There’s a lot of hoopla in the industry today about dashboards, especially energy-related dashboards. While dashboards are ultimately the user interface into building and energy data, very little attention has been given to the quality and management of the data behind the dashboards.

Dashboards are somewhat like the cover of a book where the data is the book and the fundamental underpinning of the information provided to the user who’s looking at the cover. The best designed, most intuitive dashboards are trash if the dashboards utilize inaccurate or incomplete data.

Building system data must be viewed as an asset: It has value, is necessary for properly operating and maintaining the building and it must be managed and treated as such. The question is how do we get accurate, validated and well-organized data from our building systems that can be managed on an ongoing basis?

What follows are some of the issues we face in managing building systems data:

Lack of Planning

Most building operations do not have a data management plan. What passes for the “data management plan” consists of a database associated with their building management system (BMS). With that approach the information is limited to just those systems monitored or managed by BMS. In addition, the setup of the database, the naming conventions formats and structure is left to the BMS contractor with little input or none from the building owner. Furthermore, getting the data out of the BMS database oftentimes involves additional software or application programming interfaces (API) from the manufacturer, sometimes even multiple copies of the same software or APIs based on points limitations.

Comprehensive planning means you take a broader look at all the data and information required or desired in order to manage the building’s performance. Put it all in writing and the operations policy -- no more makeshift, improvised, make-it-up-as-you-go approaches. An investment of time at the start to properly develop a data plan will save time later.

Start the plan on a wide-ranging scope. Identify the data and information that different people or groups involved with the building’s performance need to perform their work. Of course, much of the data will be monitoring points on building systems, but some data may be needed that’s in business systems or other systems outside of facility management, or even outside the organization.

Identify where the data exists or how it will be generated and collected, how it will be accessed and estimate the scale or volume of data. Decide on a data format. Deal with the administrative aspects of the plan such as user access, dissemination of the data, how data will be integrated, how it will be archived, retention policies, how often the plan is reviewed, etc. Plan the organization of the data to assure the data is accurate and easily accessible.