Portfolio and Project Dashboards in Bluerithm

Bluerithm dashboards turn your project data into charts you can read at a glance and share with clients and team members. Dashboards come in two levels: portfolio dashboards, which aggregate data across many projects, and project dashboards, which are scoped to a single project. This article covers both, along with the charting and sharing features they have in common. The features below are independent of one another, so use whichever apply to what you're building.

Before you start

You'll need a Bluerithm account with permission to view and edit dashboards. Note that sharing a dashboard creates a public link that anyone can open without signing in, so make sure the underlying data is appropriate for the audience before you distribute it.

Portfolio dashboards

Portfolio dashboards aggregate data across the projects in your account. Open one by selecting Dashboard in the left navigation. The default view is the Account Overview dashboard, which includes charts such as project and equipment status, a progress curve, user profiles, work performance, and a work matrix.

The Bluerithm portfolio dashboard showing project, equipment, and progress curve charts

Every project at a glance

The Project Progress chart, at the top of your account's main portfolio dashboard, lists every active project with its progress, work complete, open, awaiting verification and closed issues, and a small Progress curve and Issue curve. Its figures come from each project's own dashboard, and a click on a project's name opens that dashboard. See How do I see every project's progress on the portfolio dashboard?

The Project Progress chart listing each project with its progress, work, curves and issue counts

Maintaining more than one portfolio dashboard

You aren't limited to a single portfolio dashboard. Use the dashboard selector at the left of the toolbar to switch between them, and create separate dashboards for different slices of your portfolio — for example, an overall account view alongside regional views. The starred entry is your default dashboard. To change it, open the dashboard you want and click the star in the toolbar; the star moves from the previous default. The default can be moved to another dashboard but not switched off.

The dashboard selector dropdown listing several portfolio dashboards

Scoping a portfolio dashboard to specific projects or companies

Open the dashboard's edit control to set its name and description and to configure the Dashboard Filter. This filter scopes all charts on the dashboard at once to specific projects or companies. Once a filter is applied, the toolbar displays a chip summarizing it, such as "2 projects."

Dashboard settings dialog showing name, description, default option, and Dashboard Filter

Choose individual projects from the searchable project list.

Selecting projects in the dashboard filter

Or filter by company, which is a faster way to limit the dashboard to one organization's projects without selecting each project individually.

Filtering the dashboard by company

Project dashboards

Project dashboards are scoped to a single project. The quickest way to reach one is the dashboard icon on the project's row in the Projects list.

The Projects list with the dashboard icon on a project row

A project dashboard shows the project name beneath the Dashboard heading, and its charts reflect only that project's data. Everything else — chart types, filters, and sharing — works the same way it does at the portfolio level, except project dashboards have more granular filters for specific project data.

A project dashboard for a single project showing a progress curve and milestone performance

Multiple dashboards within one project

A single project can hold several dashboards, which is useful for breaking a large project into focused views, which can then be used and shared individually. Alongside the default Project Overview, you might create dashboards for individual systems, buildings, areas, or phases and switch between them from the same selector.

The dashboard selector on a project dashboard listing several project dashboards

Copying a dashboard to another project

To reuse a project dashboard elsewhere, open it and click Copy to Another Project in the dashboard toolbar: the copy icon with a small arrow, right after Copy Dashboard (on a narrow screen it's in the More actions menu). Pick another project of your account, or a template you're a member of, and click Copy. The copy shows that project's own numbers; folder filters are left out because folders belong to one project. Copy Dashboard still duplicates a dashboard within the same project. See How do I copy a dashboard to another project? To start a new project with a template's dashboards, see How do I copy dashboards from a template project?

The dashboard toolbar with the Copy to Another Project button highlighted next to Copy Dashboard

Working with charts

Charts behave the same on portfolio and project dashboards. Use Add Chart to create one, and the controls on a chart tile to edit, duplicate, or delete it.

Chart tile controls for editing, duplicating, and deleting a chart

Choosing a chart type

In the chart dialog, give the chart a name and set its width in columns, which controls how the dashboard lays out. Then pick a type. Available types include Card, Line, Bar, Area, Donut, Pie, Work Matrix, Equipment Matrix, Progress Curve, Issue Curve, Issue Categories, Issue Priorities, Work Performance, Milestones, Milestone Performance, and Project Progress. Project Progress is offered on portfolio dashboards only, and Equipment Matrix on project dashboards only.

The chart dialog showing the available chart types

Progress Curve options and chart-level filters

The Progress Curve plots completion against your timeline, comparing planned progress to actual. Its options let you show planned execution, use project dates for the date range, and include partial progress from incomplete work.

Below the options, each chart has its own filters, independent of the dashboard-level filter. These cover equipment (folders, types, areas, status, manufacturers, and locations), work (statuses and categories), assignee (companies and assigned users), and dates (due date, last edit, and completed).

Progress Curve options and the equipment, work, assignee, and date filters

Equipment Matrix

The Equipment Matrix lists a project's equipment with a column per work category, showing each category's progress on each piece of equipment (see Work Progress Metrics for how progress is calculated). The line above the table says how many equipment it lists and when it was last calculated, for example "66 equipment · calculated 10:42 AM". Click any column header (Folder, Associated With, Type, or a category) to sort; the sort covers every page, not only the one on screen.

An Equipment Matrix with the line 66 equipment and the time it was calculated, sorted by a category column

Click Filters at the top of the matrix to narrow it. The equipment filters (folders, types, areas, equipment status, manufacturers, locations and equipment labels) and categories apply as soon as you pick them. The work filters (status, labels, company, assigned to and dates) count only the matching work, and the matrix then lists only the equipment that has some of it: pick them and click Save, and the matrix recalculates by itself. People who can only view the dashboard see which work it counts. See How do I make an Equipment Matrix count only one company's work?

A matrix reflects its last calculation. Changes to work usually show within minutes; new, renamed, moved and deleted equipment, and label or equipment type edits, show at the next recalculation. Click Re-calculate Metrics in the dashboard toolbar to refresh it right away.

Filtering custom metrics by label

Card, Pie, Bar, Line, Area and Donut charts can show a custom metric: in the chart dialog, click + Custom Metric, choose its source and calculation, and add conditions with + Filter. On a project dashboard a condition can use Label (labels on the work, issue or equipment itself) or, for work and issues, Equip. Label (labels on the equipment it belongs to). Labels belong to a project, so portfolio dashboards don't offer these two.

A custom metric in the chart dialog with a condition on Label

Both portfolio and project dashboards can be easily shared. Select the share button in the dashboard toolbar.

The share control in the dashboard toolbar

Bluerithm creates a public link that anyone can open to view the dashboard without logging in. You can give a link an optional name to track who it was created for, set an expiration date or leave it open-ended, and add a custom logo to brand the shared view. Existing links show when they were created and how many times they've been viewed, and you can copy or delete any of them. Create as many links as you need for the same dashboard.

The Share Dashboard dialog showing an existing link and the Create New Link form

Tips for getting good results

Shared links are public and require no sign-in. Anyone holding the link can view the dashboard, so treat it like any public URL and confirm the underlying data is appropriate to share externally.
Shared links are live. Any change you make after distributing a link is reflected for everyone who already has it — there's no need to resend. The flip side is that an edit intended for internal use will also be visible to external recipients, so for specific data you wish to share in a dashboard it may be best to create a new dashboard to share vs. sharing a primary or internally used dashboard.
Use named links and expiration dates. Creating a separate, named link per audience makes it easy to see which link is which, and to revoke one without disrupting the others. Set an expiration date for links shared for a limited engagement.
Know the difference between the two filter layers. The Dashboard Filter scopes every chart on the dashboard to specific projects or companies. Chart filters apply to one chart only. If a chart isn't showing what you expect, check both layers.
Break large projects into multiple dashboards and/or charts. Rather than crowding one dashboard, create separate project dashboards per system, building, discipline, or phase and switch between them.
Set chart width deliberately. The column width setting on each chart drives the dashboard layout, so use it to give your most important charts more room.