{"id":1373,"slug":"rule-budget-20-30pct-annual-maintenance-from-day-one","title":"R4 — Budget 20-30% of build effort annually for maintenance from day one; assign a metric-definitions owner; audit quarterly and archive any dashboard unopened in 30+ days","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","data-pipeline-maintenance","dashboards","embedded-analytics"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** Every dashboard build must include **maintenance budget = 20-30% of build effort annually** ([[custom-embedded-3-year-tco-300-630k-vendor]], [[dashboard-rot-schema-drift-maintenance]]). Assign a **metric-definitions owner**. Audit quarterly and **archive any dashboard unopened in 30+ days**.\n\nReconsider-the-approach benchmark: **if adoption of an internal dashboard sits below ~25-30% of intended users after 90 days**, the problem is workflow fit or trust, not features — fix those before adding anything.\n\n**Why:** Adoption stagnation ([[barc-eckerson-25pct-bi-adoption-2022]], [[gartner-30pct-bi-adoption]]) is the cumulative effect of un-maintained, un-audited dashboards. Schema drift propagates the moment a vendor changes a column. Same lesson as portal brief's [[rule-treat-data-custody-as-line-item]] and data-tools brief's [[rule-budget-for-pipeline-maintenance-from-day-one]].\n\n**How to apply:**\n- Quarterly dashboard audit: list every dashboard, last-opened date, metric-owner.\n- Dashboards unopened in 30+ days are archived (not deleted — archived) so the maintenance load shrinks naturally.\n- Below-threshold adoption triggers a workflow-fit / trust audit before any feature work.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"rule-commit-to-input-refresh-or-dont-ship","title":"R4 — Commit to a documented input-refresh schedule before shipping any customer-facing calculator; if you won't, don't ship it","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-budget-for-pipeline-maintenance-from-day-one","title":"R5 — Budget for pipeline maintenance from day one; if the client can't commit to upkeep, rent the managed version instead of building one","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-treat-data-custody-as-line-item","title":"R4 — Treat data custody as a project line item, not a footnote: PIPEDA consent + MFA + encryption + breach response plan + 24-month breach records all live in scope before launch","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"barc-eckerson-25pct-bi-adoption-2022","title":"BARC / Eckerson Group (March 2022, 214 D&A leaders surveyed Nov-Dec 2021) — BI/analytics adoption at 25% of employees on average; \"stuck around 20% for many years\" per Eckerson","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"custom-embedded-3-year-tco-300-630k-vendor","title":"Custom-embedded 3-year TCO converges on $300K-$630K (multiple, mostly vendor sources) with 20-30% annual maintenance; hidden costs are multi-tenancy/RLS, performance at scale, perpetual maintenance","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"dashboard-rot-schema-drift-maintenance","title":"Dashboard rot: data sources change schemas, metric definitions drift across departments, organizational attention wanes; custom/embedded builds carry the heaviest ~20-30%/yr maintenance burden","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-dashboards-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: dashboards for SMBs — what's worth showing, and when an embedded one earns its keep (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"article-when-is-a-dashboard-worth-it-for-your-business","title":"Article (draft): When is a dashboard worth it for your business? The honest case for internal and embedded dashboards in SMBs","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-20T18:03:12.211Z","updated_at":"2026-06-20T18:03:12.211Z"}