Pretty Charts: Why Hichert’s Principles Still Matter in Modern BI

Pretty Isn’t the Same as Clear

Dashboards often get overloaded with:
• Too many KPIs squeezed into one view.
• Rainbow-colored charts with no consistent meaning.
• Fancy visualizations that impress analysts but confuse decision-makers.

The result? Meetings where teams spend 15 minutes debating what the chart means instead of deciding what to do.

What Hichert Got Right

Rolf Hichert, a German professor and consultant, saw this problem long before BI tools became mainstream. He developed the International Business Communication Standards (IBCS) to bring order to financial and management reporting.

His core idea was simple but powerful: just as engineers follow drawing conventions, business reports and dashboards should follow visual conventions, so numbers are instantly understandable, regardless of who creates or reads them.

IBCS doesn’t aim to make dashboards “beautiful.”
It makes them comparable, consistent, and decision-ready.

Some examples:
1. Scenario coding:
ACT (actuals) as solid bars, PLAN (plan) as outlines, FCST (forecast) as hatched → instantly comparable.
2. Variance charts:
Waterfall layouts that explain why numbers moved, not just that they did.
3. Semantic colors:
Green always = good, red = bad, gray = neutral. No more rainbow chaos.

Business impact:
When teams adopt these standards, meetings change. Instead of arguing over formatting, people immediately recognize patterns and focus on decisions.

The Modern Twist: 2025 and Beyond

Today, dashboards aren’t just static bar charts. They areinteractive, AI-enriched, and deeply connected to platforms like MicrosoftFabric, Databricks, and Qlik Sense for lineage and governance.

But here’s the catch:
If the foundation isn’t clean and consistent, AI just automates confusion.

That’s why Hichert’s principles are not outdated — they’re the baseline.
Once dashboards are standardized and trusted, modern BI layers add real value:
• AI-driven anomaly detection highlights risks faster.
• Drill-downs connect summary KPIs to operational detail.
• Lineage integration makes every KPI explainable and auditable.

What BI Leaders Should Do Now

1. Audit dashboards
   → Strip away clutter and enforce consistency.
2. Apply IBCS basics
   → Scenario coding, semantic colors, variance charts.
3. Educate stakeholders
   → Explain why clean > fancy; adoption depends on trust.
4. Layer modern features
   → Only once the baseline is clear, add AI forecasting, anomaly alerts, or NLP interfaces.

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t the first time standards have been questioned.

Think of ITIL, the service management framework that shaped IT operations for decades. Critics argued it was too rigid, too bureaucratic. And yet, its principles of structured processes, accountability, and service orientation remain foundational.

It’s the same with Hichert’s IBCS. On their own, they may feel prescriptive. But when adapted to today’s BI, integrated with interactive dashboards, AI insights, and data lineage, the standards don’t hold you back. They provide a baseline of clarity on which modern innovation can build.

Trends in BI will continue to change, from dashboards to self-service to AI-driven insights.
But one truth remains: clarity beats complexity.

Or, as our designers would say: form follows function.