PAIRED BAR

Use when

• two measures per category with long labels (plan vs actual, A vs B)
• natural category order that must be kept (process steps, stages)

Do not use when

• ranking is the message (sort and use CH-RNK-01)
• before/after change (CH-DEV-02)
• more than 7 categories (pairs blur)

See instead

• the gap between the two measures is the story: CH-DST-02
• labels are short and periods few: CH-MAG-02

Alternatives

• CH-MAG-02 (vertical pairs for short labels)
• CH-DST-02 (dots when the gap is the story)

Rules

• input order kept: magnitude, not ranking
• series named on the first row labels, never a legend
• series_a muted, series_b primary
• shared zero-based scale for both measures

Never do this

• legends
• two different scales
• sorting away a natural order
• more than two bars per category

QA before delivering

• exactly two bars per row
• series named on first row
• unit once
• source present

Data shape

{
  "title": "Actual beats plan on four of five steps",
  "eyebrow": "CLEARANCE STEPS",
  "source": "Source: process log, June",
  "unit": "days",
  "series_labels": [
    "Plan",
    "Actual"
  ],
  "categories": [
    {
      "label": "Document review",
      "values": [
        10,
        8
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Duty payment",
      "values": [
        6,
        7
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Inspection",
      "values": [
        8,
        5
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Release",
      "values": [
        4,
        3
      ]
    },
    {
      "label": "Final delivery",
      "values": [
        5,
        4
      ]
    }
  ]
}