the pie maker automating the fact book creation process david onder & alison joseph sair 2012 1

The Pie MakerAutomating the Fact Book Creation Process

David Onder & Alison Joseph

SAIR 2012

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• 9608 students• Master’s Comprehensive• Mountain location• Residential and Distance

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Why did we do this?

Old process• Access queries and SAS runs• Manual data entry and formatting in Excel

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Problems• Error prone• Long time to complete• Only one level of data

• Inconsistent formatting• Lack of SAS skills

How could we fix this?

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Push Pullvs

Cons• Lack of SAS skills• Not easily pushed to web

Cons• Pictures and column spacing• Timing issues

Pros• SAS is very powerful• Easy to create multiple levels of

reports

Pros• “Easy” to learn• Handled by entry level

position and students• Resists issues with staff

turnover

Gap Analysis

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Have• Access DBs per term• Existing Excel tables

and graphs• Desire to overlap with

other IR processes

Need• Combined Access DBs• Automated Excel tables

and graphs• Consistent, well-defined

format

General Approach

• Major revision to fact book look (see It’s Not About Pie…)

• Restructure existing Excel workbooks (standardized)

• Modify existing sheet as Report sheet (based on Process)

• Build Data sheet• Build Process sheet based on Data (calculations here)

• Build Access queries• Connect Excel Data sheet to Access query• Build Factbook using Adobe InDesign

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Inspiration

Chart Junk and Graph Formatting• Edward Tufte• Stephen Few• Juice Analytics

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Formulas and Complex Graphs• Chandoo• Jon Peltier• Others

General layout and look and feel

Major Fact Book Revision

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Build New Pages

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Data Tab

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Process Tab

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Formulas

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• SUMIFS• COUNTIFS• AVERAGEIFS• VLOOKUP• SUMPRODUCT• INDEX and OFFSET

Report Tab

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Access DB

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Excel Connection to Access DB

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Resources

• Edward Tufte (http://www.edwardtufte.com/) – The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2001

• Stephen Few (http://www.perceptualedge.com/)– Show Me the Numbers, 2004– Information Dashboard Design, 2006– Now you see it, 2009

• http://www.extremepresentation.com/design/charts/ • http://www.juiceanalytics.com/chart-chooser/ • Purna Duggirala (http://chandoo.org/wp/ ) – Excel help• Jon Peltier (http://peltiertech.com) – Excel templates

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Contact InformationDavid Onder, Director of Assessmentdmonder@wcu.edu

Alison Joseph, Business and Technology Applications Analyst ajoseph@wcu.edu

Office of Institutional Planning and Effectivenessopie.wcu.edu, (828) 227-7239

Special thanks to Billy Hutchings (OIPE), Stephanie Virgo (former WCU employee) and John Bradsher (student employee)

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