The document discusses how to effectively communicate business data using graphs. It provides guidance on preparing graphs, including determining the data, dimensions, and consumers. It also discusses choosing the right graph type for the data, including line charts, bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, histograms, and other options. The document is presented as a slide deck covering preparation, choosing graphs, and mistakes to avoid.

1. MAKING GRAPHS SPEAK
Author : Raju Velayudhan
Coverage : How to use graphs to effectively communicate business data
No. of slides : 13 Content Slides + 1 TOC + 5 Title Slides
Contact : rajuvelayudhan@yahoo.com
Disclaimer :While care has been taken in the compilation of this presentation and every attempt made to present up-to-date and
accurate information, the author cannot guarantee that inaccuracies will not occur. The author shall not be held responsible for any
claim, loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any information within these pages/slides. Anybody acting based on the
information provided in these slides may do so at their own risk.
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

2. CONTENTS
1. Preparation – 3 slides
2. Choosing the right graph – 9 slides
3. Mistakes to avoid – 1 slide
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

3. 1 Preparation
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

4. WHAT: Decide what a. Data Series: the data series that you intend
to plot
exactly you intend to b. Dimensions and Filters: the dimensions
plot through which to view data and the filters
that can be applied on the plotted data
For eg. Sales Person wise, Region wise,
Product wise - Sales performance across
USA - for any given Date Period
HOW: Think the best a. Representation: which is the graph
(pie/line/radar) that is ideal
way to represent
b. Coordinates: what to plot in x-axis & y-axis,
and what is the scale of each axis
c. Aesthetics: which colors, how much
thickness, gradient, 3D/2D
d. Labeling: Data value label, Legends, other
labels
Slide -1 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

5. DATA & SOURCE: a. Master Data Management (MDM): where
there is multiple sources of master data
Determine the most then build logic to collect, transform (if
reliable source and the reqd) and clean data and link the same with
extraction strategy the transactional data
b. Extract Transform Load (ETL) : where data
is spread across various systems it is better
to resort to an ETL process before data is
used
c. Warehouse: where large volumes of data is
involved and if your requirement is to view
data from various dimensions then it is
better to warehouse the data and use
Online Analytical Processing a.k.a OLAP
d. Big Data: where extremely large amounts of
data is involved explore implementing Big
Data tools like Apache Hadoop
Slide - 2 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

6. CONSUMERS: Determine a. Access Rights: determine access rights at
report level and/or dimension level and/or
the reporting needs of
filter level. For eg. ‘Regional Sales
each levels of management Manager’ shall have access up to ‘last 3
years’ ‘Sales Performance data’ of his
‘Region’.
b. Frequency: determine how frequently users
might access each report based on which
data extraction routines shall be scheduled
TOOL: Choose the a. Cost Vs Benefit: while choosing the tool
remember that your ROI statement shall
tool which fits your justify the cost incurred
reporting requirement b. Dissemination: tool shall facilitate easy
dissemination of reports across various
levels of management
Slide - 3 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

7. 2 Choosing the right graph
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

8. • Indicates variation in a measure
LINE CHART: over a period of time
Denotes trend • Helps to easily identify the trend
• Time interval plotted in X axis and
over a time the measure plotted in Y axis. For
period eg. Sales over Months
• Indicates measures over a time
BAR CHART: period
Values over a • Similar in purpose like Line Chart
period but helps to quickly identify
relative difference between
measures and also the trend
PIE CHART: • Indicates the percentage of each
Share of a part part out of the total
• Helps to identify what part of the
over the whole total is a particular constituent. For
eg. share of individual products
out of the total
Slide - 4 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

9. • Indicates value of each item as
HORIZONTAL compared to others
BAR CHART: • If the values are sorted before mapping,
Denotes relative this chart helps to identify the ranking &
ranking between relative difference between the ranks.
For eg. employees in each department –
values depart in y axis and nos. in x axis
CLUSTERED BAR • Same as bar charts but a group of items
CHART: Depicts shown as clusters along with their values
• Helps to quickly identify the relative
performance of performance of items with in a group in
same group over a each of the clusters. For eg. sales of 3
period products across last 4 years – each bar
denoting one product with years in x axis
STACKED BAR • Each bar indicates the total value
CHART: Totals along with the share of the individual
constituents
with share of each • Helps to identify the relative
constituent contribution of each constituents
Slide -5 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

10. SCATTER • Helps to determine if there is any
CHART: Depicts correlation between two values.
Correlation could be positive or negative
correlation or none. Positive if one goes up the other
relationships goes up as well, Negative if one geos up
the other goes down. For eg. to see if
correlation exists between employee age
and employee attrition
• Helps to predict or to take proactive steps
foreseeing the future recurrence
BAR / LINE
• Plots the frequency of occurrence of a
HISTOGRAM: particular value or an interval
Depicts frequency • For eg. Number of employees in each
of each class salary bands. Continuous non-
overlapping salary bands forms x-axis and
and its distribution
the number of employees in each such
salary band forms the y-axis
Slide - 6 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

11. BIDIRECTIONAL
• Plots positive or negative deviation of
BAR CHART : value from a standard value. The
Depicts extend of extend of deviation becomes evident
deviation from the length of the bar
• For eg. deviation of actual from a
budgeted value. The Deviation
(difference between budgeted and
actual of each expense head) is
plotted as bars
BUBBLE CHART: • Beyond the X and Y coordinates of a
Depicts three data point, the third dimension is
represented in terms of size of the
dimensions of data bubble
in a two dimension • For eg. Stock Price Vs Performance
space YTD in % Vs Profit Margin in % of
various companies. The size of
bubble represents the Profit Margin
Slide - 7 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

12. • Represents extend of positive and
WATERFALL Expense negative impact of a set of
Revenue intermediary values on an initial
CHART: Depicts Profit
value. The initial and final values are
transition of an represented as whole bars and the
initial value to a intermediary values are shown as
floating bars
final value • For eg. main revenue, ancillary
revenues, direct and indirect
expenses and finally the net profit
RADAR CHART: Machine 1
• Used for simultaneous analysis of
more than one outcome variables
Charts more than
• Each spoke represents one of the
one outcome outcome variable
variables for • Each line represents one entity whose
simultaneous variables are charted and connected
across the spokes to form lines
analysis • For eg. RPM, Down time,
Utilization(%), Output etc of various
similar machines in a plant. Each
Machine 2 connected line representing one
machine
Slide - 8 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

13. • Plots various aspects of performance of
Medium a variable
GAUGES: • Pointer needle used to point to the
Safe
Depicts Danger current value. If there are two pointers
performance of a then second one can be used to point
to the previous period value. Pointers
variable can also be used to point to the
planned value and actual value.
• Frame portion of the gauge is used to
Prev Period Current mark the range of performance for eg.
Value Period Value Safe, Medium, Danger
• Used for plotting performance of KPIs
BULLET CHART: or to depict Progress
Depicts extend of
Below Avg Average Good
achievement of • Plots extend of achievement against the
target value along target value. Horizontal bar showing
actual achievement and the Vertical bar
with degree of depicting target value
performance • The qualitative ranges like Below Avg,
Avg, Good are shown as segments of
Achieved Target
varying colors
• Can also be an alternative for gauges
Slide - 9 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

14. • Plots fluctuations in value with
Highest in an unit time period (for eg,
CANDLE STICK with in a day or week). For eg.
Performance
CHART: Depicts fluctuations in exchange rate of
fluctuations in a Opening Closing a particular currency over a
Value Value
value week
• The bar represents the range
between opening and closing
values. The wicks (extensions)
are used to represent the
Closing Opening
Value Value
highest and lowest
performance
Lowest • The darker bars indicate that
Performance Closing was lower than
Closing < Closing > Opening. The white bars
Opening Opening indicate that Closing was
higher than the Opening
• No wicks if Highest and Lowest
performance is with in the
Opening and Closing range.
No Bars (but just a marking) if
No Wicks No Bar the Opening is equal to the
Closing.
Slide - 10 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

15. • Plots the spread of a batch of data using
BOX AND Max
five values - min, max, median, upper and
WHISKERS CHART: lower quartiles (a quartile is any one of the
Upper
Illustrates the quartile values which divide the data set into four
spread of a set of equal parts)
• Upper quartile - the median of the upper
data Median half of values in the data set
• Lower quartile – the median of the lower
Lower
quartile half of values in the data set
• For eg. Employee ages in each department.
One graph for each department
Min
• Frequently used in Sales to represent
FUNNEL GRAPH: 100% 200 progressive reduction of data as Selling
process passes from one phase to another
Shows progressive 80% • For eg. 80% of the ‘total contacts made’
160
reduction in value as has passed to Demo stage. 23% of the
business process 23%
46
‘total contacts made’ has passed to
passes from one Finalization stage. Other scenario where
this chart can be used is to depict
stage to another interview to selection process of
candidates
Slide - 11 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

16. PYRAMID CHART: • Plots performance of individual
Shows relative constituents in hierarchical order
• For eg. sales figures of individual sales
performance in a executive arranged with least performer
hierarchical manner on the top and best one as the bottom
most and rest in hierarchical order
between these two. Each sales person
represented as a segment
HEAT MAP
Mr.Z
51 37 13 • Matrix representation of
CHART: Depicts performance with color coding to
indicate category/range.
comparative
Mr.Y
33 07 11
• For eg. Sales Performance of Sales
performance Person by Month. Color coding to
Mr X
05 55 27 indicate level of performance
Jan Feb Mar
Good Performance
Avg Performance
Low Performance
Slide - 12 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

17. 3 Mistakes to avoid
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

18. • Use graphs only if it can more effectively and
ASPECTS NOT TO efficiently communicate what you intend to
IGNORE • When a simple tabular representation can serve the
purpose, avoid graphs which might require more
 Utility mental effort to interpret
 Aesthetics • Avoid using complicated graph when a simpler
alternative is available
 Simplicity
• Appropriately label graphs, coordinates and legends
 Informative but avoid crowding with too much information
• Use constant scale with equal increments on each
axis
• Avoid 3-D graphs to the extend possible since it can
sometimes distort important data
• Use visually appealing eye friendly background and
graph colors
• Costly tool always doesn’t mean the apt tool. Choose
the most cost effective tool and the one would serve
the intended purpose
Slide - 13 © 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan

19. THANK YOU !!!
© 2013-2014 Raju Velayudhan