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Project Management Dashboards using OnePager

Project dashboards made easy

If you are a project manager, you know that communication is important if you want your project to be successful. Projects have a lot of moving parts, so when you walk into a project review meeting, you need to carefully select which elements of your project you want to review.

Alternate project dashboard created in OnePager Pro from the same MS Project plan.

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There are three key components of a good project management dashboard:

  1. Timeline or Gantt Chart: The project timeline or Gantt chart shows the key activities driving the overall project outcome.
  2. Data Columns: Dashboards that feature text columns and symbol columns provide additional details about the project's status without overwhelming the audience with too much information.
  3. Graphs: A dashboard isn't complete without an understanding of budget, cost, or other financial metrics. Superimposing a graph will show how these metrics change over the life of your project.


OnePager, dashboarding software for project managers, helps you build project dashboards that are much easier to understand than looking at the detailed project plan. The example in this article uses Microsoft Project, but OnePager can also build dashboards from Smartsheet, Primavera P6, Planisware, and other PPM systems.

This article will walk you through how to quickly create a project management dashboard. You can download a free trial of OnePager and follow along if you'd like.

Adding a Timeline or Gantt Chart to your Dashboard

  1. Start by opening up one of your Microsoft Project files, such as the project plan example shown below. This will be the basis for your project dashboard. OnePager lets you create a filter ("Flag 20" in the picture below) so that you only show the parts of your project that are relevant to your audience.

    Microsoft Project plan

    Our dashboard will summarize three projects from a portfolio. The other two projects in the portfolio have similar data to the example shown above.

  2. Next, double-click the OnePager icon on your desktop. From the Start screen, choose New and then select the Microsoft Project plans that you would like to include your project timeline. This will launch OnePager's easy import wizard to start building the dashboard:

    OnePager allows you to create dashboards from Microsoft Project with an easy setup wizard.

  3. Give your project dashboard a name and type in a status (snapshot) date for your dashboard as well. This makes it easy to make updates to your dashboard as your project plan changes later. Click the Create new chart button to build the timeline component of your dashboard:

    Project plan example: How to create a project plan dashboard in OnePager Pro, using data from Microsoft Project.

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Adding Data Columns to your Dashboard

Now that your project dashboard has a timeline, we can add text and symbol columns to display more detailed information without overwhelming the visual. In this portfolio of projects, we want to track the following metrics:

  • Cost: Display the total cost of each project's phase down to the dollar.
  • Progress: Use Harvey Balls to depict the high-level progress (percent complete) of each phase.
  • Status: Use symbols to indicate which activities are late and which are on schedule.

We will use a text column to track cost and will use symbol columns to display progress and status information:

  1. To add a text column that displays the cost for each phase, go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes. Enable the Left #1 text column and point it to the Cost field from your project plan:

    Add a text column that displays the cost of each project phase displayed in a dashboard.

  2. Click OK. OnePager will update your dashboard, adding a column that displays the phase-by-phase cost for each project:

    Project dashboard showing the total cost of each phase.

  3. Now, let's set up a second column that displays Harvey Ball symbols based on the progress of each phase. Return to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes and enable the Right #1 column, mapping it to the %Complete field. To assign Harvey Balls, click the Manage Rules button:

    Add a symbol column that uses Harvey Balls to display the progress of each project phase displayed in a dashboard.

  4. Create rules that assign Harvey Ball symbols based on the percent complete of each activity in the dashboard:

    Assign Harvey Ball symbols to a project dashboard based on the percent complete of each activity.

  5. Click OK, and OnePager will add a symbol column to the right-hand side of the dashboard, making it easy to see how far along each phase of each project is:

    Project dashboard with Harvey Balls.

  6. Next, let's set up a third column that displays symbols based on the status of each phase. Return to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes one more time and enable the Right #2 column, mapping it to the Status field. To assign symbols, click the Manage Rules button:

    Add a symbol column that displays the status of each project phase displayed in a dashboard.

  7. Create rules that assign symbols based on the status of each phase shown in the dashboard:

    Assign symbols to a project dashboard based on the status of each activity or phase.

  8. Click OK, and OnePager will add a second symbol column to the right-hand side of the dashboard, making it easy to see the status of each phase:

    Project dashboard with cost, status tracking, and Harvey Balls.

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Adding a Financial Graph to your Project Dashboard

Our dashboard now contains a timeline and data columns. The final step is to add a graph that tracks project finances over time:

  1. To add a graph that shows project cost over time, go to Home > Chart Properties > Graphs/Data Cells. Map the graph to the Cost field and change its Graph Type to a Column graph:

    Add a graph to the project dashboard that displays the cost the overall project portfolio over time.

  2. Click OK, and OnePager will update the project dashboard to include a column graph of the total portfolio cost over time:

    Project dashboard showing a timeline, a text column, two symbol columns, and a graph of project finances.

  3. You can make a number of changes to the graph in your dashboard. For example, let's say that we want to switch from a column graph to an area graph and have the costs display cumulatively instead of quarterly. To do that, return to Home > Chart Properties > Graphs/Data Cells. Check the Cumulative box, and change the Graph Type to Smooth Area:

    Change the formatting of the graph in your project dashboard from a quarterly bar graph to a cumulative area graph.

  4. Click OK, and OnePager will update the graph in your project dashboard:

    Project dashboard with a cumulative cost graph.

  5. OnePager also allows you to slice and dice the graphs in your dashboard for a better breakdown of project finances. For example, you might want to see how much each project is contributing to the overall portfolio budget over time. To do this, go to Home > Chart Properties > Graphs/Data Cells again, and click on the Pivot Series button:

    Pivot the graph in your project management dashboard.

  6. Change the graph to Pivot Vertically based on the Project Name and assign a unique color to each project in your portfolio:

    Slice and dice the graph in your dashboard based on subprojects.

  7. Click OK one more time, and OnePager will pivot your graph to show the contributions of each project in the dashboard to the overall portfolio cost:

    Project dashboard with a pivot chart of cost over time.

OnePager gives you endless possibilities for creating project dashboards. You can:
- Dashboard one or multiple projects at once
- Include columns of text or symbols that include key project metrics
- Add a graph to track financial data over time
- Group, sort, and color-code by and field in your project plan
- Track versions to your dashboard as your project changes over time
- Add comments and other annotations to clarify important parts of the project

To learn more about how to make a project dashboard in OnePager and for more project plan examples, read some of our other how-to pages. Or get started today by downloading a free trial.

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Steps demonstrated in this article require use of OnePager's optional graphs and data cells feature, which is purchased separately from a standard license. All trial licenses receive complimentary access to graphs and data cells for fifteen days. Some sequences pertaining to unrelated features have been shortened for brevity.