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Project dashboards

Project dashboard examples

Two project dashboards: a project status dashboard and a project portfolio dashboard, plus the steering deck built from the same numbers. Open either to see it in full, then use it as a template for your own data.

Project Portfolio dashboard: Budget, Actual Cost, Cost Variance and Percent Complete tiles, above Budget by portfolio.
Project Status dashboard: Percent Complete, Actual Hours, Budget and Cost Variance tiles, above Status by project.

All figures are sample data.

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Projects in Jira, or in a spreadsheet?Pick where your data is. Each opens a free template that builds a dashboard like these.

The examples

Two project dashboard examples and templates

Click a board to see all of it. Click Use template to start your own copy in Mammoth. All figures are sample data.

  1. Project Status dashboard: Percent Complete, Actual Hours, Budget and Cost Variance tiles, above Status by project.
    Sample data

    Project status dashboard

    What is stuck, before the status meeting starts?

    • Percent complete
    • Actual hours
    • Budget
    • Cost variance
    Use template
  2. Project Portfolio dashboard: Budget, Actual Cost, Cost Variance and Percent Complete tiles, above Budget by portfolio.
    Sample data

    Project portfolio dashboard

    Which programmes are over budget, and by how much?

    • Budget
    • Actual cost
    • Cost variance
    • Percent complete
    Use template

  3. Your data

    Want this on your own numbers?

    Pick where your data is. Mammoth turns it into a dashboard like these.

Definition

What a project dashboard is

A project dashboard is one screen that shows how far the work has got and what is at risk of missing its date. It is also called a project tracking or project health dashboard, and the portfolio version a PMO dashboard.

  • Progress and cost together

    80% done means little if 130% of the budget is gone.

  • Original dates kept

    So a slipped date stays visible.

  • Each project shown separately

    An overrun cannot hide in a total.

The metrics

The metrics a project dashboard is built from

Seven numbers. The first two are the ones status reports often blur together. Open each one to see the data it needs.

  • Percent complete

    How much of the work is done?

    What the data needs

    One stated rule for what done means. Tasks closed and hours used give different answers for the same project, and the gap between them is worth showing.

  • Schedule variance

    How far has the date moved?

    What the data needs

    The original dates, kept after every re-plan. Overwriting them when a date slips makes every project look on time, which is why so many portfolio boards are green.

  • Budget against actual cost

    Which programmes are overspending?

    What the data needs

    Committed and spent cost for each programme, never added into one total. One programme 20% under and one 20% over add up to zero, which hides the overrun until it is large.

  • Effort planned against actual

    Is the work taking as long as planned?

    What the data needs

    Timesheet or estimate data at the same level of detail as the plan. Effort logged against a programme cannot be compared with effort planned against a task.

  • Open risks and blockers by age

    What has been stuck the longest?

    What the data needs

    The date each item was raised and its status history, not just its current status. Without the history, something open for five months looks the same as something raised yesterday.

  • Resource utilisation

    Are people overloaded on one project and idle on another?

    What the data needs

    Hours booked per person per project against their available hours for the same weeks. Leave out holidays and part-time contracts and everyone looks under-used.

  • Milestones hit on time

    Do milestones land on the dates promised?

    What the data needs

    Each milestone's original date and the date it was met. Overwriting the original date at every re-plan makes every project score 100%.

Reports and decks

The same numbers as a deck

A steering meeting walks through slides rather than browsing a dashboard. The deck is built from the same sample data as the two dashboards above.

How to build one

How to build your own project dashboard

From one of the examples above to a live dashboard on your own data.

  1. 1

    Pick a template

    Start from either of the boards above.

  2. 2

    Add your data

    Upload a spreadsheet, or connect one of 100+ tested connectors.

  3. 3

    Clean it once

    Fix and combine your data once. Mammoth repeats those steps for you.

  4. 4

    Set it to refresh

    The dashboard updates on a schedule and flags data that fails a check.

  5. 5

    Share the link

    Public, password-protected or sign-in only, on every plan.

Start with a template

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FAQ

Project dashboard questions

Last reviewed against the template catalogue.

What belongs on a project dashboard?
Enough to show where the work is and what it is costing, and little else. Status by project, progress by workstream, overdue work ranked by priority, and budget against actual with the variance shown. The common mistake is a board that lists every field the tracker exports. That is a report, and nobody opens it twice.
What is a PMO dashboard?
A project dashboard one level up: every project or programme on one screen, with budget against actual cost and effort against plan, so a project management office can see which ones need attention. The project portfolio dashboard above is that view. The project status dashboard is for a single delivery team.
How do I build a project dashboard?
Start from the meeting it has to replace, usually the weekly status round. Then follow five steps.
  1. Connect the tool where the work is tracked, such as Jira, Asana or a spreadsheet, and the finance export with the budget.
  2. Agree what done means, and keep the original dates after every re-plan, or every project will look on time.
  3. Put progress and cost side by side, because percent complete alone does not show whether the budget held.
  4. Add the problems below: overdue work ranked by priority, and projects over budget shown one by one.
  5. Set a refresh before the meeting and send the link, so the hour is spent on problems instead of collecting updates.
Can I use Excel to create a project dashboard?
Yes, for one project from one source. It stops working when the work is in a tracker, the hours in a timesheet and the budget in a finance export, because someone has to combine them by hand every week. That is the job a prepared, scheduled dashboard takes over.
Is this a replacement for Jira, Asana or Monday?
No, and it would be a poor one. Those tools are where the work is tracked, and their own dashboards are the right place to watch a sprint. This is for the level above: several workstreams or portfolios, often from more than one tool, with budget and effort alongside delivery. If all your work is in one tracker and its built-in board answers your question, use that.
Can it combine projects from more than one tool?
Yes, that is what it is for. Delivery data in one tool, hours in another and budget in a finance export is normal, and it is why reporting gets rebuilt by hand each month. Mammoth saves the steps that combine them and re-runs them, so next month's exports come out the same way with no rework.
How current is it?
As current as the schedule you set, and how often it can refresh depends on your plan. Overnight is enough for a weekly steering review. Refreshing more often matters when the board is read live in a meeting. See plans and refresh rates
Do the project sponsors need licences to look at it?
No. Viewers are unlimited and free on every Mammoth plan, including the free one. Only the people who build dashboards count as users, so a steering committee, a client and a delivery team can all have the link at no extra cost.

Build the project dashboard you actually need.

Start from one of these templates or your own spreadsheet. Share it with as many people as you like, free.

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