Dashboards Do Not Own The Truth
I keep seeing versions of the same problem show up in different builds.
People build a dashboard, summary, index, or UI over their wrkspace, then slowly that surface starts acting like the source of truth.
That is where data gets tangled.
A dashboard can show project status, open tasks, metrics, evidence, decisions, and alerts in one place. Useful... but the dashboard should not quietly become the place where all of those things are edited, approved, or redefined.
  • The project still owns the project.
  • The task still owns the current work.
  • The metric still owns the definition.
  • The source system still owns the row.
  • The dashboard is a view across those owners.
One mistake I have made before is letting the convenient view become the authority because it was the easiest place to look. Then the source file says one thing, the summary says another, and the agent has to guess which one wins.
Clean rule I am trying to follow going forward:
"Views can display truth, but they should not silently become truth."
Curious how others are handling this. If you are building a UI over your folders, what is the actual source of truth behind the screen?
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Aaron Kruger
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Dashboards Do Not Own The Truth
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