Description
Key Learnings
- Learn how to establish key metrics needed for a service at project startup.
- Discover the importance of table relationship workflows.
- Learn how to efficiently design visually appealing dashboards.
Speakers
- Joe FieldsI help people better understand and utilize their data using various Business Intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI. My primary role is managing the Business Intelligence integrations for Autodesk Construction Cloud where my team builds custom connectors for Power BI as well as Power BI templates that customers can use to quickly get up and running with visualizing their data. My team also provides 1:1 consulting with customers to help them build customized dashboards to help them track important metrics to keep tabs on their projects and users. I am passionate about working with data and helping others better understand their data through visualizations. Prior to Autodesk I worked as a Mechanical Engineer for 14 years designing HVAC and mechanical piping systems for a variety of different projects.
- Dariusz KiszkaDariusz Kiszka is a Senior Partner Consulting Manager specializing in training Partners on Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) products. With 10 years of industry experience, he has a strong background in customer training and has held roles as a Senior Implementation Consultant and Senior EP Technical Support. Dariusz brings valuable experience as a Structural Engineer and is dedicated to helping partners succeed in utilizing ACC products effectively.
JOE FIELDS: Hello, and welcome to Project Kickoff Done right with Power BI Dashboards and Autodesk Construction Cloud. This is session CS 4317. And now I have to show our safe harbor statement. This is just in case if we make any future-looking statements, just to make sure that you don't make any buying decisions based on those statements.
And now we'll go through our session agenda. So we'll start off with some introductions. And then we'll go through a case study, walking you through a workflow to help you build out your dashboard and make it successful and maintainable. And then we'll jump to some dashboard examples. And we'll wrap up with some concluding remarks.
And now let's meet our presenters. So my name is Joe Fields. I'm a manager of business intelligence and reporting at Autodesk. The last few years I've spent working with customers, helping them better understand their data, and building out custom dashboards for them as well as helping them with building out Power BI templates and our Power BI connectors that we provide to customers. And I'll pass it over to William.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: Thanks, Joe. Hi, everyone. My name is William Fiallos, and I'm a business intelligence solutions engineer here at Autodesk based in Munich, Germany. My background is construction management, where I gained hands-on experiences working at large GC firms for about 12 years in sectors like casino, gaming, aviation, health care, and residential. I also have about four years professional experience in software development and business intelligence, working for small and large software companies. Now I'm handing it over to Dariusz.
DARIUSZ KISZKA: Thank you, William. Welcome, everyone. My name is Dariusz Kiszka. I'm a senior partner consulting manager based in Barcelona. I have over nine years of experience with ACC Collection and Construction Cloud products like Revit, Robot, AutoCAD, Revit Cloud Work Sharing, BIM 360 platform, and ACC platform. Previously, I've been working as a structural engineer in several countries across Europe, mainly UK, Portugal, and Spain. My current role is to assist Autodesk partners in providing best-in-class consulting services.
JOE FIELDS: OK, and now we'll jump through and go through our case study. First, let's start by walking through some key stages of success when building dashboards. Not every stage is required depending on your experience level and situation. These stages are meant to help you think through what you want to see on the dashboard. Verify what data you can pull, as well as think through how to maintain your dashboard for long-term success.
In stage 1, this is our explorer stage. This is where we'll go through the discovery process and speak with stakeholders about their wants and needs and help them scope out the constraints of the dashboard. In this stage, we'd want to define any critical versus optional metrics. There may be some things that you would like to have that you want to put on the list, and you may find that those items might be attainable. We also want to go through our data sources and talk about what we want to connect to and talk about any data quality concerns.
In stage 2, this is the confirm stage. This is where we'll validate the process to ensure data completeness. We'll look for accuracy and review any security and compliance settings. Stage 3 is the connect stage. This is where we'll actually start building out our dashboard. This is where we establish our data connections. We'll define any relationships and go through the schema strategies. We'll also review the cardinality and filter directions and resolve any relationship conflicts.
In stage 4, this is our visualization stage. This is where the dashboard starts to take shape. In this stage, we'll start applying the data visualizations. In some cases, these visualizations we've defined in the explore stage. We'll look at our security credentials or who has access to the dashboard. We'll also set up our navigation for the different users of this dashboard. In this stage, we also will apply intuitive filtering and various visualization options.
In stage 5, this is the maintain stage. This is where we will define the data refresh as well as the ownership and who is going to handle changes along the way. In this stage, we also want to look at historical data storage and think about any data governance, like privacy or security concerns. And with that, I'll hand it over to Dariusz to go through our stage 1.
DARIUSZ KISZKA: The initial phase of the dashboard-building process is a discovery session. It is crucial to involve the appropriate stakeholders to ensure comprehensive information gathering, which will provide valuable insight into the needs and requirements of each participant. We recommend beginning with the high-level overview of the objectives, scope, and constraints. This approach will help clearly define the project limitations and timeline and establish the realistic expectation for the implementation process.
Additionally, it is essential to distinguish between key metrics and optional metrics, identifying the must-have data visualizations versus those that are nice to have. A critical aspect for this stage is assessing the data availability. We need to determine whether the team will rely exclusively on ACC extraction or if there are other data sources to consider. To facilitate this process, I would like to demonstrate an example of the interactive part where different stakeholders can input this information during the remote call. Let's review the example of the Mural board used in the remote session, which is divided into two main sections-- discovery and planning.
First, let's go over the meeting agenda, which includes the introduction, the main objectives, discovery section, planning section, Q&A, and defining the next steps. In the discovery section, we will track the key objectives based on client example to identify needs including safety issue tracking to understand the specific safety and matrix and reporting requirements, equipment commissioning tracking to detail the process and the data needed for monitoring equipment, commissioning, RFI and submittal executive overview, identify the key information required for request for information and submittals at the executive level, and finally, the user access validation tool to determine the user access level across multiple ACC projects.
Next, we will dive into the specifics of currently utilized tracking forms, define the detailed requirements for the dashboards, and identify the target audience for each dashboard. We will engage the coders through the targeted questioning to uncover the hidden needs and pain points. This will help us to define the precise data visualizations and functionalities required for each dashboard.
Additionally, we will identify the primary users of each dashboard and the specific needs to ensure the final product is tailored to its intended audience. It is good practice to include previously used forms and spreadsheets to understand the layout and filters that project members are accustomed to. Here we discuss with the stakeholders any preferences or requirements for maintaining certain elements in the new design.
In the planning stage, it is essential to process the collected information and prioritize the task accordingly. During the detailed information scoping, we will gather the requirements for each dashboard, categorizing them into must-have metrics highlighted with a border and optional metrics. Once we have thoroughly scoped the detailed information, we can prioritize the implementation process using a bull-eye diagram. The inner circle represents the most urgent dashboards, while the outer circles will denote those with lesser urgency.
As an outcome of the discovery session, we will establish a comprehensive implementation plan by dividing tasks into weekly sprints. In this example, the first four weeks will focus on addressing each specific objective. At the conclusion of this period, we will hold a final Q&A session and the closeout call to ensure all objectives have been met and address any remaining questions.
Each week, you can distribute the work into configuration, validation calls, dashboard improvements, and training sessions. Below you will find the example agenda for the validation call where we can verify if any further amendments are required or if we can proceed to the next objective. Once all of the stakeholders are aligned with the implementation plan, we can progress to the next stage. And with that, I will hand over to William.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: Thanks, Dariusz. In the confirm stage, we can talk about some of the key features of our Power BI dashboard that ensure the quality and security of our data. Those are data completeness, data accuracy, security and compliance, and source verification. First, let's talk about data completeness. In any analysis, it's crucial that all the necessary data is included, and our Power BI dashboard helps us monitor this by visually highlighting missing or incomplete data points. This ensures that our reports are based on a full set of information providing comprehensive insights for decision-making.
Next, we move on to data accuracy. Accurate data is a foundation of reliable reporting. Our dashboard employs automated validation rules to flag any discrepancies or anomalies in the data. This process helps ensure that the data presented aligns with the reality of the business and reduces the risk of misleading interpretations. Now, let's focus on security and compliance.
With increasing regulations, maintaining data privacy and security is essential. Our Power BI dashboard is designed with robust access controls, ensuring that only authorized personnel can view or manipulate sensitive data. Finally, we have source verification. It's essential to ensure the data we use comes from reliable and trusted sources, such as our Data Connector. Our dashboard includes functionality to track data origins, helping us validate and authenticate data before it's used in reports. This step is vital to ensuring that the information driving our decision is accurate and verifiable.
To sum up, our Power BI dashboard templates are not just a reporting tool. It's a comprehensive system designed to ensure that our data is complete, accurate, secure, and verifiable. By maintaining these standards, we can confidently rely on the insights we derive for strategic business decisions. Here is a demo video to walk you through on how to get to the data connector, run extractions, and find the data schemas.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- In this video, you will learn how to access the Schemas folder in Data Connector. You can access the Schemas folder in the Data Connector at the account level or at the project level. Click on the Product Picker in Account Admin or Project Admin and select the Insight Module. In the Insight Module, on the bottom left corner, click on Data Connector. In the Data Connector window, click on Run Extraction.
On the right-hand side, you will be prompted to select the services for extraction and include activity data. For activity data, you can select the options between the past date or provide a custom range. Please note, range cannot exceed 31 days and is limited to the last 12 months. Then click Run.
Once after the extraction has successfully been processed and completed, download the extraction on the far right-hand side under the Download column. Open the zip file. In the Autodesk Data Extract folder, you will have all the service tables in CSV format as well as the Schemas folder. Open the Schemas folder.
You will have each service in two formats, which are JSON and HTML. Open the HTML file of any service, and it will open in your web browser. Here, you will see the service table schema description. Each table will give you a description and instructions on how to relate the tables with each other. Thank you for watching.
[END PLAYBACK]
WILLIAM FIALLOS: In the connect stage, we're going to delve into four essential aspects of working with Power BI-- schema strategies, cardinality, filter directions, and relationship conflicts. These elements are critical for optimizing the way we structure and manage our data in Power BI. First, let's talk about schema strategies. Power BI offers two main schema models-- the star schema and the snowflake schema.
The star schema is simple and easy to use, with fact tables connected to dimension tables, making it ideal for performance. Meanwhile, the snowflake schema normalizes dimension tables into subdimensions, which can help the data management but may be more complex. Selecting the right schema strategy for your data ensures efficiency and clarity in reporting.
Next, we have cardinality. Cardinality defines the type of relationship between tables, such as a one to one, on to many, or many to many. For example, one-to-many relationships are most common in Power BI, where one record in a table corresponds to multiple records in another. Understanding and configuring the cardinality correctly ensures your data behaves as expected during analysis.
Now, let's move to filter directions. Power BI allows us to define relationships using single or bidirectional filters. A single-direction filter means data flows from one table to another, while a bidirectional filter allows data to flow both ways. While bidirectional filters can offer flexibility in complex reports, they should be used carefully as they may impact performance and lead to ambiguous filtering results.
Finally, we have relationship conflicts. These occur when Power BI encounters multiple active relationships between tables or when relationships create ambiguous paths for filtering. To resolve conflicts, it's essential to deactivate unnecessary relationships and ensure that only one relationship is set as active. This avoids confusion in data models and ensures accurate reporting.
Understanding and applying these core concepts help us build more efficient, accurate, and reliable Power BI dashboards. By mastering these elements, we can better optimize our data models for powerful and insightful reporting. Now let's see these concepts in a pre-recorded video.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- In this video, you will learn how to create table relationships, choose a cardinality type, and filter directions in Power BI. In Power BI, click on the Model View button on the left side pane. You can create different tabs on the bottom to separate table relationships by service. Drag the tables needed to create a relationship between them to the main window.
They can drag a field that represents a foreign key between the tables. Verify these are the correct columns, then select the cardinality between many to one, on to one, one to many, or many to many. Then select the cross-filter direction between single or both. Then click Save. The tables now have a one-to-many table relationship between them. Thank you for watching.
[END PLAYBACK]
WILLIAM FIALLOS: I will now pass it over to Joe.
JOE FIELDS: In stage 4, this is where we will go through visualizations. First thing we want to think about is, how do we want the end user to browse between different dashboard pages? We can use buttons, bookmarks, or just simply let them click between the tabs for navigation. Next, the visualization options-- this is where we begin laying out our visuals that we want to display on each dashboard.
We can pick from a variety of different visual types, like bar and line charts, pie or donut charts, maybe a gauge visual or two. We can also use the card table or a matrix visual to display simple data points. Having a good plan for your dashboard organization, like how you want to group the visuals based on the end users' or stakeholders' needs, is also important to consider here.
For the filters-- or slicers in the Power BI terminology-- how do we want end users to filter the data displayed on the dashboard to get the data they need? We can use report or page-level filters, or we can add slicers directly to the dashboard to make things more dynamic and engaging for the users. Some visuals also allow you to select data within the visual to filter the data in other visuals.
Lastly, the credentials-- who can access the dashboard and what information can they see is important to think about here. We can employ different techniques to restrict the data each user sees on the dashboard through report or page-level filters. Or we can also use role-level security rules, which restrict data based on customized rules and user-defined roles. And now for a quick video to walk through the different visualization options.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- In this video, you will learn between the various visual types and how to navigate between pages in a dashboard. In Power BI, you can select among the many visuals that are available to display data. These can be found in the Visualization pane on the far right side. The most common ones are bar charts, such as stacked bar chart, stacked column chart, clustered bar chart, clustered column chart, 100% stacked bar chart, 100% stacked column chart, line and area charts, stacked area chart, 100% stacked area chart, pie charts, donut charts, gauge, card, slicer, table, and matrix.
On the left-hand side are slicers and cards. In the middle is an area chart, a bar chart, and a table. On the right-hand side is a donut chart, a bar chart, and a tree map. On the upper-right corner is a Navigation button. When selecting a Navigation button, you can choose what action you want it to make, like Back, Bookmark, Drill Through, Page Navigation, Q&A, Web URL, Apply All Slicers, Clear All Slicers.
On the bottom of the dashboard is a Page Navigation button. To add one on the Insert tab, select Buttons, Navigator, Page Navigator. When you select the Page Navigator option, Power BI automatically creates a page navigator for you. The page navigator is automatically in sync with your report pages, meaning the titles of the buttons match the page display names. The ordering of the buttons matches the order of your report pages. The selected button is the current page. The navigator updates automatically as you add or remove pages in your report, and the titles of the buttons update automatically as you rename pages.
When you edit a report in Power BI, you can add bookmarks to capture the current state of a report page. Bookmarks save the current filters and slicers, cross-highlighted visuals, sort order, and so on. Configure a report page as you want it to appear in the bookmark. After your report page and visuals are arranged how you want them, select Add from the Bookmarks pane to add a bookmark. After you create a bookmark, display it by selecting it in the Bookmarks pane. Once you've created your bookmarks, select the Bookmark Navigator option. As shown on the left-hand side, Power BI automatically creates a bookmark navigator for you. Thank you for watching.
[END PLAYBACK]
JOE FIELDS: And lastly, in stage 5, this is our maintenance stage. As I mentioned earlier, the last stage is often overlooked, but can be one of the most important for long-term success. In the maintain stage, you want to think about how often the data needs to be refreshed. It's also important in this stage to think about who is responsible for fixing things if the refresh fails or changes occur. We also want to think about, how long do we need to store this data historically? And also, are there any privacy or security concerns in handling the data and the dashboards?
Lastly, you may also want to think about how you can make it easier for users to quickly access the dashboard without leaving Autodesk Construction Cloud. This can help ensure the dashboards are continuing to be utilized by the project stakeholders and other project teams. You can embed Power BI dashboards within Insight at both the project or account level using the Power BI partner card. Users still need access to the Power BI dashboard from within the Power BI web service, but this also provides an additional layer of security, ensuring only the authorized users can see the data within the dashboard. And now I'll pass it over to Dariusz to go through our examples.
DARIUSZ KISZKA: Thank you, Joe. We went through the efficient process of creating a Power BI dashboard. Now let's switch gears, and we would like to show you a couple of examples to inspire you with possibilities for different services available in Autodesk Construction Cloud. The first dashboard is connected to the Autodesk Docs interface. In this scenario, the client was looking for the interactive dashboard that consolidates information on documents, reviews, and transmittals.
This integration is designed to facilitate the tracking of delivered documentation against the outstanding work, providing a comprehensive overview of the project progress. The specifics of this dashboard data set were presented in a separate AU class session. Now let's turn our attention to the user experience.
The main table in the dashboard displays all documents stored in the shared folder. Each document adheres with the standardization naming convention and includes the health status indicator to see what is the current status of the document. This table also provides the essential metadata, such as stage, status, and revision, ensuring that all relevant information is accessible easily.
Additionally, the document controller can navigate directly to the ACS environment by selecting the hyperlink, streaming the workflow. A critical aspect of this dashboard is its connection to the current approval status and whether the transmittal has been sent out. Once the document is approved and copied to the publish container, users can also review its delivery date, ensuring the transparency and accountability in the document management.
By selecting each document, users can navigate to the reviews table via the hyperlink connected to the review ID, allowing the easy navigation back to the ACC project. For documents undergoing a pending review process, the table on the bottom left corner provides the clear and concise overview of the status. Additionally, the dashboard features the charts that categorize documents by discipline. Here we have the architectural, structural, and mechanical disciplines, allowing for more organized and focused review.
Another chart illustrates the document health categorized as follows-- green, more than seven days until the due date; yellow, less than seven days until the due date; and red, representing the overdue items. These visuals help to provide a quick and intuitive understanding of the project overall health and progress. As an outcome, having a dashboard that integrates documents, reviews, and transmittals significantly enhances the schedule control and resource planning.
It provides valuable insight into the approval workflow progress, ensuring that the documentation is delivered on time and that the transmittals are sent to the relevant stakeholders. This integration not only improves the efficiency but also supports better decision-making by providing a clear and comprehensive view of all project-related documentation. Now I will hand over to William to go through the next example.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: Thanks, Dariusz. The second example is an equipment tracking dashboard. The client requests it to track the assets--
AUDIENCE: Hey, William, my apologies. We're seeing the Zoom controls at the top and some other desktop stuff.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: How about now?
AUDIENCE: No. OK, I'll mute and just recount in.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: Is it good now, though?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: OK, cool. All right, 3, 2, 1. Thanks, Dariusz. The second example is an equipment tracking dashboard. The client requested to track the assets and linked forms for commissioning stage. Both tools are embedded in Autodesk Build service. If we zoom in on the right-hand side of the dashboard, we can see the overall progress of the electrical commissioning stage that is complete or outstanding. It is also separated by different building unit locations. That leads into the effective asset management and improved planning for next steps.
On the left-hand side of the dashboard, there is the asset list, which contains information on the category, asset ID, status, status dispute, and date dispute. Some conditions are also applied to this table. For example, if the dispute form is attached, then you have the status dispute. If there is an in-dispute form attached, then you have the link. On the bottom of the dashboard are the construction and commissioning tag labels. In summary, this dashboard provided effective asset management and improved plan to actual ratio. I will now pass it back to Joe.
JOE FIELDS: Thanks, William. And now I'll go through a cost management example. In this example, the customer wanted to utilize the cost information to provide a detailed breakdown on the selected project of the profit and loss. This dashboard utilized the actual costs incurred on a project, repay apps, and expenses to compare against their projected budget values. In this case, since budget codes can be custom and unique to each customer, we had to aggregate the data based on the customer's cost types and their standard budget code structure.
We were able to provide a summary of the breakdown and costs by cost type. We also were able to provide this in several different forms to convey different types of information. If we zoom in here on the bottom left-hand corner, the actual cost versus projected budget bar chart provides a quick visual of how much work has been billed out by cost type and if any overruns have occurred. The middle table visual provides a summary of the actual costs by the cost type. And the donut chart on the bottom right gives an idea of the proportions of the total cost by cost type.
Across the top, users can see a quick glance of the current income, what has been billed to date, current costs incurred, and then the profit shown both in the amount and percentage. This dashboard provided the customer with better visibility and awareness of costs to help them better track their project financials. And now I'll hand it over to Dariusz.
DARIUSZ KISZKA: Thanks, Joe. The final dashboard example in today's session is integrated with model coordination and clash detection capabilities available in BIM Collab product. One of the challenges in the model coordination is maintaining a comprehensive overview of clash analysis connected to the 3D model viewer. This integration ensures that the model coordinator has a detailed view of both resolved issues and outstanding items, promoting efficient project management and collaboration.
When the users navigate to the dashboard, they begin by selecting the coordination space. This selection sets the context for the clash analysis. Next, they can choose the Save View from the dropdown list, which allows them to filter and focus on specific 3D model. Once the view is selected, the users can navigate to the 3D model to review the clash visually. The Issue table within the dashboard represents the detected clashes in a form of the list. By selecting the item from this table, user can gain the detailed overview of the specific clash within the 3D viewer, including the properties and context.
Additionally, the photo generated based on the clash assignment is displayed to the right of the table, offering a visual help. On the left-hand side, a detailed issue information is provided, such as Title, Description, Status, Start Date, and the person assigned to the task. Each issue ID includes a direct hyperlink allowing users to navigate back to the ACC issues interface for deeper investigation.
To provide a more detailed insight into issue distribution, the dashboard features a bar chart that displays items assigned to the specific companies. And responsible for the most-- the visualization helps to identify which companies are responsible for the most significant number of issues, facilitating accountability and targeted problem-solving. Below this chart, another visualization categorizes items based on the status, allowing users to quickly assess the overall health of the project.
The top right corner of the dashboard offers a summary showing the number of items that are currently open and healthy and those that are overdue and also the items that have been resolved and closed. Furthermore, the dashboard supports effective communication and collaboration among the team members. By providing a centralized view of all relevant data and integrating with the 3D Forge Viewer, the dashboard ensures that all stakeholders have access to the same information, reducing the potential misunderstanding and errors.
The dashboard provides a comprehensive and integrated view of clashes per model by combining the 2D experience with the 3D Forge Viewer. This integration leads to effective clash control and improved resource planning. It serves a powerful tool during the review sessions, facilitating the assessment of outstanding work distribution during the spring meetings. By enabling the detailed tracking of clashes and providing actionable insights, the dashboard enhances the overview of project efficiency and supports timely decision-making. Now I will hand over to Joe.
JOE FIELDS: To summarize our session, first we hope you have a better understanding of the execution process. Hopefully, this session has given you insight into how to transition from the initial planning stages to project execution, some best practices to focus on, and methodologies for effective dashboard management. Number two, we hope you gained some inspiration through these real-world examples. Intent is to share a few ideas of how other customers are leveraging their data in different ways.
However, each situation can be unique and different. The great thing is the tools we have available are more powerful than ever and provide lots of flexibility to quickly adjust to changes as you go on your data journey. And lastly, we hope you learned a little bit about data interoperability and its importance. As you go through this exercise, you might develop new ideas for additional dashboards you want to make, as well as other systems you can pull data from to help yourself and others within your organization.
This is an iterative process, and there are more and more tools available to help streamline and enhance this workflow to make things go more smoothly. We hope this presentation has taught you something new, but also that it has opened your eyes to a new world of possibilities with providing valuable insights to you and your organization. And now I'll hand it over to William to go through some helpful links.
WILLIAM FIALLOS: Thanks, Joe. Here's a list of helpful resources available during your dashboard-building process. Connecting ACC to Power BI, Power BI Templates, 3D Visualization Integration Card, Data Connector Help Page, Power BI DAX Formulas, and APS Documentation. These links and dashboard examples will be available to all participants in attendance at AU.