Managing multiple projects simultaneously can be a daunting task. Each project comes with its own timelines, resources, budgets, and challenges. For project managers, keeping all of this data organised and actionable is critical for success.
Here is another use-case where I have found Power BI to be a powerful tool. So, let's jump in and discover how Power BI can help you manage your projects easier.
How Power BI Integrates with Project Management Systems
One of the most significant advantages of Power BI in project management is its ability to seamlessly connect to various corporate systems, pulling data directly from your existing tools and databases. In many organisations, project data is scattered across different platforms, for example:
budgeting might be tracked in an ERP system like SAP
task management in a tool like Microsoft Project
Issues and risks are logged in other risk management software
Manually consolidating this data is not only time-consuming but prone to human error.
The key strength of Power BI lies in its ability to pull data from different platforms and systems and make sense of it all in one cohesive interface. The visualisations I’ve built in this Power BI Report allows us to easily track progress, budgets, and milestones.
Seamless Integration with Corporate Systems
In this section, I will explore how this integration benefits project management:
1. Centralised Data View
Instead of hopping between different platforms to check budgets, timelines, or issues, project managers can access all relevant data in one place. This centralised view eliminates the need for manual data compilation, reducing the risk of outdated or inconsistent information.
2. Automatic Data Refresh
Once Power BI is connected to your data sources, the visualisations are automatically updated whenever the report is refreshed. This means that project managers and other stakeholders always have access to the most up-to-date information without the need for manual updates. For example, if your team logs a new issue into your issue-tracking system or updates the budget in SAP, those changes will instantly be reflected in your Power BI dashboard.
3. Error Reduction
By automating the data integration process, Power BI removes the risk of human error that often accompanies manual data entry. When pulling data manually from multiple systems, it's easy to overlook an important update or copy information incorrectly. Power BI’s direct connection to data sources ensures accuracy, consistency, and real-time synchronization, giving project managers greater confidence in the data they’re using to make decisions.
Build Once, Update Automatically
One of the most time-saving features of Power BI is that you only need to build your reports and visualisations once. After the initial setup, there’s no need for repetitive report building or formatting. Once you have created a report then Power BI automatically updates the data every time the report is refreshed.
What does this mean for the Project Managers and other stake holders who rely on these reports? Here are some thoughts:
Progress Tracking
You may have a Gantt chart visual in the Power BI report that tracks the progress of various infrastructure projects. Once this visual is built, Power BI will continue to update it every time there’s a change in the source data, whether that’s a change in task status, updated completion dates, or new assignments.
Financial Tracking
A budget visual tied to an ERP system will automatically pull in the latest financial data whenever the report is refreshed, eliminating the need for repetitive manual updates.
Risk and Issue Monitoring
The risk matrix, issue logs, and other crucial project management elements are automatically refreshed as new risks are identified or issues are resolved, providing up-to-the-minute insights.
This ‘build once, update automatically’ functionality saves hours of manual work, enabling project managers to spend more time on analysis and decision-making rather than data gathering.
Real-Time Decision Making
Because Power BI continuously updates the visualisations in the report, project managers and stakeholders can make decisions based on real-time data. This is especially critical in infrastructure projects, where delays or cost overruns can escalate quickly. Having a dashboard that automatically refreshes ensures that you’re never making decisions based on outdated or incomplete information.
You can create a centralised hub in the form of the Power BI report for all your project data, enabling automatic updates, reducing errors, and saving countless hours of manual work. The ability to build your visualisations once and have them automatically update means that your reports will always be current, allowing for better, real-time decision-making.
This unified data view gives project managers a ‘single source of truth’, allowing for real-time tracking and analytics. The visualisations in the reports help project teams answer critical questions such as:
How many projects are currently underway?
Are we meeting our financial goals?
Which projects are ahead of schedule, and which ones are lagging behind?
A High-Level Summary at Your Fingertips
Let’s examine the demo Project Management Power BI report’s Project Overview page.
This summary page provides a comprehensive, at-a-glance overview of project financials, workload, and progress. By combining high-level KPIs with detailed budget and cost visuals, it allows project managers to make quick, informed decisions and easily identify projects or teams that need attention. This summary report is valuable for stakeholders who want to monitor both the financial health and the progress of ongoing projects.
Dropdown Filters (Project Name & Team)
These filters allow users to narrow down the dashboard view to specific projects or teams, making it easier to analyse specific data without information overload.
Status Buttons (Completed, In Progress, Not Started)
These filters allow the user to filter projects by their status. Clicking on a specific status, users can instantly view only projects in that category, enabling quicker insights into project distribution and completion rates.
Summary Cards (Total Number of Projects, Completed Projects, In Progress Projects)
These KPIs provide high-level metrics on the overall count and progress of projects and helps stakeholders understand the workload and progress at a glance. It highlights the number of completed projects, which indicates team efficiency and the scale of work in progress.
Status Distribution Bar Chart
The Status Distribution bar chart shows the number of projects in each status category (In Progress, Completed, Not Started). Visualising the distribution of project statuses helps managers see how resources are allocated across different stages. It’s particularly useful for identifying any backlogs in projects that haven’t started.
Total Actual Cost KPI
This KPI visual displays the total actual cost incurred so far across all projects and provides insight into the overall expenditure, helping stakeholders assess financial progress and compare it to the budget allocation.
WIP (Work in Progress) Percentage Gauge
This gauge visualisation shows the percentage of work in progress based on the total project timeline or cost. This visual highlights the extent of project completion, helping managers gauge overall project progress. It’s especially useful for tracking whether projects are on schedule.
Cost Variance KPI with Goal Indicator
This KPI visualisation shows the actual cost compared to the budget goal (e.g., $6M actual vs. $15M goal) and provides immediate insight into budget performance, alerting managers to any discrepancies. Positive or negative variance against the goal helps track whether project costs are within the expected range.
Budget vs. Actual Cost Bar Chart
This bar chart compares the budget and actual costs for each project. This visual highlights which projects are over or under budget, enabling managers to prioritise interventions for projects at risk of overspending. It also helps with future budget allocation by showing historical performance.
Waterfall Chart (Cumulative Actual Costs)
The waterfall chart displays a cumulative view of actual project costs, segmented by increases and decreases. This type of visualisation is useful to provide a clear understanding of where funds have been spent and highlights cost progression. Managers can see which projects contributed most to the total cost, helping with expense tracking and forecasting.
Spend/Committed/Remaining Budget by Team Stacked Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the breakdown of Actual Cost, Committed Cost, and Forecast Cost for each team, and helps monitor how each team is utilising its budget, identifying teams with high remaining budgets or potential overspends. It also allows resource managers to see which departments may need more funds or adjustments.
Keeping an Eye on Progress
The Progress Report section provides a Gantt chart-style overview of all current infrastructure projects. Each row represents a project, with color-coded bars to indicate their status:
Green for completed tasks
Blue for tasks that are in progress
Orange for tasks not yet started
This visual not only makes it easier to see the timeline of each project but also allows managers to monitor progress against deadlines. For example, you can immediately see that the Bridge Rehabilitation on Elm Street is complete, and the Footpath Construction on Forest Avenue is still ongoing. This snapshot is invaluable for catching delays before they snowball into more significant problems.
In many infrastructure projects, deadlines are tied to other dependencies, like material deliveries or regulatory approvals. Having a dashboard like this, with real-time updates, lets you know whether external factors are causing delays or if internal processes need improvement.
Financial Goals and Budgeting Made Simple
An often-overlooked aspect of infrastructure project management is financial oversight. Many projects go over budget, causing strain on both resources and time.
In the Power BI financial visualisations, like the one here showing the financial goal of $6,000,000 with a current actual achievement of $15M, an 60% surplus for the ongoing projects. This type of visualisation provides a clear understanding of whether we are on track or overspending.
Linking data from budgeting software or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems like SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) or the corporate financial system, the Power BI visuals helps us to ensure that costs are monitored in real-time. Project managers can easily compare the budget against actual expenses and see where adjustments may be necessary. These insights become even more valuable when managing multiple projects, as small cost overruns can add up quickly.
Project Costing and Work-In-Progress (WIP) Tracking with Power BI
Tracking project costs and work-in-progress (WIP) is essential for managing infrastructure projects effectively. Keeping a close eye on budgets, expenditures, and how much work has been completed helps ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget. Power BI allows you to visualise these metrics in a way that makes it easy to monitor financial performance and project health, with live data updating automatically from your corporate systems.
For example, in this demo we are managing multiple infrastructure projects and the data we have for each project includes:
Estimated Budget ($): The initial budget allocated to the project.
Actual Cost ($): The amount already spent on the project.
WIP Percentage (%): The percentage of work that has been completed.
Cost to Complete ($): The estimated cost needed to finish the project based on the remaining work.
Committed Cost ($): This represents funds that have been set aside but not yet spent.
Forecasted Final Cost ($): A forecasted total project cost, which can change based on any potential cost overruns or adjustments.
We can simplify project costing and WIP tracking by automatically pulling real-time data from connected corporate systems and presenting it in easy-to-understand visualisations. These insights help project managers and stakeholders stay on top of budgets, monitor work completion, and anticipate potential cost overruns.
Managing Risks and Issues with Power BI
When it comes to managing infrastructure projects, risks and issues are inevitable. However, the key to successful project management is not just identifying these risks and issues, but having a clear, actionable plan to mitigate them.
Power BI is an invaluable tool in this area, offering a comprehensive view of potential risks, issues, and their resolutions. With interactive, real-time dashboards, project managers can quickly assess the likelihood and impact of risks while staying on top of logged issues and mitigation actions. Let's dive into how Power BI can help streamline this critical aspect of project management.
Visualising Risks with the Projects Risk Matrix
The Projects Risk Matrix in my Power BI report offers a clear snapshot of the most pressing risks across all ongoing projects. The matrix breaks down risks by Likelihood, Risk Severity, Impact, and includes a clear Mitigation Plan. These categories are colour-coded for quick identification, making it easier to prioritise where your attention is most needed.
For example:
Risks that are High in both likelihood and impact (highlighted in red) should be addressed urgently, as they pose the most significant threat to the project's success. In the image above, the Highway 45 Expansion and Footpath Construction on Forest Avenue are two such projects.
Medium risks (in yellow) need monitoring and may require actions to reduce their likelihood or impact, like the Bridge Rehabilitation on Elm Street.
Risks that fall into the Low category (in green) may not require immediate action, but they should still be tracked to ensure they don’t escalate.
The matrix also details specific mitigation actions. It may be something like securing long-term contracts with suppliers, adjusting schedules, or increasing communication with stakeholders. This structured approach allows project managers to tackle issues proactively rather than reactively, preventing potential delays and cost overruns.
Real-Time Risk and Issues Updates for Better Decision Making
Risks and issues change constantly in large infrastructure projects, and waiting until the weekly meeting to assess them can sometimes be too late. Power BI can connect directly to the various systems to ensure that the visualisations in the Power BI report are always up-to-date with information coming directly from the source. As soon as a new risk is identified or an issue is logged, it appears on the reports, allowing immediate action.
Imagine if an unexpected structural issue arises on a construction project, the relevant stakeholders can log it into the system, and project managers can instantly assess its impact on timelines, budgets, and resource allocation. With this data readily available, decision-makers can avoid the common pitfalls of project management – we have all experienced missed deadlines, ballooning costs, and unforeseen delays on at least one project at one time or another.
Managing risks and issues in infrastructure projects requires vigilance and a robust tracking system. Power BI provides project managers with the tools they need to assess and mitigate risks, monitor issues, and ensure that teams remain accountable.
The visualisations I have built here in this demo Power BI report, such as the Projects Risk Matrix and Logged Issues tables, offer easy-to-understand insights into the most critical factors impacting your projects.
The Power of Customisation
It is easy to customise the Power BI reports and visualisations to fit your specific needs.
You may want to focus more on resource allocation or track equipment usage across different sites. Or perhaps you need more detail about the project phases. Power BI is very versatile - the visualisations can be built to your requirements with filters and slices so you can create personalised views that meet your exact needs.
The ability to create custom reports and share them with stakeholders or team members ensures everyone has access to the same insights, facilitating better communication and collaboration. The reports can also be modified to view on mobile devices to enable project managers to track their projects on the go, ensuring they are always in control, no matter where they are.
The Many Benefits of Managing Infrastructure Projects with Power BI
Infrastructure projects are complex and require constant oversight, from progress monitoring to budget management. Power BI simplifies this by connecting data from various systems and providing easy-to-read, interactive visualisations that bring clarity to chaos. Whether you're tracking timelines, resources, or finances. This type of Power BI report for project management can provide project managers to stay ahead of potential issues and make informed decisions.
The visual tools I have explored here in the demo Project Management Power BI Report are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Power BI can offer. As infrastructure projects continue to grow in scale and complexity, using tools like Power BI will become increasingly helpful for efficient, effective project management.
If you are keen to find a more efficient way to keep your infrastructure projects on track, I suggest you consider adopting Power BI. It just might be the missing link between you and a streamlined, successful project portfolio.
Whether you're looking to build custom reports from scratch or improve on existing reporting, I can assist you in creating tailored solutions that fit your needs. I would love to hear from you. Let's discuss how we can streamline your project management process.
You can contact me at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions to explore how I can help you harness the full potential of Power BI for your organisation.
I have worked on many different projects with my Local Government clients, from designing and developing Power BI Reports, to building SQL Server databases for spatial data, to managing and maintaining GIS and the Asset Management systems. If you'd like to discuss how we might work together, then please email Jill at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions
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