide amounts of information is the first job of management, occasionally it is necessary to drill down and find the needle in the haystack. Often, visualizations focus on summary data typically over a long period of time. By looking at summary data over a long period of time, management may be able to quickly and easily spot where the needles in the haystack are hiding. Fig 6.1 shows that visualization...