A smart project tracking dashboard is a visual representation of a project's key performance metrics. Therefore, it will provide the project managers with a quick overview of the project's progress. It captures the data of team performance and achievements which makes the work of the team lead relatively easy.
If you saw a dashboard of a car then you can relate to this concept quite easily.
Like a dashboard of your car, a project dashboard provides at-a-glance data and metrics about the current status of your projects.
Unlike the car's dashboard, the project dashboard is more flexible with all the key metrics in one place.
So, you can see how a smart project tracking dashboard can help project managers. But where you will find a tool that will provide you with such a smart dashboard? Lucky for you, WordPress Project Manager has a dashboard that will provide all the features a smart dashboard should possess.
Overview of the Project Tracking Dashboard of WP Project Manager
A smart dashboard should have these features.
- All the projects are smartly organized
- Who is involved in what projects should be visible and clear
- Active and completed projects
- Project category
- Individual tasks
- A smart calendar to manage deadlines and milestones
- Different visualization.
These features are the key aspects of an efficient project tracking dashboard. Because it will help overcome the challenges a project manager or entrepreneurs face when starting a business.
This is the complete WP Project Manager Pro dashboard. As you can see it holds all the key aspects a project manager is looking for( Like the Calendar, Individual Tasks, Tools). All the projects are organized smartly. Therefore, all the projects easily catch the eye. You don't have to look for it. Also, you can see people who are assigned to projects, their faces are on the project tabs.
From the My tasks menu, you can view your individual tasks all in one place. So you don't have to go and look at every project to find your tasks. Instead, you can find it easily in one place.
The active and completed projects are in separate tabs. You can view it on one click of a mouse. Also, you can easily filter the projects using the Project Category drop-down box. The Smart calendar lets you view the project progress and you can easily manage your deadlines.
Also, if you want you can view the dashboard in the grid or list view However, you like. That means you can choose what you are comfortable with conducting the project dashboard.
To sum up, WordPress Project Manager dashboard has all the features a smart project tracking dashboard should have. It will make the job of a project manager so easy.
Now, you must be wondering how you can set up this cool dashboard as per your need and utilize it to the fullest. Don't worry this article will provide you with all the details.
How to Smartly Setup Your Dashboard
In order to fully get the best out of the WordPress Project Manager dashboard, you need to organize it smartly. And to do that you need to follow a few steps. But first, we are going to show you the utilization in two sections.
- Global Dashboard
- Project Dashboard
You need to set up the Pro version of the WP Project Manager. After that, we are going to see the setup of the global dashboard section.
Global Dashboard Setup
Now that you have installed and activated the Pro version, we can move forward. Let's see what steps you need to follow.
Step 1: Create a project.
You need to create a project first in order to start. To create the project just click on the “New Project” button and add the details that is required for the project.
Step 2: Don't forget to assign co-workers. You need to add users to your project.
Then your Project is created.
Now, let us move on to the project dashboard, shall we?
Project Dashboard Setup
Now that you have created a project, you need to assemble the project dashboard. When you click on the Project then you will see all the important metrics needed for the project. Like,
Overview
You will first see the overview of the whole project. You will get an exclusive visual representation like the number of,
- Tasklist
- Discussions
- Tasks
- Comments
- Files
- Milestones
Task Lists
Here lie the tasks you will create or have created for your projects. Not only you can create tasks but you can assign a co-worker, set a deadline, add a description, add subtasks and many more. In a word, your task will be managed automatically.
One more thing, you can set a recurring task for the tasks you need to perform on a regular basis.
Milestones
It is quite an interesting and important feature for project managers. You can set milestones in order to finish the task before the deadline.
You can easily set a goal and achieve it if you use the milestone feature smartly. The fun fact is when you add a milestone to a Task List, it will fill up as the tasks in the Task List gets completed.
Gantt Chart
This feature will illustrate your task schedule. You can use the Gantt chart in any kind of project. It doesn't matter if the project is small or big.
There are many benefits of Gantt chart in project management. You will get a bird's eye view of all the tasks. Also get a clear idea of the upcoming projects. You can effortlessly get to know all about the dependencies.
Also, using the Files tab you can easily manage your documents and keep backup of all the work.
That is how you can smartly set up the global and project dashboards. Eventually, you will get the full use of a project tracking dashboard.
You have assembled your dashboard bu how it is going to benefit you? Ok, let us discuss it.
Advantages of a Smart Project Tracking Dashboard
When you are getting the continuous performance data at a glance then it will obviously make the work of a project manager easy. And when the project manager has access to their project’s progress, health, and projections, they experience significant benefits like,
- Saving time: When you have all the stats at a glance then it is bound to save your time. And as a project manager, time management skills is a very important attribute. That you can do with a smart project dashboard.
- Easy to make crucial decisions: You are getting all the data at one click. So, if there is a time to take any important decision then you can check all the data at one click and thus you can make a decision quickly.
- Simplification: One of the topmost benefits of having an exclusive project management dashboard at hand is the work is bound to get simple. Even the most complex ones can be done in a jiffy.
- Increasing team collaboration: A project is successful only when the whole team works together. Team collaboration is very important in the workplace. And a graphic project dashboard can help effectively in this matter.
- Easy to produce reports: Report making is an important part of a project management process. If the data is scattered then it becomes quite impossible to make a perfect report. But with a smart dashboard, that becomes quite simple.
The benefits we discussed can all be found in the WP Project Manager plugin. Not to mention it also has a Kanban Board that will help significantly in creating a perfect process for project management.
Wrapping up on Project Tracking Dashboard
If you want to give you and your team a chance to acquire success in creating and completing the project, then the usage of the project tracking dashboard is the way to go. It will give you all the data and key metrics you need all in one place.
And if you are looking for a tool that will provide you with all the smart project management dashboard features, then none can match the features of the WordPress Project Manager dashboard. It has all the key features and metrics a smart project dashboard should have.
Get more insight from the below video.