Project Management Dashboard Excel Template Free Download

  

Excel dashboard template for project management

This article provides details of Excel dashboard template for project management that you can download now.

These project management dashboard templates that are free to download can help you stay on track. Smartsheet has a free Project Management Dashboard template that delivers and tracks various KPIs for managing a project. These include deadlines, financial status, and risk mitigation. Project Portfolio Template Excel Free Download Free Project via (techno-pm.com) Project Tracking Template Freelancer Project Tracking Template via (covcom.us) Excel Project Management FREE Templates Resources Guides via (chandoo.org) Excel Dashboard Spreadsheet Template via (projectmanagersinn.com) powerpoint project status dashboard template.

Microsoft Excel software under a Windows environment is required to use this template

  1. The project management dashboard template is only one of many templates we offer free on our site. Some of them are directly compatible with the dashboard and give you a more complete view of your project. Try the following to get more control and keep your project on track.
  2. Project Management KPI Dashboard. Measure and track Key Performance Metrics using this dashboard template from Someka.net. Some of the KPIs are Cost Performance Index, Scheduled Variance, and Resource Utilization. Use this template for advanced and more effective project management.
  3. Each type of Excel project plan template suit different kinds of projects. So, you need to know which template to use for which situation. Here are some of the most common types of multiple project tracking template Excel to use: Agile project plan. The basis for this type of project management spreadsheet is the projects’ features.

These Excel dashboard templates for project management work on all versions of Excel since 2007.

Examples of a ready-to-use spreadsheet: Download this table in Excel (.xls) format, and complete it with your specific information.

To be able to use these models correctly, you must first activate the macros at startup.

Thanks to Excel templates, we have the opportunity to organize and manage an infinite number of tasks. This is mainly due to the many functions of Excel. For this, over time, spreadsheets have become our best ally for project monitoring and control of our business processes.

How to develop project tracking on Excel

The process is really very simple. It works like an Excel database template that helps us gather information from our work ....

The file to download presents five Excel dashboard templates for project management

A project is any sort of planned undertaking

All of us have been involved in projects, whether they be our personal projects or in business and industry. Examples of typical projects are for example:

  • Personal projects:
  • obtain an MBA
  • write a report
  • plan a wedding
  • plant a garden
  • build a house extension
  • Industrial projects:
  • construct a building
  • provide a gas supply to an industrial estate
  • build a motorway
  • design a new car
  • Business projects:
  • develop a new course
  • develop a new course
  • develop a computer system
  • introduce a new product
  • prepare an annual report
  • set up a new office

Projects can be of any size and duration. They can be simple, like planning a party, or complex like launching a space shuttle.

Generally projects are made up of:

  • a defined beginning,
  • multiple activities which are performed to a plan,
  • a defined end.

Therefore a project may be defined as a means of moving from a problem to a solution via a series of planned activities.

  • A project is a means of moving from a problem to a solution via a series of planned activities.
  • A project has a definite beginning and end.
  • Projects consist of several activities.

Two essential features are present in every project no matter how simple or complicated they are. In the first place, all projects must be planned out in advance if they are to be successfully executed. Secondly, the execution of the project must be controlled to ensure that the desired results are achieved.

On most projects it is possible to carry out multiple activities simultaneously. Usually it is possible to perform several activities at the same time, however there will be activities which cannot begin until a preceding activity has been completed. Such relationships are referred to as dependencies or precedencies, and when planning a project it is important to establish the order of precedence of dependent activities, and to establish those activities which can be performed in parallel with other activities.

Regardless of the nature or size of your project a successful outcome can only be achieved by using sound project management techniques. The most widely used and popular methods of project management are Gantt Charts, Critical Path Method (CPM) and Programme Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). However, it is important to remember that projects are carried out by people, and the human aspects of project management are critical for the project success.

Terminology and Definitions

A project is an interrelated set of activities that has a definite starting and ending point and results in the accomplishment of a unique, often major outcome. 'Project management' is, therefore, the planning and control of events that, together, comprise the project. Project management aims to ensure the effective use of resources and delivery of the project objectives on time and within cost constraints.

An activity or task is the smallest unit of work effort within the project and consumes both time and resources which are under the control of the project manager. A project is a sequence of activities that has a definite start and finish, an identifiable goal and an integrated system of complex but interdependent relationships.

A schedule allocates resources to accomplish the activities within a timeframe. The schedule sets priorities, start times and finish times.

Project management is:

the adept use of techniques and skills (hard and soft) in planning and controlling tasks and resources needed for the project, from both inside and outside of organisation, to achieve results.


The purpose of project management is to achieve successful project completion with the resources available. A successful project is one which:

Dashboard

Multiple Project Dashboard Template Excel

  • has been finished on time
  • is within its cost budget
  • performs to a technical/performance standard which satisfies the end user.

The Attributes of Successful Project Management

The effectiveness of project management is critical in assuring the success of any substantial undertaking. Areas of responsibility for the project manager include planning, control and implementation. A project should be initiated with a feasibility study, where a clear definition of the goals and ultimate benefits need to be established. Senior managers' support for projects is important so as to ensure authority and direction throughout the project's progress and, also to ensure that the goals of the organization are effectively achieved within this process. The particular form of support given can influence the degree of resistance the project encounters.

Knowledge, skills, goals and personalities are all factors that need to be considered within project management. The project manager and his/her team should collectively possess the necessary and requisite interpersonal and technical skills to facilitate control over the various activities within the project.

The stages of implementation must be articulated at the project planning phase. Disaggregating the stages at its early point assists in the successful development of the project by providing a number of milestones that need to be accomplished for completion. In addition to planning, the control of the evolving project is also prerequisite to success. Control requires adequate monitoring and feedback mechanisms by which senior and project managers can compare progress against initial projections at each stage of the project. Monitoring and feedback also enables the project manager to anticipate problems (e.g.: the knock-on effects of late start or finish times) and therefore take pre-emptive corrective measures for the benefit of the project overall.

Management

Projects normally involve the introduction of a new system of some kind and, in almost all cases, new methods and ways of doing things. This impacts upon the work of others: the 'users'. User consultation is an important factor in the success of projects and, indeed, the degree of user involvement can influence the extent of support for the project or its implementation plan. A essential quality of the project manager is that of being a good communicator, not just within the project team itself, but with the rest of the organization and outside bodies as well (the users may be internal or external).

Features of projects

  • Projects are often carried out by a team of people who have been assembled for that specific purpose. The activities of this team may be co-ordinated by a project manager.
  • Project teams may consist of people from different backgrounds and different parts of the organisation. In some cases project teams may consist of people from different organisations.
  • Project teams may be inter-disciplinary groups and are likely to lie outside the normal organisation hierarchies.
  • The project team will be responsible for delivery of the project end product to some sponsor within or outside the organisation. The full benefit of any project will not become available until the project as been completed.

In recent years more and more activities have been tackled on a project basis. Project teams and a project management approach have become common in most organisations. The basic approaches to project management remain the same regardless of the type of project being considered. You may find it useful to consider projects in relation to a number of major classifications:

  1. a) Engineering and construction

The projects are concerned with producing a clear physical output, such as roads, bridges or buildings. The requirements of a project team are well defined in terms of skills and background, as are the main procedures that have to be undergone. Most of the problems which may confront the project team are likely to have occurred before and therefore their solution may be based upon past experiences.

  1. b) Introduction of new systems

These projects would include computerisation projects and the introduction of new systems and procedures including financial systems. The nature and constitution of a project team may vary with the subject of the project, as different skills may be required and different end-users may be involved. Major projects involving a systems analysis approach may incorporate clearly defined procedures within an organisation.

  1. c) Responding to deadlines and change

An example of responding to a deadline is the preparation of an annual report by a specified date. An increasing number of projects are concerned with designing organisational or environmental changes, involving developing new products and services.

Activity

Consider this last category. Can you think of any examples where your organisation needs to respond to change and a project management approach may be valid?

Responsibilities of the Project Manager

  1. To plan thoroughly all aspects of the project, soliciting the active involvement of all functional areas involved, in order to obtain and maintain a realistic plan that satisfies their commitment for performance.
  2. To control the organization of manpower needed by the project.
  3. To control the basic technical definition of the project, ensuring that 'technical' versus 'cost' trade-offs determine the specific areas where optimisation is necessary.
  4. To lead the people and organizations assigned to the project at any given point in time. Strong positive leadership must be exercised in order to keep the many disparate elements moving in the same direction in a co-operative.
  5. To monitor performance, costs and efficiency of all elements of the project and the project as a whole, exercising judgement and leadership in determining the causes of problems and facilitating solutions.
  6. To complete the project on schedule and within costs, these being the overall standard by which performance of the project manager is evaluated.
Project Management Dashboard Excel Template Free Download

Why do projects go wrong?

There can be many reasons why projects go wrong. The most common reasons are as follows:


  1. Project goals are not clearly defined
  2. There can be constraints on the completion of projects arising from the different objectives of:
  • Short time scale
  • Resource availability
  • Quality factors
  • Human factors

Problems with Project Goals

  • The project sponsor or client has an inadequate idea of what the project is about at the start.
  • There may be a failure of communication between the client and the project manager. The may be due to a lack of technical knowledge on the part of the client or an overuse of jargon by the project manager.
  • Specifications may be subject to constant change. This may be due to problems with individual clients, decision making processes at the client end, or environmental changes. For example the government may change the basic 'rules of the game' before the completion of the project.
  • The project goals may be unrealistic and unachievable, and it may be that this is only realised once the project is under way.
  • The client may become carried away with the idea of the project and may be unable to see clearly what can be achieved.
  • Projects may be highly complex and may have a number of objectives that actually contradict each other.

There are perhaps two stages which can help in ensuring that goals are properly defined and achievable:

  1. Ensuring that the client specification is clear and understandable. To do this you must first of all establish the objectives of the project. It would help to ask the following questions:
Project dashboard excel
  • What is it that the organisation is setting out to achieve or is being asked to achieve?
  • Will the suggested project fulfil these objectives?
  • Have all the alternatives been considered and is the chosen option the best one available?
  • Have the full effects of the project, both inside and outside the organisation, been considered?
  1. Preparation of a Project overvies (Project brief). The brief should take the objectives set out in the previous exercise and translate them into targets and goals. Any key constraints should also be identified and stated at this stage. This brief should be agreed by the sponsor/client and communicated to the project manager. Any ambiguities or queries should be sorted out as soon as possible.

A good way forward would be through the establishment of success criteria for the project. If you want the project to succeed (and who doesn't?), then you have to know when you have succeeded.

Free Project Dashboard Template Download

Success criteria can be described as being hard or soft:

  • Hard criteria are often the most obvious criteria that are tangible and measurable and can be expressed in quantitative terms. They tend to pose the question 'what?', that is 'what should be achieved?'
  • Soft criteria are usually less obvious, but not necessarily less important. They are often intangible and qualitative. Consequently they may be difficult to measure. They would tend to ask the question 'how?'
Project
  1. Hard criteria
  • Performance specifications: these may be set out in terms of the ability to deal with certain demands. For example, this could be throughput of traffic, number of patients, volume of transactions processed or the number of enquiries dealt with.
  • Specific quality standards: this could relate to technical standards and tolerance, or may be the achievement of a favourable report from an outside inspection agency.
  • Meeting deadlines: this is probably the most obvious one of them all where projects need to be completed within a given time scale. For example, a new system may need to be implemented ready for the start of the financial year, or a new development may have to meet time requirements as laid down in contract specifications.
  • Cost of budget constraints: an important criterion may be to complete the project within a cost limit or budget which has been determined. Additionally there may be requirements in terms of the ongoing cost of the completed project. For example, a new system may be required to make savings for the organisation on a continuing basis.
  • Resource constraints: there may be other resource constraints such as making use of existing premises or labour force.

As you can see, the above criteria are relatively easy to establish and should also be quite easy to specify in a project brief.

  1. Soft criteria
  • Demonstrative co-operation: this would be about showing that the project team could work together effectively and without a degree of conflict. It could be an important consideration to develop and implement solutions for the organisation which have a wide element of consensus and stem from a co-operative attitude.
  • Presenting a positive image: this may also be important but obviously can be difficult or impossible to quantify.
  • Achieving a total quality approach: this would be more about the adoption of a philosophy of continuous improvement than the achievement of specific performance targets on quality.
  • Gaining total project commitment: this is again about how the project is managed and the attitude of the project team to it.
  • Ensuring that ethical standards are maintained: it can be very important to ensure that no corners have been cut that should not have been and that professional standards of ethics have not been breached.
  • Showing an appreciation of risk: this would ensure that no unacceptable risks were taken in the pursuit of other project objectives. Again this is about how the project is developed rather then the end product itself.

Constraints on the completion of projects

  1. Time

Our definition of a project stated that it was an activity which had a defined beginning and ending point. Most projects will be close-ended in terms of there being a requirement for completion by a certain point in time. This point may be the result of an external factor such as new legislation, or may be derived from organisational requirements. It may also be partly determined by other constraints. There is likely to be some relationship between the time taken for a project and its cost. A trade-off between the two constraining factors may then be necessary.


  1. b) Resource Availability

There is likely to be a budget for the project and this will clearly be a major constraint. Cost constraints may be set in a number of ways, for example as an overall cash limit or as a detailed budget broken down over a number of expenditure headings. Labour resources in particular may be a limiting factor on the completion of the project. In the short run it is likely that labour will be fixed in supply. Whilst the overall resource available may in theory be sufficient to complete the project, there may be difficulties arising out of the way in which the project has been scheduled. That is, there may be a number of activities scheduled to take place at the same time and this may not be possible given the amount of resources available.

  1. c) Quality factors

Whether the project delivers the goods to the right quality.

There are techniques which can be used to overcome the problems referred to above. These include:

  • Budgeting, and the corresponding control of the project budget through budgetary control procedures.
  • Project planning and control techniques such as Gantt charts and network analysis.

An important point to note at this stage is how the various constraints on project completion are likely to be interlinked with each other. For example, problems with time constraints or resource constraints may be overcome by spending more through working overtime, employing more people or purchasing better machines. Budget problems may have a knock-on effect on the achievement of deadlines.

It is important to remember that while project management techniques are important, they tend to understate the importance of the key resource: people. In a fact changing environment where tasks are often difficult, controversial with uncertain outcomes, 'people management' skills are called for.

Summary

A project should possess identifiable goals and a definite starting and finishing point.

Project goals must be defined clearly. A useful checklist can be developed in relation to success criteria. Criteria may be hard and concerned with what the project should achieve, or soft when they will cover how the project should proceed.

The major constraints on the completion of projects are Time, Resource Availability and the need to achieve the required standard of performance for the project.

Project Planning

A major decision at the outset of any project is to decide upon the organization and composition of the project team. In so doing, it is worth remembering that many members will have dual responsibilities of involvement in the project in addition to a commitment to other projects or management of a functional area on a day-to-day basis. It is at this stage that a project manager should be appointed and responsibilities made explicit for all members of the team.

The selection of the team will be dependent upon the skill requirements of the project, and upon the matching of those skills to those possessed by individual members of the team. There may be a conflict here with hierarchical status.

The project management team will, therefore, begin its task in advance of project proper so that a plan can be developed. An important first step is to set the objectives and then define the project, breaking it down into a set of activities and related costs. It is probably too early to determine exact resource implications at this stage, but expected requirements for people, supplies and equipment should at least be estimated during the planning stage.

Project Scheduling

This phase is primarily concerned with attaching a timescale and sequence to the activities to be conducted within the project. Materials and people needed at each stage of the project are determined and the time each is to take will be set.

A popular and easy to use technique for scheduling is the use of Gantt charts. Gantt charts reflect time estimates and can be easily understood. Horizontal bars are drawn against a time scale for each project activity, the length of which represent the time taken to complete. Letters or symbols can also be added to the left of each bar to show which other activities need to be completed before that one can begin.

Want to enhance your customer satisfaction? Download Free Excel Project Management Tracking Templates here as they are available in different formats here.

These excel worksheets are standout amongst the most famous formats utilizing via venture administrators. Do you know that these spreadsheets take your undertaking names, begin and end dates, and lengths, and change them into a falling flat bar outline?

Additionally, you can rapidly the overall project goals and relation between them. Deal with numerous projects efficiently using these!

Streamline your project tracking with ready-to-use project management templates in Excel. The beauty of a template is that you have a starting point you can use again and again.

Project Management Dashboard Excel Template Free Download Microsoft

To tell the truth, having all your task data in a single focal place; so everybody included knows precisely where to search for vital points of interest. This increases the chances of success for any project as well!

With the project management templates, you can include undertakings; status, need, expectations, due dates, cost, hours, and more for your entire task. In case you’re dealing with a substantial undertaking, a venture following layout will help continue everything composed.

Features of Free Excel Project Management Tracking Templates

Take a look at our top templates in this regard:

Project management dashboard template

  • Your project dashboard format depends on highlights. The arrangement evaluates to what extent it will take for each element to be conveyed, without much detail on how it will convey.
  • Also, on the grounds that the undertaking designs are centered around highlights, you can aggregate comparative highlights into dashes!!
  • Once the arrangement is created, the task group needs to keep up it and refresh the status and courses of events appropriately.
  • This tracking dashboard template format gives you a chance to include your errands, which are mindful, begin and end dates, and status. It is free of cost! Review More Management Templates.

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