Effective project planning demands both a sharp eye for detail and a holistic view of overall progress. By visually comparing the planned versus earned value on a weekly basis, project managers can monitor development trends and steer projects in the right direction. This is made effortless with an interactive project tracking dashboard built in Power BI, where key performance questions can be answered in just one click.
This demo offers a visual exploration of the project lifecycle, including the engineering, procurement, and fabrication phases. Users can drill down further into engineering progress by vendor or analyze fabrication performance by department.
Monitoring overall project performance
In this case, we are tracking the production plan of a naval vessel. The Overall Performance page of the dashboard reveals that the project has experienced significant delays, particularly since June 2019. As a result, a revised forecast was developed and adopted as the new baseline for planning.
To assess how the project is progressing compared to the plan, we use the Schedule Performance Index (SPI)—a key project management metric that compares the earned value to the planned value. An SPI of 1.0 indicates the project is exactly on schedule, while a score above 1.0 means the project is ahead, and below 1.0 signals delays. In this case, the SPI for the fabrication phase remains well below 1.0, clearly indicating that this part of the project is falling behind.
These trends are also visible in the S-curve visualization, which tracks cumulative progress over time. The curve helps pinpoint where the project began to diverge from the plan, making it easier to understand the timeline of delays and identify areas where action is needed.
Dashboard technology: Power BI & Primavera integration
This project dashboard was developed using Power BI, integrated with planning data from Primavera. Power BI is among the industry’s leading analytics tools, offering high flexibility and fast, customizable visualizations. While Power BI was used for this case, other reporting tools or data sources can be integrated to meet project-specific needs.
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Ready to take project tracking to the next level?
Let’s turn your planning data into a powerful advantage. EyeOn helps you design dashboards that uncover bottlenecks, improve decision-making, and keep complex projects on course. Get in touch to explore how we can help you gain real-time control over your project performance—backed by the right insights, at the right time.
Contact us if you are interested in discussing reporting possibilities for your project plan. Find more information on Defense.