For the MB2-713 Certification (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Sales) you will need to have an understanding of dashboards, in this post I will cover the main concepts that must be learnt whilst studying for MB2-713.

Dashboards are personalized pages. Just like your car dashboard they provide a snapshot of key information in an easy to access format. CRM dashboards typically include charts and list views but you can also add iframes and web resources.

In addition to simply viewing information it is also possible to interact with the information presented. For example, you can drill into charts on a dashboard in exactly the same way as you can from list views elsewhere in CRM.

As with charts there are two types of dashboards. System and personal.

Personal Dashboards

• All users can create personal dashboards
• Initially only the user creating the dashboard can see it
• Personal dashboards can be shared with other users and teams.
  • When sharing dashboards, it is important to ensure that all personal charts and views contained in the dashboard are also shared.

System Dashboards

• Out of the box various system dashboards exist by default.
• System dashboards can be created by people with the system customizer or system administration roles.
• System dashboards can be made available to all users or have access restricted based on security role.

As the image below shows, out of the box CRM ships with multiple system dashboards.

Having clicked on a chart on dashboards three icons become visible. These allow the chart to be refreshed, opened in a full view (showing related records) and expanded to fill the screen.

Creating Dashboards

Whilst creating a new dashboard the user can select one of 6 templates, as shown below.

Once the template has been selected you can add charts, views, ifames and web resources as required.

As you select to insert components a dialogs will prompt for the required details. As an example I have shown the dialog for adding a chart below.

Once the chart or view has been added to the dashboard you can then alter the layout to expand (or shrink) its height and width as required.

Sharing Dashboards

It is possible to share personal dashboards with other users and teams. Simply select the SHARE DASHBOARD option in the ribbon bar.

The sharing dialog will then appear. It is worth knowing that the process to share views (advanced finds) and charts is pretty much the same. Users and teams can be added and then you select the privileges as required. By default just the “Read” privilege is given but you can ass additional access permissions as required.

An important tip about sharing is that if you have added any personal charts or views to the dashboard you will need to also share each of those separately.

It is also important to be aware that the CRM roles apply. Sharing does not allow you to circumvent the CRM role based security model. When sharing dashboards, views and charts you are only sharing the view. You are not sharing access to the underlying data. For example: If you share a dashboard with a sales person that contains cases and they don’t have access to cases, they would not be able to view that section of the dashboard.

Important Note:
Since the addition of the Interactive Service hub additional types of dashboards are available. In the post below I describe the multi-stream and single-stream interactive dashboards. I doubt (although it is a guess) that questions will come up connected with the interactive service hub in the MB2-713 exam. (As it has a sales focus.) But I suggest you are at least aware of these additional dashboard types and their capabilities.

https://neilparkhurst.com/2016/02/20/mb2-714-microsoft-dynamics-crm-2016-customer-service-interactive-service-hub/

As with charts the best revision for dashboards, in my opinion, is to experiment with the capabilities hands on. The best revision is often simply to use the product!

Hopefully this post will have helped you understand the features you need to be aware of for the MB2-713 certification. J