Most PMO dashboards are built to report activity. Leaders need something else: a clear view of what requires their decision. These six rules come from setting up portfolio reporting in public administrations and development programmes.
1. Start from the decision
List the decisions your leadership team takes each month — prioritising investments, releasing funds, unblocking an inter-ministerial issue. Every chart should answer one of those questions. If it doesn’t, remove it.
2. One page, one story
Health, value and risk belong on a single screen. Detail lives one click away, not on the first page.
3. Status with words, not colour alone
Red, amber and green are not enough: about one in twelve men has some form of colour-vision deficiency, and printed reports often lose colour. Pair every status with an icon and a label — “On track”, “At risk”, “Off track”.
4. Trends beat snapshots
A project that is amber but improving tells a different story from one that is amber and sliding. Show the direction over the last periods, not just today’s value.
5. Same definitions everywhere
If “at risk” means different things in different departments, the portfolio view is meaningless. Agree a short data dictionary — status criteria, percentage complete, benefits — and apply it to every project.
6. End every review with decisions
A portfolio review that ends without decisions, owners and dates was a presentation, not governance. Record the decisions next to the dashboard and track them like any other deliverable.
See sample portfolio, benefits and PMO-performance dashboards in our PMO Hub.
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