Insights Classic: Project Health Dashboard

Overview

The standard Project Health dashboard provides a comprehensive view of any project’s health. Anyone with access to it can easily see the revenue, schedule, resourcing, budget, cost, task management, task performance, and project time for all projects, down to a single project.  

The standard Project Health dashboard tabs are, in order from most to least used:

• Portfolio Scoreboard
• Project Health
• Estimated Revenue
• Execution
• Resources
• Time Submitted
• Task Actions
• Summary Status

Understanding Project Health Risk Metrics

There are some specific risk metrics that display in several different tabs that can help you measure your project risk in terms of Pace, Execution, and Resource Health. Each is an aggregated representation of a series of data points that give you a holistic picture while letting you drill down into the details to identify the problem.

Pace Metric

A project’s Pace shows you whether your projects are on track by looking at the number of tasks completed relative to the number of tasks that should be completed as of today.

It is calculated using this formula:

Generally, if the value is greater than or equal to 1, you will see green squares. Green means that tasks are getting done on time, and the project is progressing smoothly. When the value falls below 1, the squares will fill in, and the colors change from green to red, providing a barometer of risk.

Selecting Pace for a Project opens a modal dialog that contains specific information related to which tasks are at risk.

Execution Metric

A project’s Execution level helps you identify what projects are at risk due to several metrics at the Task level, including tasks that are past due and hours logged against tasks without due dates. 

It is calculated using this formula:

Generally, if the value is 0 you will see green squares. Green means tasks have due dates, are starting and ending on time, and the project overall is progressing smoothly. When the value begins to rise above 0, the squares will fill in, and the colors change from green to red, providing a barometer of risk.

Selecting Execution for a Project takes you directly to the Execution tab, where the table offers more specific information about which tasks are at risk.

Resource Health Metric

Resource Health helps identify which resources are stretched thin, such ones that are working past scheduled due dates, surpassing scheduled hours, or are working more hours than originally estimated. 

It is calculated using this formula:

Note that user burnout is likely when Actual Hours exceeds 120%.

Generally, if the value is 0, you will see green squares. Green means your employees are working at an appropriate level, and work is distributed evenly across your company. When the value starts to increase, the squares will fill in, and the colors change from green to red, providing a barometer of risk.

Selecting Resources for a Project takes you directly to the Resources tab where the table offers more specific information on what resources are at risk.

Portfolio Scoreboard

The Portfolio Scoreboard is one of the most popular tabs in the Project Health dashboard, especially with executives and leadership teams because it provides an aggregated, high-level view of project health. Quickly see what factors are the most significant contributors to poor project health so you can identify areas that need to be addressed.

The Scoreboard table is your driver. It is color-coded, so you can see not only what projects need attention, but where.

Select anything that shows an underline when you mouse over it to see more specific details. For example, selecting a percent from the % Margin column for a Project takes you to the Estimated Revenue tab that automatically filters for that project. Selecting Resources for a project takes you to the Resources tab where you can see what resources are over-or-under utilized.

Using the Scoreboard table as your starting point makes it easy to get to the information you want for the project you need.

Project Health

The reports in the Project Health tab are perfect for sharing with executives and leadership. The reports provide a comprehensive view of a single project’s overall health and financials. At a glance, you can see several important metrics, such as actual hours compared to scheduled and estimated hours, the cost to date, Estimate at Completion data, and the status of tasks, deliverables, milestones, and issues.

Estimated Revenue

The Estimated Revenue tab shows revenue based on whether the project is fixed fee or time and materials-based. You can see a revenue breakdown by user, how costs compare to fees, and anticipated costs based on what is scheduled.

The equation used to calculate fixed fee revenue is:

The % Complete Based on Cost is the percent total of Estimate at Completion (EAC) cost that incurred to date.

The equation used to determine time and materials revenue is:

If you want to see Estimated Revenue for another project, select it from the Project drop-down menu.

Execution

The Execution Health tab gives you a quick look at project health from the task level, showing you hours logged against tasks in the project, as well as giving you insight into which tasks are at risk.

The Task Hours Burn chart gives a cumulative view of the numbers of hours logged against tasks over the life of the project, broken down into the following hour types:

• Task Estimates—The total number of task estimated hours of tasks on the project.
• Scheduled Hours to Date—The total number of scheduled hours entered on tasks up to the current date.
• Actual Hours—All time entries added to the project plus any scheduled hours on tasks with future dates.
• Projected Hours—Forecasted total hours calculated by the EAC (Estimate at Completion) and all scheduled hours up through the previous day’s date.

The Task Health table gives you an indication of which tasks may be putting the project at risk based on specific metrics:

Resources

The Resources tab gives you a quick look at project health from the resource level, showing you the number of actual hours and scheduled hours per resource in the project, as well as giving you a quick look at the health of each resources’ tasks on the project.

Time Submitted

The Time Submitted tab functions as a time audit report for a project. At a glance, you can see who has logged time and if it is billable.

 You can also see if time entries are submitted on time. Knowing this is beneficial if you want to get an accurate picture of current project profitability. 

Task Actions

The Task Actions tab provides an organized, detailed view of how your tasks are doing. Quickly see a sum of project tasks, including how many total hours were estimated, scheduled, and spent. The reports also show you what the project’s budget is and what is remaining based on the amount of time spent so far.

Summary Status

The Summary Status tab is popular as you can send it to clients on a project-by-project basis. It provides a summary without financial information.

Clients can see how the project is doing overall, as well as what tasks are complete, which ones are in progress, and any issues that have popped up.