Project Management Dashboard

A project management dashboard could be part of our "project control center". When thinking of something like a control center, pictures of the NASA control center and similar ones come to our mind. For large and very large projects, this idea is not far from what we really need. In implementation phase, we should be able to remain in control of what is going on in our project. We would like to have a clear overview over the current work progress in terms of scope, schedule, and budget (cost), as contemporary as possible. Our dashboard reflects the summary of the project management metrics or controlling tools we apply. In fact, it is equivalent to a project status report as included in section Free Downloads. What are the most important elements we would integrate into such a dashboard? Overall Project Status The traffic light model is sufficient.

Scope: Accomplished Results Here, we list accomplished interim or end results. In case of problems with scope changes, we indicate where significant changes are or might become possible or necessary, but are not yet sent out as change requests or claims. That is our early warning system in terms of scope creep. Schedule: Status of Milestones Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA) indicates possible delays on milestone level. MTA is the first part of an early warning system for overall delays. The second part is the analysis of earned value vs. planned value. In sub-sectionEarned Value Project Management we explain its details. Budget: Cost Accrued At any point in time along implementation phase, we should be able to show cost accrued within the current reporting period and cost accumulated since beginning of implementation phase. For that, we need close co-ordination with our organization's accounting system.

Then we can compare actual cost with planned cost. This comparison does not yet show the full picture of our project's cost trend. To get the real cost trend we analyze actual cost vs. earned value. We discuss details in sub-section Earned Value Project Management. This picture shows the basic layout of a project status report, a template of which is available in sub-section Free Project Management Tools.

Events Here, we list all events that could cause contract changes or claims, and are not yet listed elsewhere on the project management dashboard. Status of Risks One outcome of our ongoing risk management will be a list of risk events that did not happen (and cannot happen for the remainder of this project), but are part of our overall project contingency. Following good accounting practices, these not incurred contingencies have to be resolved, in-line with the accounting principles of our organization. Change Requests What change requests did we receive or send out, what is their current status, and what is their impact on the project in terms of scope, schedule, and budget?

Claims What claims did we receive or send out, what is their current status in the claim settlement process, and what is their impact on the project in terms of scope, schedule, and budget? General Remark The project management dashboard cannot replace goal-oriented, clear, and smooth communications taking place in an atmosphere of mutual trust among all project team members. Especially, this last aspect of mutual trust in the team is essential for getting clear and real pictures in our "project control center". Whichever nice IT-based tools we use, the outcome of them will only be as good as what we feed into them.

Milestone Trend Analysis

Here is how milestone trend analysis works: At the beginning of implementation phase, we ask the team members responsible for the milestones for their planning status. In the following example, we get this result: y y y y y M4: M3: M2: M1: M0: System complete Software complete Hardware complete System Design (complete) (Project) Start

which we present as MTA chart on our project management dashboard.

The vertical axis we call "planning line". If we start the project on time we can tic off the first milestone M0, Project Start. By the end of the first month into implementation phase, February, we ask the team members responsible for the milestones M1 to M4 for their best guesses when these milestones could be reached. This could be their answers:

By the end of the second month, March, we ask the team members responsible for the milestones M1 to M4 again for their best guesses when these milestones could be reached. In our example, this could be their answers now:

Our expert for the System Design tells us that he needs one month more, our experts for Hardware and Software, both tell us they need 2 weeks more. This indicates the trend that work gets delayed, which needs our close attention. For that reason, we call this tool "milestone trend analysis" which is misleading because, so far, we do not analyze anything; the term "milestone trend indicator" would fit better. In case the trend for one particular milestone points upward (in our example three milestones: "Sys. Design", "Hw complete", "Sw complete") we shall analyze the situation together with the experts of the work packages which contribute to that milestone, and decide on actions in order to achieve a horizontal trend, or maybe even one that points downwards. Only if we enter that analysis we turn our milestone trend indicator into a real "milestone trend analysis"tool. One month later, by the end of April, we ask the expert for System Design if he reached the milestone (in our example: yes), and the others for their best guesses again, and so on. We follow that routine, and thus, obtain a monthly status of the trend of our project milestones.

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By drawing up the milestones by the end of each reporting period and integrating the resulting MTA chart into our project management dashboard(in our case, monthly), we follow the reporting line, and obtain a trend for each one of the milestones. Under

section Free Downloads, in sub-sectionDemos, you find a small inter-active, animated MTA demonstrator.

Earned Value Project Management

Earned Value Project Management uses Earned Value Analysis (EVA), which is another important project controlling tool that helps to control cost and schedule in larger projects or sub-projects. The following example shows how it works. Let us assume we are at the end of week 16 of a small project with 12 work packages, 7 of which are already completed, and another work package has been started.

Our project account shows the actual cost accrued, AC = 2.3 Mill. $, and the work package experts tell us the value of the work accomplished, earned value, EV = 1.4 Mill. $. The project planning documents show that by the end of week 16 we should have accomplished work corresponding to the planned value, PV = 1.8 Mill. $.

In earlier presentations of that matter we find Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled BCWS = Planned Value PV Budgeted Cost of Work Performed BCWP = Earned Value EV Actual Cost of Work Performed ACWP = Actual Cost AC We use these values to calculate Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI):

In our example, we obtain CPI = 0.609 and SPI = 0.778 indicating that we are over budget and behind schedule. Earlier presentations refer to Cost Variance CV = BCWP ACWP = EV - AC Schedule Variance SV = BCWP BCWS = EV PV In our example, this would lead to a Cost Variance of CV = 1.4 Mill. $ - 2.3 Mill. $ = - 0.9 Mill. $ Schedule Variance of SV = 1.4 Mill. $ - 1.8 Mill. $ = - 0.4 Mill. $