The Pie Maker Automating the Fact Book Creation Process David Onder & Alison Joseph SAIR 2012 1
Dec 18, 2015
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 [email protected]
Alison Joseph, Business and Technology Applications Analyst [email protected]
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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