How to create a project management dashboard?

The project management dashboard: why and for which objectives?

• To avoid the numerous pitfalls of project management

43% of projects finish outside their objectives. That's almost half! And that's no accident. It's very difficult to manage a project successfully, because there are a number of pitfalls that make it difficult to manage a project from start to finish. Project failures can be caused by a number of factors: costs are higher than budgeted, communication problems set in, lack of visibility on workload lengthens deadlines, objectives lack clarity on the part of management... 

Find out more about the main causes of project failure.

The most effective way to avoid project failure is to monitor it effectively, from start-up through to completion.  

• To be able to assess and share the project situation

The aim of monitoring is to identify any risks of failure throughout the project, so that corrective action can be taken as early as possible. Monitoring allows us to be alerted when a risk materializes, and to understand the source of the risk.

It's also a communication tool. It enables all project stakeholders to be informed sufficiently in advance to facilitate decision-making and avoid unpleasant surprises. The earlier a problem is communicated, the greater the chances of finding a solution. Nobody wants unpleasant surprises at the end of a project, and that's why a well-executed project follow-up fulfills its role as a communication tool.

• Empowering stakeholders

For a project to succeed, responsibility must be shared. Responsibility for tasks must be allocated to the various parties involved in the project. Allocating responsibility means appointing someone to be in charge of each task, and clarifying the objectives: completion, quality and deadline. The project manager then becomes the conductor of the orchestra, helping the whole team to move forward, and smoothing the way for everything to take shape. If stakeholders are not held accountable, the burden will be too heavy for a single project manager, and the risk of failure will be greater.

• It provides clear communication that everyone understands

The project tracking table must enable you to share the project situation at a given date, with information that is clear and understood by all.

At a glance, everyone needs to understand how the project is progressing. We need to be able to celebrate areas that are progressing well, and identify and prioritize those that need to be corrected.

Keeping track of a project in a table format means that everyone can recognize an identical format from one period to the next. It brings efficiency to exchanges between the various project stakeholders, and provides a clear historical record of a situation.

• To improve performance: on-time delivery, quality, profitability

The project dashboard is also designed to keep the project aligned with its objectives. Depending on priorities, different objectives are set:

• • Meeting deadlines for the various phases of the project
  • Expected quality level and potential customer validation
  • Level of project costs, which must remain in line with the project budget

The dashboard compares the situation to date, the forecast situation at the end of the project, and the budget for these different objectives.

Once they have identified any risks of deviating from objectives, project managers take the necessary corrective action: restructuring project tasks to shorten them, renegotiating with the customer, reallocating tasks to improve efficiency, etc.

Which KPIs should be included in a project dashboard?

Setting priorities: deadline, quality, profitability? To define the KPIs to be included in the project dashboard, you first need to determine priorities with the project sponsors. Although it's possible to track a large number of KPIs, it's important to avoid falling into the trap of systematically monitoring all the indicators. Focus on KPIs that align with the priorities determined with the project sponsors. This means determining whether the priority lies more in :

• Meeting deadlines: tasks and sub-tasks must meet specified deadlines, and any failure to do so poses a risk to the project. KPI: montrol the rate of progress and the number of days remaining before the deadline.

• Compliance with an expected level of quality: the various tasks must be checked and graded according to the expected level of quality. The project dashboard should display the score obtained vs. the expected score. KPI: montain a quality score for each task and a comparison with the expected score.
• Profitability: project costs must fit within a certain envelope set by a project budget. KPI: montrol project costs, taking into account what has been achieved and what remains to be done, and compare them with the budget.

Here's our selection of KPIs for project monitoring.

Proactive project tracking in Stafiz

Stafiz enables you to monitor all your resources and associated costs in real time, and to forecast them: resource planning You are alerted in the event of future deviations.

Find out more about project management with Stafiz

What is a project tracking table? Who benefits?

What does a project tracking table look like?

Two types of approach that can be combined: task-based and gantt-based. Both approaches can be mixed to provide a complete view. If it's important to keep track of deadlines and the links between tasks, the Gantt approach should be preferred. If, on the other hand, each task can be carried out independently, then a task-based chart provides a clear picture of the situation.

 

• By task

The task-based project tracking dashboard lists all tasks and sub-tasks, and for each of them provides indicators for status and performance. Each task and sub-task line is assigned a responsible person, so that objectives are clearly assigned to a specific person.

Ideally, the dashboard is updated with the information available or reported by the various managers prior to the situation-sharing meeting. During the meeting, each manager can share the status of the task with the other participants, and provide details on specific indicators.

To find out more, see our article on task planning.

 

• In Gantt

The Gantt format is more focused on the duration of the task or subtask. This approach focuses more specifically on deadlines: when is the task due to start, and when is it due to finish? The Gantt approach also makes it possible to specify the links between different tasks. Indeed, it is sometimes necessary to complete one action before starting another. Visibility into the links between different tasks helps prevent bottlenecks from forming and delaying the whole project.

Project management in Stafiz

What exactly does the project tracking chart contain? When should it be launched?

 

• • Project monitoring must start at the very beginning of the project

The project tracking chart must be shared as soon as the project is launched. During the kick-off meeting, it's important to share the project tracking chart and explain it to all participants, so that everyone is aligned.

The project manager must check that all the indicators are understood. He/she must also ensure that the sponsors confirm that they adhere to the indicators it contains. The wider and stronger the buy-in at the start of the project, the more invested the stakeholders will be in achieving the set objectives. Sharing the project tracking chart is therefore crucial to the project's success.

 

• • KPIs, deadlines, managers

The project tracking table must also systematically include the following information:

• • • Responsible parties: for each task and sub-task, a responsible party must be identified. Each person in charge must be aware of the tasks for which he or she is responsible, and be able to indicate how they are progressing. Some tools allow you to indicate a percentage of progress, for example. They must also be able to indicate what remains to be done, so that the associated workload is updated.

• • • Deadlines: to ensure that the project is completed on schedule, you need to set deadlines for each project phase and task. This commitment must also be confirmed at the start of the project. The person in charge must confirm the feasibility of the task within the deadline objectives.

• • • KPIs: these must be adapted to the task in hand. The objective may be a number of hours or days not to be exceeded (when you want to control profitability), or a number of deliverables to be produced, or a quality "score" given by the customer. As mentioned earlier in this article, the choice of KPIs to track must be perfectly aligned with the sponsor's objectives.

Who should update the project tracking table? How can updates be shared?

• • Feed back information to consolidate it

The project manager is responsible for updating the project tracking table. But to be able to consolidate the information, each task manager must be up to date in his or her tracking. Ideally, the information is updated in the same file and consolidates automatically. The project manager checks that the data is consistent, and if necessary queries the various task managers to ensure overall visibility.

It is also at this point that the remaining work must be calculated. When tasks have not been completed, the time needed to finalize them should be indicated. This enables the project manager to update the overall project schedule and recalculate the project's forecast margins.

 

How do I create a project management dashboard?

Should it be done on a spreadsheet or using a dedicated tool? We will now describe in more detail the methods for creating a project tracking table. 

 

Create your dashboard: The project dashboard must allow you to take the temperature of the project at any time. It must therefore provide, at a glance, all the information you need to know about the project's health. It must provide information on operational, analytical and strategic issues.

• Operational dashboard

The project tracking board must provide operational information first and foremost. That is, it should indicate the time remaining to complete the various project tasks, and the associated workload for the people working on them.

This remaining work should be used to adjust the capacity of the people working on the project. By indicating, for example, that they have eight hours left to spend on a task by next Monday, the equivalent capacity to work on other tasks should be adjusted to zero.

At the same time, the tracker must display the progress of the project and its tasks. There are several ways of displaying progress: a percentage, a more visual progress bar, etc. Whatever solution you choose, it must make it easy to see whether or not you're close to completing the task.

Beyond the progress of a task, if the planning approach makes sense, it's worth indicating when the task will be completed. Either by indicating an expected completion date in the project tracking table. Or by displaying it in a schedule in Gantt format.

• Analytical dashboard

The project tracking table should then provide a performance analysis. Displaying the major key performance indicators allows you to take the temperature of the project, but you need to go further to understand the reasons for over- or under-performance.

For example, you need to display deviations between the overall target and the last estimate, and give the same information broken down task by task or manager by manager. This makes it easier to understand where deviations come from and what the causes might be.

Analysis of discrepancies between initial plan and actual situation - Analysis by profile type

A comparison of the project's performance with other similar projects also provides an interesting analysis. Alongside the project indicators, display an average indicator for similar projects to compare performance.

• Strategic dashboard

By consolidating the various project tracking tables, it is possible to provide strategic information to help make better decisions at company level. 

By consolidating the planned workload on the various projects, you can get a complete picture of the team's workload. Know who is over-staffed and who is under-staffed. This information can be used to optimize the overall workload, and to determine whether it is necessary to recruit certain profiles that will be under-capacitated in the future.

The financial data for the project and its progress enable us to calculate the sales and margins that will be generated in the coming months. Consolidation provides an income statement for the entire business.

By comparing the various project follow-ups, it is possible to identify interesting trends: which tasks most often lead to underperformance? What is the rate of deviation from the average budget? Statistics can be used to better prepare and cost future projects, and improve margins.

Limits to using Excel files for project monitoring

The most common limitations to using Excel to create project tracking tables are as follows:

Project management in Stafiz