Dashboard

Setting up a Project SharePoint Site Part 6: Project Status Dashboard

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Assembling a Project Status Dashboard is a powerful way to use the capabilities of SharePoint. Instead of having to create a weekly status report manually, SharePoint can do it for you using information you are already updating on the site. This can be a big time saver. The page is updated in real-time as you update the component parts that are shown on the page so the sponsor or other stakeholders can always see the latest status instead of having to wait for you to send it.

Another advantage of the dashboard is that it acts like “mission control” for the project manager. I would always start my day on the dashboard to help determine on what I need to focus. In one place you have your upcoming milestones, high impact issues and risks, and action items due in the next 7 days. You can drill into the details of each item right from that page. This beats looking for each piece individually in documents on a network drive.

I use the SharePoint “web part page” to set up the Project Status Dashboard. A “web part page” allows you to assemble a page from existing lists, libraries and other SharePoint components you have already built on your project site. I like the 3-column format for fitting all of the important information.

Here is the information I include and how I format it:

First Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Information Announcement – contains basic project information such as the name, number, description and benefits, sponsor name and project manager name.

Second Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Status Announcement – contains a few sentences from the Project Manager and Lead Business Analyst on the state of the project. I like to update this weekly or whenever an important milestone is reached.

Third Row:

Column 1: The Project Health Scorecard

Column 2: A view on the Issues list containing only high impact Issues, and under that, a view on the risks list containing only high exposure Risks

Column 3: Upcoming Milestones (current month and next month)

Fourth Row, across all columns:

Time Off Calendar for key project team members and stakeholders

Fifth and Sixth Rows, across all columns:

Action Items Due in the next 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Action Items Completed in the last 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Seventh Row, across all columns:

Key project documents from the document libraries.

You may need to educate and train your users to come here first for information but it will be well worth your time to do so.

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Setting up a Project SharePoint Site Part 4: Document Libraries

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

You can create document libraries in SharePoint for any of your project-related documents but in this post I will only address the libraries I use for Project Management purposes. Having all of your key documents organized in SharePoint is useful for communication, collaboration, reference and external audit.

The five libraries I always establish on my project SharePoint sites are:

  1. Project Initiation
  2. Project Planning
  3. Requirements and Scope
  4. Project Execution
  5. Project Close

The Project Initiation library contains the Project Charter, the approved Business Case, the Roles & Responsibilities matrix and any relevant Contracts.

The Project Planning library contains the Master Project Schedule and any sub-schedules, plus any and all project planning documents (e.g. Project Management Plan, Project Activity Plans, etc).

The Requirements and Scope library contains all of the documents related to the project requirements including diagrams and tracking matrices.

The Project Execution library contains all of the formal status reports including both the internal reports only used by the core team as well as the publicly published reports. It will also contain any formal change requests.

The Project Close library contains all of the formal sign-offs and the Project Close checklist that may be mandated by your organization.

You may also wish to create libraries for your Software Development Life Cycle (Design, Construction, Testing, Implementation).

Setting up a SharePoint Project Site Part 6 – The Project Status Dashboard

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Assembling a Project Status Dashboard is a powerful way to use the capabilities of SharePoint. Instead of having to create a weekly status report manually, SharePoint can do it for you using information you are already updating on the site. This can be a big time saver. The page is updated in real-time as you update the component parts that are shown on the page so the sponsor or other stakeholders can always see the latest status instead of having to wait for you to send it.

Another advantage of the dashboard is that it acts like “mission control” for the project manager. I would always start my day on the dashboard to help determine on what I need to focus. In one place you have your upcoming milestones, high impact issues and risks, and action items due in the next 7 days. You can drill into the details of each item right from that page. This beats looking for each piece individually in documents on a network drive.

I use the SharePoint “web part page” to set up the Project Status Dashboard. A “web part page” allows you to assemble a page from existing lists, libraries and other SharePoint components you have already built on your project site. I like the 3-column format for fitting all of the important information.

Here is the information I include and how I format it:

First Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Information Announcement – contains basic project information such as the name, number, description and benefits, sponsor name and project manager name.

Second Row, across all 3 columns:

The Project Status Announcement – contains a few sentences from the Project Manager and Lead Business Analyst on the state of the project. I like to update this weekly or whenever an important milestone is reached.

Third Row:

Column 1: The Project Health Scorecard

Column 2: A view on the Issues list containing only high impact Issues, and under that, a view on the risks list containing only high exposure Risks

Column 3: Upcoming Milestones (current month and next month)

Fourth Row, across all columns:

Time Off Calendar for key project team members and stakeholders

Fifth and Sixth Rows, across all columns:

Action Items Due in the next 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Action Items Completed in the last 7 Days – I use a view over the Action Items List.

Seventh Row, across all columns:

Key project documents from the document libraries.

You may need to educate and train your users to come here first for information but it will be well worth your time to do so.