YOUR OBJECTIVE COMES FIRST
Project cost and progress view
Make the number understandable before making it a dashboard.
Texas targets advanced manufacturing, energy, IT and AI, life sciences and professional services. A useful scoping example is field-to-office industrial service handoffs. Follow a site request, asset record and completed-work confirmation through the work with dispatch, field teams and operations management. A field update may arrive after the office has already assigned the next action. How will a late field update change the next office action without creating a duplicate task?
Texas Governor's Office: Target Industry Sectors ↗01Start with the decision the data supports
Identify the user, the question and the action the answer should inform. Agree the reporting period, relevant population and exclusions. A metric definition should make it possible for two reviewers to reach the same interpretation.
02Reconcile identity across the sources
Map customer, product, location or transaction identifiers and record where matches are uncertain. Review missing values and differing levels of detail. Do not hide a many-to-many relationship behind a join that changes the apparent total. Working example: A project identifier crosswalk and reporting calendar.
03Make transformation and timing visible
Document source ownership, cleaning rules, accepted late records and refresh cadence. Distinguish event dates from the time a source was updated. Users should know when a report is complete enough for the decision they want to make. For field-to-office industrial service handoffs, agree how dispatch, field teams and operations management contribute where those functions are involved.
04Give quality issues an owner
Set checks for required fields, duplicate keys and meaningful reconciliation totals. Show which inputs failed and who can correct them. Dashboards should expose material limitations instead of presenting uncertain records as equally reliable. Review check: The sponsor can distinguish reported spend from outstanding commitments.