Fifteen Projects, and the Two the Board Needs to See
A programme director with fifteen projects does not need fifteen status reports before the board meets. She needs to know which two are in trouble and why. Since 14 October the portfolio dashboard judges every project on schedule, effort and budget, and says which check raised the flag.
An NGO in Kisumu runs fifteen funded projects: water points in Siaya, a nutrition programme in Homa Bay, three school-feeding grants, a youth-skills project with two donors, and a tail of smaller pieces. Every month before the board meets, the programme director asks each project manager for a status update. She gets fifteen slightly different documents, eleven of which say “on track”, and she has to read all of them to find the two that are not.
One table, every project
Projects → Portfolio lists every project in one table: its health, percentage complete, due date, open and overdue tasks, hours logged against plan, budget burn, owner, and its next milestone — or the one it has missed. Above the table a row of KPI tiles counts projects by health, and each tile filters the table when clicked. Two charts follow: effort logged against plan, and budget burn against progress. Filters cover health, status, owner and department, and a search box takes a name or a project code.
Nobody fills anything in for it. Every figure comes from the tasks, milestones, timesheets and costs the project teams are already recording, so the portfolio is as current as the last timesheet rather than as current as the last status report. The portfolio and resource capacity page covers the health rules and the capacity heatmap beside them.
Health is the worst of three checks
Each project is judged three ways, and its overall health is the worst of the three. That rule is what makes the portfolio useful: a project that is on schedule but has spent four-fifths of its money at the half-way point is not on track, however its manager feels about it.
| Check | Off track when | At risk when | Applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule | The project or an open milestone is past due | An open task is overdue, an open milestone is due within 7 days, or the project is due within 14 days and under 80% complete | Always |
| Effort | Hours logged exceed the hours budget or task estimates | Hours run more than 15 points ahead of task progress | When the project has an hours budget or estimates |
| Budget | Actual cost exceeds the money budget | 90% is spent, or spend runs more than 15 points ahead of progress | When the project has a money budget |
Effort and budget only apply when a project has the baseline to judge against. A project with no money budget is not marked healthy on budget; it simply has no budget check, and its health comes from the other two. Completed and cancelled projects are shown as closed rather than judged, so a finished grant does not sit in the at-risk count because its final invoice arrived late.
Sixty-two per cent done and eighty-one per cent spent is not a feeling. It is nineteen points, and the threshold is fifteen.
The Kisumu board pack
The director opens the portfolio the week before the board. The tiles read eleven on track, three at risk, one off track. She clicks Off track: the Siaya water project has a missed milestone — the borehole survey report, due in September. She clicks At risk. The nutrition programme is 62% complete and has spent 81% of its budget, nineteen points ahead of progress, so its budget dot is amber while schedule and effort are green. The other two at-risk projects each have a milestone due within the week.
She takes two projects to the board, each with the reason already stated, instead of fifteen documents. The three at-risk projects with milestones this week get a phone call, not a board paper. For how a grant’s money is tracked underneath the budget check, see grant reporting cycles.
Who sees the money
Viewing the portfolio needs the permission to view projects. Budget figures — burn, the budget check and the budget chart — appear only for people with the project analytics permission, so a project manager can see every project’s schedule without seeing every project’s spend. The mobile app has a read-only portfolio screen.
What the portfolio cannot see
The checks are only as honest as the inputs. A project whose tasks are never marked done will look behind on schedule and ahead on spend. A project whose staff log no hours will look perfect on effort. A project with no budget entered has no budget check at all. The first month on the portfolio is usually spent correcting those inputs, and the second month is the first one worth taking to a board. For the people side of the same question — whether the team behind these projects is over-committed — the project planning tools include a resource capacity view by person and week.
Our position
Give every project a due date, its milestones, an hours budget or task estimates, and a money budget where money is tracked. Then retire the monthly status template: the portfolio already knows which projects are off track and why, and the hour your managers spent writing updates is better spent on the two that need it.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- A portfolio table of every project with health, progress, due date, open and overdue tasks, hours against plan, budget burn, owner and next or missed milestone.
- KPI tiles by health that filter the table, an effort-against-plan chart and a budget-burn-against-progress chart.
- Health as the worst of schedule, effort and budget checks, with effort and budget applied only where the project has those baselines.
- Closed projects shown as closed rather than judged, and filters by health, status, owner, department, name or code.
- Budget figures limited to the project analytics permission, and a read-only portfolio screen in the mobile app.
More we can add to your workspace
- Health thresholds set per workspace, such as a 10-point drift or a 14-day milestone window.
- A monthly portfolio snapshot kept so this month’s board pack can be compared with last month’s.
Where we point you to a specialist
- Whether a project at risk should be stopped, re-scoped or refunded is a decision for management and the funder. The portfolio states the evidence; it never makes the call.
A portfolio tuned to your board
The checks use fixed thresholds that suit most organizations. Two refinements come up from PMOs and programme offices.
Your own thresholds
The drift points, the milestone window and the near-due window set for your workspace, so a stricter donor gets a stricter flag.
Month-on-month
A snapshot of every project’s health taken each month, so the board sees what changed since its last meeting.
Tell us how your board reviews projects and we will return a written scope and cost.
Scope portfolio reportingAsk of any portfolio view
Why is this project red?
A good answer sounds like
The check that raised it, and the figure that crossed the line.
What it tells you
A colour without a reason is an opinion.
Who decides a project is on track?
A good answer sounds like
The records, using published rules.
What it tells you
A self-reported status is the manager’s mood that week.
What happens to a project with no budget?
A good answer sounds like
No budget check, rather than a pass.
What it tells you
A missing baseline that reads as healthy hides the riskiest projects.
Capacity and portfolio, documented
How each health check is calculated, the filters, and the resource capacity view beside it.
Read the portfolio guideFrequently asked questions
How is a project’s health decided on the portfolio?
It is the worst of three checks: schedule, effort and budget. Effort applies only when the project has an hours budget or task estimates, and budget only when it has a money budget.
When is a project at risk on budget?
When 90% of its money budget is spent, or when spend runs more than 15 percentage points ahead of task progress. It is off track when actual cost exceeds the budget.
Why can a colleague not see budget burn?
Budget figures on the portfolio need the project analytics permission. Viewing the rest of the portfolio needs only the permission to view projects.
Are completed projects included?
They are shown as closed rather than judged, so they do not count towards the at-risk or off-track totals.
Is the portfolio available on mobile?
Yes, the mobile app has a read-only portfolio screen.
