Sunday, July 06, 2008

A Project Dashboard

Lots of talk at work about implementing a project management suite. I'm not a big fan of any of the current offerings. So, I've been working on an Excel spreadsheet to track project velocity and health. What I'm attaching pretty much tells me everything I need to know about a project's health. The spreadsheet has 2 worksheets; Data, Dashboard.

The Data workbook holds all the raw data about each iteration. Only Columns A thru F should be filled in. The rest of the columns are calculated using those values. Also, I have hidden all the rows from below the last row to row 1400. I do this so these rows aren't calculated into the charts on the Dashboard worksheet. As I add rows I unhide it.

The Dashboard workbook has several charts that I find useful. The release progress chart is a sort of burn down chart. It not only includes burn down but also tracks points completed. I like this chart because it gives me a rough estimate of a project's halfway point. The estimation quality factor lets you track your estimates over time. The estimates are calculated automatically ((Pts Remaining +AVGChange) / Velocity) but can be filled in manually if need be.

For my next challenge I will move the dashboard to Google Docs.

Take a look at the dashboard. Discuss it below....I'll post changes as requested!

Download Here!

3 comments:

Jeff Anderson said...

I like it!

I like my burned on chart better, but I love the rate of change and the other chart that you have there, very cool stuff

Unknown said...

I was really looking for a tracking method that didn't expect me to "plan" certain stories for the upcoming iteration.

The thing I like about this spreadsheet is it only requires me to track the number of points completed in the last iteration and the number of points remaining for the release.

The number of points remaining may grow and shrink and that's acceptable. As defects or new stories are discovered the sheet will automatically determine the rate of change for you.

The rate of change is used to calculate the final estimate. The estimation quality factor really gives the BVDMs something to key in on. While the developers are more likely to look at the more traditional Iteration Status chart.

Teresa Halminton said...

Thank you! I hope to hear more updates from you, this is what I want to know more about.imgrum