what is the best way to display a milestone trend analysis

Miranda_1

MST-Trend_2303.png

i would like to display a milestone trend analysis (see attachment) on a smartsheet dashboard. currently i am exporting milestone data from a smartsheet project plan to an excel document, creating an excel chart from it and putting it back again on the dashboard via an image widget. is there a more clever way for this process? thanks for your help

ShelbyWarren

@Miranda_1 I recently built a solution for milestone metrics/trend tracking. What I did was create a metrics sheet that measured the data I wanted to track, then I created an automation that copied the metric sheet row (the row where all the metrics were aggregated into) on to a "Daily Update Log" sheet. Once the data is being copied to the Daily Update Log, you can reference it for a "Milestone Trend Chart" in your dashboard.

Hope that helps. I know it's kind of abstract just reading about it - for help, I've attached a screenshot of the chart below. I was mainly trying to track buffer usage over time in my example below.

Miranda_1

I would like to query the agreed data of milestones at a regular reporting time and visualize this query. If the dates are reached as planned, are they reached earlier or delayed.

Thank you for sharing your trend chart. The chart shows the evolution of one milestone but not the impact of the evolution of one milestone on other milestones in the project?

ShelbyWarren

The example chart above shows buffer usage over time for the entire project duration (which includes multiple milestones). However, each milestone is not shown in that particular chart.

The solution you are creating is definitely doable but requires a look into the source sheets you're using. If you want to share it with me, feel free to. Or email it to me at swarren@patriotdevelopment.com

sarah_specialized

@Miranda_1 Did you have any luck with this? I too am looking to add MTA to my dashboard and was hopeful there was an easier way to do it than export/import the image

Miranda_1

hi sarah, unfortunately i don't have a perfect solution for this task yet. i export milestone data to excel and visualise them in an excel chart, take a screenshot and place it on the dashboard. quite a tedious workflow ;-).

it would be great if someone has an idea for a similar visualization within smartsheet.