Executive EPMO Dashboards

Executive Dashboards are key IT requirements now days in many EPMO Groups. It is a tool that provides you with a graphical view of the progress of your project, so that you can see at a glance whether you're on track. It's basically a set of Charts that gives you the current status of the project at any time. You can create the Charts manually in Excel, or use smart software that does it for you.

Recently I delivered design specification for a client, for their Executive EPMO dashboard application. Let me share some observations regarding constructing a dashboard, so that it can be helpful for those, who are into same kind of processes.

Define the success criteria of Project: list the things that determine the success of your project – for example schedule, quality, resource loading, budget tracking, key milestones etc.

Collect required data from real time: The project data needed to measure the success criteria we have already defined. The data can come from project plans, quality reports, issue spreadsheets, budget reports, Timesheets, Change/Issue/Risk Logs etc.

Model Graphical Views: Filter your data, sort them into groups and file it all in one place – mostly a database. Use Reporting engines to generate appropriate graphical views. There are many available for .NET and Java based platforms. I see many for PHP / Open source too.

Let’s see some most wanted Charts required in Executive EPMO Dashboard.

Time Charts: Required for schedule tracking. Planned versus actual completion status for key milestones can be showed. Critical Paths and their status can be added here. Summarized view of this data will help to find out whether the project is ahead of behind schedule. A detailed Task level progress chart can be a presented in drill-down manner. Group them in “Not Started”, “Not Completed”, “In-Progress” and “Complete” - and show dependencies always.

Budget / Cost Chart: Required for Budget Management. I suggest calculating the total cost of resources, materials, equipments and any expense forms completed by staff and present them single view. Earned value, Cost comparison charts can also be added.

Resource Usage: This report can be generated from Project plans. The resource graphs from project plans gives us clear view about over-loaded or underutilized resourced.

Risk Reports: Give a graphical view of Risks, Issues and changes that will have impact on delivery timelines. Show dependencies wherever required. This report can be generated from Log Files. The data in graphical view should be grouped as low, medium and high impact.

There are many Executive Dashboards available in online for reference – I suggest projectmanager.com – just give a try.

Let us discuss more about defining best practices in working with Dashboard development in near future.