Report or dashboard to illustrate the project plan and when it goes off schedule
Project Time Lines: For each new client project, we create a project plan broken down by phases or sprints. We include our own department resources' effort and duration with predecessors, and key client milestone meetings or specific due dates of when information like collateral or copy is due. We create this initial schedule, work on it with the client to adjust to add more time for reviews, take into account PTO etc, then have them "sign it" once it is mutually agreed upon.
Problem: Clients often don't pay attention or follow these timelines and the schedule goes off, resulting in extended durations, resources then being over allocated, loss of project momentum, etc.
Solution: We are looking for some kind of dashboard or report that we can show before each client meeting to illustrate where we are in the project plan timeline, where the project has gone off schedule, and the launch delay impact as a result. Does an existing report or dashboard in Wrike exist that would show something like this? Ideally comparing the snapshot of the original plan, then a gauge or something visual showing how far off we are from the original plan?
I appreciate this group's feedback on how others solve for this continuous problem.
Danielle
Hi Juan,
We do use snapshots to illustrate the project plan with the clients and have even tried the "download to PDF" and send for their approval and signature (which they tend to ignore after the fact). We're looking for a more high-level visual to say "we started the project with these milestones, we are now 2, 4, 6 weeks off" and the consequence of how it impacts the release dates. I don't think the snapshots would be as effective though since you'd have to bring up 2 gantt charts and show the project plan to compare the difference. That would be a little clunky for our purposes.