Operational Dashboards, Work Queues & Scheduling: Your New Command Center in MAS 9

Who this is for: Maximo administrators, functional consultants, and maintenance managers who relied on Start Centers, Result Set Portlets, and Maximo Scheduler in 7.6 — and need to understand their MAS 9 replacements inside and out.

Estimated read time: 10 minutes

Your Morning Ritual Just Changed

You know the routine. You log in to Maximo 7.6, your Start Center loads, and you scan those Result Set Portlets — overdue work orders on the left, unassigned PMs on the right, KPIs along the top. It is the command center you have tuned over years. You know exactly where to look and what each number means.

MAS 9 wants to give you something better. Three somethings, actually: Operational Dashboard, Work Queue Manager, and Graphical Scheduling. Together, they form a new command center that is more powerful than Start Centers ever were — though the transition is not without friction.

Let's walk through each one, including the parts IBM does not put on the marketing slides.

Operational Dashboard: The Strategic Start Center Replacement

What It Is

The Operational Dashboard is IBM's card-based analytics interface built on the Carbon Design System. It is the strategic replacement for Start Centers — emphasis on strategic, because the transition is not yet complete.

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    OPERATIONAL DASHBOARD                          |
|                                                                  |
|  +---------------+  +---------------+  +---------------+         |
|  |  KPI TREND    |  | KPI COMPARE   |  |  KPI VALUE    |         |
|  |  ~~~~~~~~     |  |  [|||] [|||]  |  |    1,247      |         |
|  |  /  \  /\     |  |  [|||] [|||]  |  |   +12% ^      |         |
|  +---------------+  +---------------+  +---------------+         |
|                                                                  |
|  +---------------+  +---------------+  +----------------------+  |
|  |  WORK QUEUES  |  | THRESHOLD     |  |  TABLE               |  |
|  |  [!] Urgent 5 |  |  [===] 87%    |  |  WO#  | Status | Pri |  |
|  |  [*] High  12 |  |  Green Zone   |  |  1001 | APPR   | 1   |  |
|  |  [-] Med   34 |  |               |  |  1002 | WAPPR  | 2   |  |
|  +---------------+  +---------------+  +----------------------+  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

The Seven Card Types

You have seven distinct card types to build your dashboard views:

Card Type — Available Since — What It Shows

KPI Trend (formerly KPI Chart) — MAS 8.x — Line chart of KPI values over time with trend indicators

KPI Comparison — MAS 8.x — Side-by-side KPI comparison across line, bar, pie, or donut charts

KPI Value — MAS 8.x — Single KPI number with trend indicator showing change since last refresh

Table — MAS 8.x — Tabular data display with configurable columns

Work Queues — MAS 9.0 — Integration with Work Queue Manager — counts, priority, drill-down

External Content — MAS 9.0 — Embed any external URL — third-party analytics, web apps, Power BI

Threshold Tile — MAS 9.1 — Color-coded tile showing values against defined thresholds

The External Content card is worth highlighting. You can embed any URL directly on your dashboard. That Power BI report your finance team built? That Grafana panel your IoT team monitors? They can live right alongside your Maximo KPIs. No more tab-switching between systems.

KPI Manager: Build Your Own Metrics

The KPI Manager application is where you create and manage custom KPIs. Out of the box, you get the essentials:

  • Emergency Work Orders
  • Preventive Maintenance Compliance
  • Overdue Work Orders
  • Work Order Backlog
  • Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
  • Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
  • Asset Downtime
  • Planned vs. Unplanned Work Ratio

But the real power is in custom KPIs. You define the query against any Maximo object, set refresh intervals, configure color-coded thresholds (green/yellow/red), and define trend calculations.

Key insight: In MAS 9.1, KPI services can return JSON from external APIs — not just Maximo queries. This means you can pull KPI data from SAP, Salesforce, weather services, or any system with a REST API and display it on your Operational Dashboard alongside native Maximo metrics.

Preconfigured Dashboards

IBM ships two preconfigured dashboards to get you started:

Maintenance Manager Dashboard:

  • Four default KPIs: Emergency Work, PM Compliance, Overdue WOs, Backlog
  • Targeted at maintenance managers and planners
  • Fully customizable — add, remove, rearrange cards

Emission Management Dashboard (HSE):

  • Environmental compliance focused
  • Tracks emission KPIs
  • Requires HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) module activation

Dashboard Customization Features

You can drag and drop cards, resize them (small, medium, large, full-width), and save layouts. You can create public dashboards visible to all users or private dashboards visible only to you. Card data exports to CSV, PNG, or JPG — handy for that monthly management report. And you can share dashboard URLs with colleagues for quick collaboration.

The Limitation You Need to Know About

Here is the part that matters for your migration planning:

Key insight: As of MAS 9.1, Operational Dashboards cannot be assigned to specific users or security groups. Individual users cannot create fully personalized dashboard views the way they could customize their Start Centers. This is the single biggest reason many organizations continue using Start Centers as their primary landing page while gradually adopting Operational Dashboard for specific operational scenarios.

This is not a dealbreaker — but it is a planning consideration. If your organization relies heavily on role-specific Start Centers (one for maintenance managers, one for planners, one for purchasing), you will need a hybrid approach until IBM closes this gap.

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|               DASHBOARD vs. START CENTER                      |
|                                                               |
|  Start Center (7.6)        Operational Dashboard (MAS 9)     |
|  ==================        ==============================     |
|  [x] Per-security-group    [ ] Per-security-group             |
|  [x] Per-user personal     [ ] Per-user personal              |
|  [ ] Card-based analytics  [x] Card-based analytics           |
|  [ ] External content      [x] External content               |
|  [ ] KPI trends/charts     [x] KPI trends/charts              |
|  [ ] URL sharing           [x] URL sharing                    |
|  [ ] Export to CSV/PNG     [x] Export to CSV/PNG               |
|  [x] Result Set Portlets   [x] Work Queue cards               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

The Operational Dashboard wins on analytics capability. Start Centers win on personalization. Plan accordingly.

Work Queue Manager: Result Set Portlets Reborn

The Replacement for Result Set Portlets

If you loved your Result Set Portlets on Start Centers — those filtered lists of work orders, service requests, or assets that let you monitor specific workloads — the Work Queue Manager is their evolution.

Work Queue Manager is a dedicated application for creating, managing, and distributing predefined queries as actionable work queues. It is more structured and more capable than Result Set Portlets, but the setup model is different.

Creating a Work Queue

The configuration flow follows a logical sequence:

  1. Navigate to Work Queue Manager application
  2. Define the queue name and description
  3. Select the target object (Work Orders, Service Requests, Assets, etc.)
  4. Build the query using the Where Clause editor or Advanced SQL
  5. Set the priority level
  6. Define which person groups can see the queue
  7. Add available actions to the queue
  8. Save and activate

Priority: Visual Indicators That Matter

Every queue gets a priority level with a corresponding visual indicator:

+-------------------------------------------+
|           WORK QUEUE PRIORITIES            |
|                                           |
|   [!!!] URGENT  - Red indicator           |
|         Safety-critical, emergency        |
|                                           |
|   [!!]  HIGH    - Orange indicator        |
|         Time-sensitive, SLA-approaching   |
|                                           |
|   [!]   MEDIUM  - Yellow indicator        |
|         Standard planned work             |
|                                           |
|   [-]   LOW     - Blue/Gray indicator     |
|         Backlog, nice-to-have             |
+-------------------------------------------+

These visual indicators carry through to the Operational Dashboard. When your Work Queues card shows a red urgent indicator with a count of 5, you know exactly where to look first.

Visibility via Person Groups

This is a key design change from Start Centers. In 7.6, Result Set visibility was controlled by security groups. In MAS 9, Work Queue visibility is controlled by person groups.

  • Each queue can be assigned to one or more person groups
  • Users see only queues assigned to their person group(s)
  • Administrators see all queues regardless of assignment

If your organization already uses person groups for other purposes (labor assignments, crafts, crew membership), you have a ready-made visibility framework. If you have been relying exclusively on security groups, you will need to build out your person group structure as part of migration.

Available Actions: Work Without Opening Records

This is where Work Queue Manager surpasses Result Set Portlets. You can attach actions to queues that users execute without opening individual records:

  • Change Status — move work orders through their lifecycle
  • Assign to Person — assign ownership directly from the queue
  • Update Priority — escalate or de-escalate from the queue view
  • Add to Schedule — push records into a Graphical Scheduling project

Actions respect existing security permissions. A user cannot change status through a Work Queue action if they do not have that permission on the underlying application.

Integration with Operational Dashboard

The Work Queues card on the Operational Dashboard connects directly to Work Queue Manager:

  • Displays queue name, record count, and priority indicator
  • Clicking a queue on the dashboard opens the full queue view
  • Queue counts refresh based on dashboard refresh interval
  • Multiple queues display on a single Work Queues card

This is the bridge between dashboards and work queues. Your Operational Dashboard gives you the at-a-glance view; clicking through takes you into the actionable queue.

Migration from Start Center Result Sets

Here is the mapping you need for migration planning:

Start Center Feature — Work Queue Manager Equivalent

Result Set portlet with saved query — Work Queue with equivalent Where Clause

Result Set action buttons — Queue Actions

Security group visibility — Person Group visibility

Result Set record count — Queue count on Operational Dashboard card

Click-to-open record — Drill-down from queue to record

Migration steps:

  1. Export all Start Center Result Set configurations (queries, security assignments)
  2. Recreate each as a Work Queue in Work Queue Manager
  3. Map security groups to person groups for visibility
  4. Add corresponding actions to each queue
  5. Create Work Queues cards on Operational Dashboard
  6. Validate counts match between old and new
  7. Train users on the new navigation pattern

Graphical Scheduling: The Biggest Value Unlock in MAS 9

The Licensing Change That Matters Most

Here is the headline:

Key insight: Maximo Scheduler was a separate license in 7.6. In MAS 9, all 8 scheduling applications are included in base Manage at no additional AppPoints. If you were paying separately for Scheduler — or if you wanted it but could not justify the cost — this is a massive value unlock.

This single change means that every MAS 9 Manage customer now has access to enterprise-grade graphical scheduling and dispatching tools. No extra procurement, no budget justification, no AppPoints consumed.

The Eight Scheduling Applications

MAS 9 includes eight distinct scheduling applications, each designed for a specific use case:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|              8 SCHEDULING APPLICATIONS IN MAS 9                  |
|                                                                  |
|  1. Graphical Scheduling        - Gantt-chart project scheduling |
|  2. Large Projects              - Optimized for 10,000+ records  |
|  3. Graphical Assignment        - Dispatch work to technicians   |
|  4. Graphical Work Week         - Weekly planning view           |
|  5. Graphical Resource View     - Monthly calendar/capacity      |
|  6. Repair Facilities           - Shop-floor bay/station assign  |
|  7. Crew Management             - Crew-based scheduling          |
|  8. Appointment Book            - Customer-facing appointments   |
|                                                                  |
|  ALL INCLUDED IN BASE MANAGE  |  $0 EXTRA APPPOINTS             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

Let's break down the key ones:

Graphical Scheduling — Your primary Gantt-chart-based tool. Dependency management, critical path method (CPM), resource leveling, and drag-and-drop rescheduling. This is what most planners will use daily.

Large Projects — Performance-optimized for projects with 10,000+ records. Uses paginated loading (50 records at a time), collapsed child records by default, and cross-page dependency display while still calculating full-project CPM. If your shutdowns or turnarounds generate massive work order structures, this is your application.

Graphical Assignment — The dispatching view. Drag-and-drop assignment, color-coded status indicators, shift time display, availability reason codes, and dispatch status indicators. Dispatchers live in this application.

Graphical Work Week — A week-at-a-glance view for weekly planning meetings. Capacity planning, drag rescheduling within the week. Think of it as the whiteboard view that planners and supervisors use to coordinate the upcoming week.

Graphical Resource View — Monthly calendar display with resource availability and capacity heat maps. This is where resource managers look for overloaded or underutilized teams across the planning horizon.

Repair Facilities — Specialized for repair shop environments. Shop-floor scheduling, bay/station assignment, and repair timeline tracking. If you run a central repair shop with defined bays, this replaces spreadsheet-based bay scheduling.

Crew Management — Crew-based scheduling with availability tracking and skills matching. Crews are scheduled as units rather than individual laborers.

Appointment Book — Customer-facing appointment scheduling with time slot management, booking, and customer notification integration. Ideal for utilities and service organizations with customer-scheduled work.

Dispatching Dashboard (MAS 9.0+)

The Dispatching Dashboard gives dispatchers a purpose-built command center:

  • KPI Cards: Emergency work count, overdue assignments, technician utilization, SLA compliance
  • Schedule Cards: Visual representation of daily and weekly schedules
  • Emergency Work Indicators: Visual flags for emergency/urgent work orders on the Gantt
  • Locked Work Indicators: Shows which assignments are locked and cannot be auto-rescheduled
  • Dispatching Status Indicators: Real-time status — assigned, en-route, on-site, completed
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                  DISPATCHING DASHBOARD                            |
|                                                                  |
|  [KPI] Emergency: 3   [KPI] Overdue: 7   [KPI] Utilization: 78% |
|                                                                  |
|  +----+====+-------+--+====+--+---------+                       |
|  | Tech A  |  WO-101  |  WO-102  | WO-103 [!] Emergency         |
|  +----+====+-------+--+====+--+---------+                       |
|  | Tech B  |  WO-104  [L]  |  WO-105  |                         |
|  +----+====+-------+--+====+--+---------+                       |
|  | Tech C  |  WO-106  |       (available)                        |
|  +----+====+-------+--+====+--+---------+                       |
|                                                                  |
|  [!] = Emergency    [L] = Locked    ---- = Travel time           |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

New in MAS 9.1:

  • Gantt functions display shift times and availability reason codes
  • Emergency work icons render directly on Gantt bars
  • Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) algorithm for spatial scheduling optimization
  • Rule-Based Filtering (RBF) algorithm for what-if turnaround time analysis

Planning Dashboard (NEW in MAS 9.1)

MAS 9.1 introduces a completely new dashboard for planners and resource managers:

  • Tracks scheduling project KPIs — how is the schedule performing against targets?
  • Displays break-in work orders — unplanned work injected into the existing schedule
  • Displays break-out work orders — planned work pushed out of the schedule to make room
  • Drill-down into individual schedules and work orders
  • Integration with Graphical Scheduling projects

The break-in/break-out visibility is particularly valuable. In 7.6, understanding which planned work got displaced by emergency work required manual tracking. The Planning Dashboard makes this visible by default.

Scheduling Dashboard with Resource Leveling

For organizations managing multiple scheduling projects simultaneously, the Scheduling Dashboard provides:

  • Cross-project visibility across multiple Graphical Scheduling projects
  • Resource conflict identification — the same technician double-booked across projects
  • Resource leveling algorithms to balance workload automatically
  • Data quality issue detection — missing estimates, incomplete task dependencies
  • Optimization opportunity highlighting — where the schedule can be improved

Maximo Optimizer: The Paid Upgrade

Everything described above is included in base Manage. But there is a tier beyond that.

Maximo Optimizer is a separate component that consumes additional AppPoints. It adds:

  • Automated schedule optimization — not just manual drag-and-drop, but algorithmic optimization
  • Constraint-based scheduling — automatically schedule based on skills, tools, materials, and proximity
  • Travel time optimization — integrate with ArcGIS for route-optimized field dispatching
  • What-if scenario planning — model different scheduling approaches and compare outcomes
  • Advanced algorithms: Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) and Rule-Based Filtering (RBF) at full power
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|          SCHEDULER vs. OPTIMIZER — WHAT YOU GET                   |
|                                                                  |
|  SCHEDULER (included)          OPTIMIZER (extra AppPoints)       |
|  ====================          ============================      |
|  [x] Gantt drag-and-drop      [x] Automated optimization        |
|  [x] 8 scheduling apps        [x] Constraint-based scheduling   |
|  [x] Dispatching Dashboard    [x] Travel time with ArcGIS       |
|  [x] Planning Dashboard       [x] What-if scenario planning     |
|  [x] Resource leveling        [x] LNS + RBF algorithms          |
|  [x] CPM / dependencies       [x] Route optimization            |
|  [ ] Auto-optimization        [x] Full auto-optimization        |
|  [ ] Travel time routing      [x] Spatial dispatching            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
Key insight: Most organizations should start with the included Scheduler and evaluate whether Optimizer is needed based on dispatching complexity. If you have 50+ field technicians across a large geographic area, Optimizer's travel time optimization alone can pay for itself. For shop-floor or facility-based maintenance, Scheduler is typically sufficient.

Putting It All Together: Your New Command Center

Here is how these three capabilities work as an integrated system:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    YOUR MAS 9 COMMAND CENTER                     |
|                                                                  |
|                   OPERATIONAL DASHBOARD                          |
|                   (Card-based overview)                          |
|                          |                                       |
|              +-----------+-----------+                           |
|              |                       |                           |
|       WORK QUEUES              KPI MANAGER                      |
|    (Actionable task lists)   (Custom metrics +                  |
|              |                external APIs)                     |
|              |                                                   |
|    +------- ACTIONS --------+                                   |
|    |                        |                                   |
|    v                        v                                   |
|  Change Status        Add to Schedule                           |
|  Assign Person             |                                    |
|  Update Priority           v                                    |
|                    GRAPHICAL SCHEDULING                          |
|                    (8 applications)                              |
|                          |                                       |
|              +-----------+-----------+                           |
|              |                       |                           |
|       DISPATCHING            PLANNING                           |
|       DASHBOARD              DASHBOARD                          |
|    (Real-time dispatch)   (Break-in/out                         |
|                            tracking)                            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

The flow is natural: you see KPIs and queue counts on the Operational Dashboard, drill into Work Queues for actionable lists, use queue actions to assign and schedule work, and manage the resulting schedule through Graphical Scheduling applications. Dispatchers monitor real-time execution on the Dispatching Dashboard. Planners track schedule health on the Planning Dashboard.

Migration Recommendations

If you are planning your transition from 7.6 to MAS 9, here is the practical approach:

Phase 1 — Parallel Operation:

  • Keep Start Centers active as your primary landing page
  • Build Operational Dashboards for specific use cases (maintenance manager overview, emergency work monitoring)
  • Create Work Queues that mirror your most critical Result Set Portlets

Phase 2 — Work Queue Migration:

  • Export all Result Set configurations from Start Centers
  • Recreate as Work Queues with equivalent Where Clauses
  • Map security group visibility to person group visibility
  • Validate record counts match between old and new
  • Train users on the Work Queue navigation pattern

Phase 3 — Scheduling Rollout:

  • If you had Scheduler in 7.6, validate your existing configurations migrate cleanly
  • If you did NOT have Scheduler, start with Graphical Scheduling and Graphical Assignment
  • Deploy Dispatching Dashboard for dispatch teams
  • Evaluate Optimizer only after you have baseline scheduling operational

Phase 4 — Full Dashboard Transition:

  • Wait for IBM to add user/security group assignment to Operational Dashboard
  • Once available, build role-specific dashboards
  • Gradually retire Start Centers as primary landing pages

Key Takeaways

  • Operational Dashboard is the strategic Start Center replacement — card-based analytics with KPI trends, comparisons, external content, and threshold tiles. But it cannot yet be personalized per user or security group, so many organizations run both during transition.
  • Work Queue Manager replaces Result Set Portlets — more capable, with priority indicators, person group visibility, and inline actions (change status, assign, schedule). Migrate by mapping Where Clauses and converting security group visibility to person groups.
  • Maximo Scheduler is now free — all 8 graphical scheduling applications (Graphical Scheduling, Large Projects, Assignment, Work Week, Resource View, Repair Facilities, Crew Management, Appointment Book) are included in base Manage at no extra AppPoints.
  • MAS 9.1 adds significant scheduling upgrades — the Planning Dashboard tracks break-in/break-out work orders, LNS and RBF algorithms improve optimization, and KPI Manager gains external API support for pulling metrics from non-Maximo systems.
  • Maximo Optimizer is the paid tier beyond Scheduler — adds automated constraint-based scheduling, ArcGIS travel time optimization, what-if analysis, and full algorithmic scheduling. Evaluate based on field dispatch complexity.

References

Series Navigation:

Previous: Part 3 — Work Centers to Role-Based Applications
Next: Part 5 — Maximo Mobile

View the full MAS FEATURES series index -->

Part 4 of the "MAS FEATURES" series | Published by TheMaximoGuys

Your Start Center was a reliable old friend. Operational Dashboard, Work Queues, and Graphical Scheduling are the team that replaces it — individually more specialized, collectively more powerful. The transition takes planning, especially around that personalization gap, but the destination is a command center that Start Centers could never have been.