Project dashboard

Contents

The project dashboard is a LibrePlan perspective which contains a set of KPI (Key Performance Indicators) which help to know how is performing a project according to:

Progress performance indicators

There are two indicators calculated: project progress percentage and task status.

Project progress percentage

It is a chart where the global progress of a project is calculated and compared to the expected value of progress the project should have according to the Gantt.

The progress is represented with two bars:

  • Current progress. It is the progress existing at the moment according to the measurements done.
  • Expected progress. It is the progress the project should have at the moment according to the planning created.

The project global progress is estimated in several different ways as there is not a unique right method to do it:

  • Spreading progress. It is the progress type set as spreading progress at project level. In this case, there is not way to calculate an expected value and only the current bar is displayed.
  • By all tasks hours. The progress of all project tasks is averaged to calculate the global value. It is a weighted average taking into account the number of hours allocated at each task.
  • By critical path hours. The progress of the tasks belonging to any of the critical paths of the project is averaged to obtain the global value. It is done a weighted average taking into account the total allocated hours of each of the involved tasks.
  • By critical path duration. The progress of the tasks belonging to any of the critical paths is averaged by doing a weighted average but this time taking into account the duration of each involved task instead of the assigned hours.

Task status

A pie chart showing the percentage of the project tasks being at different states. The defined states are the next ones:

  • Finished. They are the completed tasks, detected by a 100% progress value measured.
  • In progress. They are the tasks which are underway. They have a progress value distinct from 0% and 100% or some worked time tracked.
  • Ready to start. They have a progress of 0%, do not have time tracked, all their FINISH_TO_START dependent tasks are finished and all their START_TO_START dependent tasks are finished or in progress.
  • Blocked. These are the tasks with a 0% of progress, without time tracked and with previous dependent tasks neither in progress not in ready to start state.

Cost indicators

There are several Earned Value Management cost indicators calculated:

  • CV (Cost Variance). Difference between the Earned Value curve and the Actual Cost curve at the moment. Positive values indicate benefit and negative ones loss.

  • ACWP (Actual Cost Work Performed). It is the total number of hours tracked in the project at the moment.

  • CPI (Cost Performance Index). It is the Earned Value / Actual Cost ratio.

    • > 100 is good, means to be under budget.
    • = 100 is also good, means the cost is right on plan.
    • < 100 is bad, means that the cost of completing the work is higher than planned.
  • ETC (Estimate To Complete). It is the time that is pending to devote

    to the project to finish it.

  • BAC (Budget At Completion). It is the total amount of work allocated

    in the project plan.

  • EAC (Estimate At Completion). It is the manager projection of the total

    cost at project completion time according to the CPI.

  • VAC (Variance At Completion). It is the difference between the BAC and the ETC.

    • < 0 is over budget.
    • > 0 is under budget.

Resources

To analyze the project from resources' point of view two ratios and a histogram are provided.

Estimation deviation on completed task histogram

It is calculated the deviation between the number of hours allocated to the project tasks and the eventual number of hours dedicated to them.

The deviation is calculated in percentage for all the finished tasks and the calculated deviations are represented in a histogram. In the vertical axis the number of tasks which are in an interval of deviation is shown. Six deviation intervals are dynamically calculated.

Overtime ratio

It sums up the overload of the resources that are allocated in the project tasks. It is calculated according to the formula: overtime ratio = overload / (load + overload).

  • = 0 is good, meaning that the resources are not overloaded.
  • > 0 is bad, meaning that the resources are overloaded.

Availability ratio

It sums up the capacity that is free in the resources currently allocated to the project. Therefore it is a measurement of the resource availability to receive more allocations without being overloaded. It is calculated as: availability ratio = (1 - load/capacity)*100

  • Possible values are between 0% (fully assigned) and 100 (not assigned).

Time

They are included two charts: a histogram for the time deviation in the finish time of project tasks and a pie chart for the deadline violations.

Task completion lead or lag

It is calculated the difference in days between the planned end time for the project tasks and their actual end time. The planned completion date is got from the Gantt and the actual finish date is got from the last time tracked at the task.

The lag or lead in task completion is represented in a histogram. In the vertical axis the number of tasks with a lead/lag day difference value corresponding to the abscissa days interval is represented. Six dynamic task completion deviation intervals are calculated.

  • Negative values mean finishing ahead of time.
  • Positive values mean finishing with a delay.

Deadline violations

On one hand it is calculated the margin with the project deadline, if set. On the other hand a pie chart with the percentage of tasks hitting their deadline is painted. Three types of values are included in the chart:

  • Percentage of task without deadline configured.
  • Percentage of ended tasks with an actual end date later than their deadline. The actual end date is got from the last time tracked in the task.
  • Percentage of ended tasks with an actual end date sooner than their