Introduction
CA Technologies utilizes Project Dashboards to display project and busi- ness metrics, view project statuses and directly access individual project content to view details and/or take action. The Dashboard is a tool which provides easy status of a group of projects, so that those in need of attention can be readily identified and actioned.
CA Technologies Services utilizes CA Clarity PPM® as the tool to man- age the execution of all projects, then rolls up the project data to create the desired Dashboards. This provides the Dashboard users with the ability to drill down from the Dashboard into the actual project to view details or adjust the project.
The Dashboards are customized displays of real-time project data.
There are a number of standard Dashboards defined by management used to manage all service engagements. But users can also create customized or ad hoc Dashboards; through user configurable screens, data selection crite- ria, and thresholds the end user can create the Dashboard they need regard- less of their role within the organization. This means Resource Managers, Project Managers, Business Managers, as well as Finance have created Dashboards that address their unique needs.
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2. All of the material in this section has been graciously provided by Mark Elkins, Tom Pengidore, and Rob Zuurdeeg, all of Computer Associates Services. © 2010 by Computer Associates, Inc. Reproduced by permission.
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7.3 DASHBOARDS IN ACTION: COMPUTER ASSOCIATES, INC.
Figure 7-6 Gate Timeliness Dashboard
Performance (Lateness Closed Gates)
Gate Timeliness Month of May 2010 Risk (Lateness Open Gates)
132 144
170 198
143
61 71
133 111 146
161 241
167
58 73 108 115
73 104
144
0 0 0 0
150 210
272
125
69 68 65
96
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 Aug-10 Sep-10
Days Late
12 Month Overview
Days Late
Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09 Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-0 9
Sep-09 Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10
Mar-10 Ap r-10
May-10
Total 74 78 87 102 106 100 103 96 100 119 113 122
Seating 109 109 117 149 169 135 137 117 122 137 126 139
Interiors 62 68 76 80 73 73 68 66 73 82 82 84
Electronics 39 39 39 39 20 17 17 83 83 126 125 125
12 Month Rolling Average
206
113
96
82
57
0 50 100 150 200 250
Regional
Seats Tracks Seats Tracks
Late Programs
369 291
186 183
161 157
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Regional Seats
Seats Tracks FC Cluster DP Seats Seats SVT Seats 202A
12 Month Average Days to Close (Top 10)
©2010 Johnson Controls, Inc. Reproduced by permission
87 83 87 123
The following are some of the project-level data available for project list definition or display:
◾ Project Manager or Business Manager
◾ Business Classification
◾ Start/Finish Date
◾ Budgeted Cost/Revenue
◾ Planned Cost/Revenue
◾ Total Effort/Expended Effort
◾ Contract Type
◾ Contract Amount
◾ Expenses
◾ Roles
◾ Staffing of Resources
CA Technologies has identified key metrics and measures that are criti- cal to understanding how well a project is executing. Some of the key areas that are tracked and measured include:
◾ High Reward/Risk Projects (Watch List
◾ Underfunded Projects (At Risk)
◾ Procurement/Purchase Orders
◾ Financials
◾ Schedule
◾ Resource Allocations
◾ Risks and Issues
The screenshots displayed and described below are production Dashboards at this time. All active Services engagements are managed in CA Clarity PPM®; these Dashboards are just a few in use.
Project Operational Alert Dashboard
The Operational Alert Dashboard shown in Figure 7-7 provides a user selected list Projects with specific evaluations of the project(s) state. The results of the evaluation are compared with PMO and Business provided thresholds to determine projects that may be experiencing events that need attention. The traffic light display, where the icon color provides the state of the threshold that was met, is the most effective means of drawing atten- tion to specific areas that need attention.
The list of projects can be sorted by any of the columns. The column icons contain the actual evaluation metric calculation, sorting by the column will order the listing based on the column values worst (or best) to best (or worst).
Additional project attributes can be displayed in the listing, providing additional project description or specific project state.
Figure 7-7 Project Operational Alert Dashboard (©2010 by Computer Associates, Inc. Reproduced by permission.)
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This listing can be exported to a spreadsheet to allow more advanced sorting or filtering to find projects with a more specific set of evaluation criteria.
Project Operational Alerts Drill Down
The user can click on the Project ID to go directly into the project or click on the appropriate column icon to go directly to project’s specific content used to determine the evaluation for the metric.
Example:
The first project (S00000001868), which is shown in Figure 7-7, Resource Allocation Staffing Status, appears in Red. This project’s evalua- tion for this metric exceeds the highest threshold and should be investi- gated. The user would click on the red diamond Icon , doing so would take the user directly to the project’s Resource screen. (See screen shot in Figure 7-8.)
This is the Resource screen used to manage the project. From con- tent review, it can be determined the alert was set since no resources were staffed for the Planning Roles with planned POP (Period of Performance) that has now passed. The Project Manager should have updated this project to reflect an updated schedule and planned resource requirements.
If you reference the alert listing for this project on the Project Operational Alert Dashboard screen shot, notice the Schedule Alert Icon is white. This means a schedule was not even established to provide an evaluation for schedule and is the reason the schedule is not flagged with a Red Icon.
Project Listing Dashboard
The Project Listing Dashboard shown in Figure 7-9 provides a user-selected list of projects with the project’s current state information. This Dashboard provides the user with specific content that he/she identified to view about the projects. This Dashboard is primarily used to find projects with spe- cific attributes or by personnel who have more intimate knowledge of a set projects.
The following may be used to provide Project Managers with specifics on their project state with respect to the POP, total and remaining hours, and percent complete vs. expended effort. (Project Managers can also create additional project listing Dashboards, if other data and/or thresholds were important for the way they manage projects.)
Like the Project Operational Alert Dashboard, the Project Manager can click on the project name or the status indicator and immediately drill down to get further detail and/or see the cause of the indicator’s coloring.
Figure 7-8 Projects Operational Alerts Drill Down (©2010 by Computer Associates, Inc. Reproduced by permission.)
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Figure 7-9 Project Listing Dashboar 294
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