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Learn how to create and use a project dashboard to communicate project status with both management and your project team.

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Quick reference

Project Dashboards

Project Dashboards are a quick summary of the project status and project health.  They are normally used for management communication and/or team member communication. 

When to use

Dashboards are a communication tool.  A dashboard is prepared as part of the communication plan.  They are the best practice for quick communication with stakeholders and management.  They are also very helpful for extended or virtual project teams.  However, the format and content would be different for those two applications.   

Instructions

The format for management dashboards normally follows a standard company template and focuses on “big picture” issues like project objectives and project-level boundaries.  These dashboards are updated prior to sending out the management communication.  The format for project team dashboards is usually derived from the project planning artifacts (schedules, task lists, etc.) and focuses on the daily progress and status of activities.  These dashboards are normally updated as part of a team meeting.   

Project management dashboard

  1. When the project plan is initially approved, the planning information is entered into the dashboard template.
  2. Periodically (based upon the organization’s communication policy - intervals vary from real-time to monthly) the dashboard is updated to reflect current project status and current project health. 
    1. Often the health is shown with Red/Yellow/Green indicators. 
    2. The organization will usually have a scale to use for determining which color should be used. 
    3. If no scale is provided, use Red for areas that cannot meet the project objectives, Yellow for areas that are experiencing problems but that the team believes they can solve, and Green for areas where there is an adequate plan and approach in place.

Project team dashboard

  1. When the project plan is completed, the project team decides which project planning artifact(s) it will use to track status and progress.
  2. At each project team meeting, team members report their progress, and the status is shown on the project planning artifact(s).
  3. In some PMIS systems, these updates can be done in real-time.  The Team Dashboard is updated by the PMIS.

Hints & tips

  • Dashboards should be quick and easy to update – if it takes too long, no one will do it.
  • Dashboards are meant to communicate status and risk – don’t hide issues, expose them.
  • Graphs and charts are easier for people to understand than tables of data or bullet items of text – use charts as long as they are easy to create and update.
  • Don’t let your management dashboard become too cluttered.  If management can’t find the information they want, they will ignore the dashboard.
  • Keep dashboards current – then you are always able to quickly provide a project status.
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  • 00:03 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 One of the most effective tools used for controlling projects is a dashboard.
  • 00:10 Dashboards are displays of current project status or the health of the project.
  • 00:15 A good dashboard is structured so as to be easy to read and
  • 00:18 often showing project information, and a graphic display or
  • 00:22 chart with red, yellow and green status indicators.
  • 00:26 Items like budget status, key deliverables, and
  • 00:28 milestones are often shown.
  • 00:30 Dashboards are structured to communicate to specific audiences.
  • 00:33 One of the common types of dashboards is a management dashboard which provides
  • 00:38 summary information to management.
  • 00:41 Another type of dashboard is a team dashboard which provides detailed
  • 00:44 information for team members.
  • 00:46 There's also portfolio dashboards which show the status of multiple projects
  • 00:50 within the portfolio.
  • 00:51 Let's talk about the project management dashboard first.
  • 00:54 This is used to give senior management and stakeholders, the status of the project.
  • 01:00 Often, the dashboards from several projects are compared to each other to
  • 01:04 identify common patterns and trends.
  • 01:07 For that reason, stakeholders will often have a standard format so
  • 01:10 it's easy to do the comparison.
  • 01:11 The management dashboard focuses on the objectives and
  • 01:15 boundary conditions of the project.
  • 01:17 So that senior management is aware of what the project is supposed to achieve, and
  • 01:22 any risks to the objectives and other areas of concern for the stakeholders.
  • 01:27 This enables the management to stay focused on the aspects of the project that
  • 01:31 are of most interest to them.
  • 01:33 The dashboard is usually updated on some regular cycles, such as weekly or monthly.
  • 01:38 This is often tied to the regular project management review cycle.
  • 01:41 Typically, the organization is a standard template that is followed by all projects.
  • 01:45 This simplifies the review process for senior management.
  • 01:48 Now, let's talk about the project team dashboard.
  • 01:52 This provides team members with the current status of what's happening on
  • 01:56 the project.
  • 01:57 Typically, this will be comparing the actual performance of the project to
  • 02:01 the planned performance.
  • 02:02 This makes the plan a very important part of the project team dashboard.
  • 02:07 Team dashboards are normally updated on a daily or weekly basis.
  • 02:11 They focus in on near term events and progress on the project.
  • 02:14 My practice is to update this dashboard at each project team meeting,
  • 02:18 which is usually daily or weekly.
  • 02:20 This way we don't need an extra meeting or activity just update the dashboard.
  • 02:25 The dashboard normally relies heavily on project planning artifacts.
  • 02:29 Such as a schedule and the budget, could be the work breakdown structure dictionary
  • 02:33 or the list of deliverables, the risk tracking log or register, or
  • 02:36 in the case of a scrum project, the scrum board.
  • 02:39 Here's some examples of team dashboards.
  • 02:42 On the top is the scrum board and burndown chart used by project team that is
  • 02:46 using the Agile scrum project management methodology.
  • 02:49 It shows the status of all deliverables as they move from the sprint backlog,
  • 02:53 to work in process, to done.
  • 02:55 The burndown chart shows the estimated resources needed to complete the project.
  • 03:01 The bottom dashboard is a more traditional Gantt chart which is showing the actual
  • 03:05 performance in each task in blue,
  • 03:07 as compared to the scheduled performance that was in gray.
  • 03:10 If using software, this will often be calculated and created automatically,
  • 03:15 provided the WBS dictionary is kept current.
  • 03:17 This is an example of project management dashboards.
  • 03:21 On the top chart we see the projects listed with the red, yellow,
  • 03:25 green status and a trending arrow, along with some comments for
  • 03:28 use in a project review meeting.
  • 03:30 In the bottom it's more of a portfolio dashboard.
  • 03:33 We see all the projects in the portfolio listed with some of their key charter
  • 03:37 information, and again, red, yellow, green status on each of those projects.
  • 03:42 Notice in this case, the projects are ordered by phase.
  • 03:45 The project closest to being complete is at the top.
  • 03:48 The project just starting, is at the bottom.
  • 03:51 As we've seen dashboards provide a quick visual indication of
  • 03:55 the health of a project.
  • 03:56 They're invaluable as a communication vehicle and can point the way for
  • 04:00 the team and management to effectively complete a project.

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