How do I setup and use the project dashboard work?

Question

How do I setup and use the project dashboard?

Answer

Project Dashboard

The Project Dashboard allows you to track the breakdown of Project hours by Task and Task Group (or "Phase").  In addition to reviewing hours spent on various project tasks, you can compare planned vs actual start and finish dates, as well as planned vs actual hours or days worked. 

Configuration Steps

Default Behaviors

1. The Project Dashboard is automatically enabled when you enable multiple levels in your work breakdown structure, e.g. Project > Phase > Task.
2. It also automatically displays in the profile of each project created in your system. 
3. The Project Dashboard name itself is configured automatically by the name you give the Project level in the system tab's WBS structure. You can also set this term on the Terminology page. For example, you might name the project level "Job" which will make the dashboard display as "Job Dashboard."   

Configuring the Dashboard

To configure your dashboard:

1. Click on the show/hide button to the left of Project Dashboard to show the Edit and Tools buttons. 
2. Click the "Edit" button and add the appropriate phases and tasks you want to track on the dashboard. 
3. Alternatively, you can click Tools>Refresh to automatically build this list.  The Refresh link will add any tasks that have newly added hours, as well as update the actual hours for all of tasks in the dashboard.  
4. The system will also automatically update the actual hours for dashboard items every night
5. Anytime you need to update the dashboard immediately you can click the Refresh link.

Configuring Dashboard Options

In Options, as the system administrator you can configure global project dashboard settings, such as the list of task states, etc.

Note: Project dashboard options are global settings that will affect all users. Only administrators will have access to the Project Dashboard Options page.

• From within any project dashboard, click on Edit and then Options.
• Check the List Columns you want displayed. For example:

Here are descriptions of project columns that can be displayed:

Column	Description
Position	The position of each task in the list, starting from 1.
Task Group	The Task Group or Phase level of the work-breakdown-structure (WBS), if enabled.  Note that Task Group can be renamed when configuring the WBS on the System > General page.
Task	The Task level of the work-breakdown-structure (WBS), if enabled.  Note that Task can be renamed when configuring the WBS on the System > General page.
Status	The task status, such as "In Progress", etc.  This list can be configured by clicking the Edit button on any project dashboard, then clicking the "Options" link in the lower-right corner.
Planned Start Date	The planned or estimated start date for the phase or task.
Planned Finish Date	The planned or estimated finish date for the phase or task.
Planned Work	The planned or estimated work for the phase or task, in hours or days.  You can specify whether the units are hours or days from the Project Options page.
Actual Start Date	The actual start date for the phase or task.
Actual Finish Date	The actual finish date for the phase or task.
Actual Work	The actual start work recorded for the phase or task.  This value is updated automatically by the system every night (or you can update it immediately from the dashboard by clicking the Refresh link).
Percent Complete	This value is computed by the system.  If planned work is specified and non-zero then the percent complete will be: 100 * (actual work) / (planned work)
Notes	User-entered notes for this task entry in the dashboard.

You can also configure:

Property	Description
List Item Order	You can specify the order of the columns by dragging and dropping the column names.
Task States	This setting lets you control the list of task states, such as "In Progress", "Completed", etc. as suits your organizational needs. Task states are used on the Project Dashboard to track the status of the tasks needed to complete a project.

 

Manually Setting Values for Dashboard Items

To dashboard values for the project dashboard:

1. Click on the Edit button
2. Click the Add button to add new rows
3. After click Add, a WBS work item dialog will display
4. Select the level 4 item on the level 4 tab with a check, then the level 3 item on the level 3 tab with a check, and then OK to save.
5. Once added to the list, you can enter the values, e.g. Status, Planned Start Date, etc. 
6.  Once you configure the planned values you will see percentage complete and other statistics in the dashboard.

Note: Dashboard statistics such as Percent Complete are updated nightly. Clicking the "Refresh" link will update the statistics immediately.

Importing/Exporting Dashboards

You can use the tools menu on the project dashboard to import or export the dashboard configuration. See the Project Dashboard CSV Format topic for more information.

Refreshing Dashboards

You can use the tools menu to 'refresh' the actual hours recorded against each project dashboard item. The system automatically updates these values nightly, but you can use the tools menu refresh option to get the most recent value in cases where users are actively entering data.