Map centric performance reports for capital construction projects has always been a requirement for executive stakeholders. Nevertheless, those stakeholders are not only interested in seeing a single dot for each project to show where it is located for which it is already a known information for most of them. They are interested in knowing the boundaries of their projects and how each project relates to other projects in their portfolio that are either in progress, already completed or even planned or considered for future implementation. For some capital project owners, their project types are not limited to buildings or parks but it might also include highways, roads, metros, service tunnels and other types of what is known as linear projects. This is another reason on why map visuals that show projects as dots are of no use to those stakeholders.
Using Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb as the trusted platform to provide a real-time single version of the truth projects performance information coupled with an interactive business intelligence and data visualization tool like MS Power BI this challenge can be addressed. With the many types of visuals that can be used in MS Power BI to visualize and analyze the projects’ performance data captured in PMWeb, there will be a requirement to use the map visual from “Icon Map” which is a custom visual that allows showing the boundaries of all project types including those of linear projects. This requires providing the boundary geospatial points for all buildings and linear projects to identify the shape of those projects.
The boundaries of each project regardless of the project type will be captured in PMWeb project module where each project gets added and defined. Using PMWeb additional user fields option, two main fields with the option of two additional fields will be created. The first is called WKT which is the abbreviation for “Well-Known Text Representation of Geometry” which details how each project boundary will be represented on the map-centric dashboard. Those could be either Point, Polygon, LineString, MultiPoint, MultiPolygon, MultiLineString or GeometryCollection.
An example of a possible value will be “POLYGON ((54.36331801052588 24.452079101585895, 54.36371977830723 24.451661075463416, 54.3635978874327 24.451562893028605, 54.363523145121576 24.45150269444113, 54.36311294741023 24.451929805936444, 54.36326098926911 24.45204894453648, 54.363269515160816 24.452040077815266, 54.36331801052588 24.452079101585895))”. The second user defined field will be used for the object color to be displayed on the map-centric dashboard. The value for this field will be based on the RGB Color Codes Chart for which a Red Color will have the code “#F90E25”.
In addition, two optional fields for Destination Latitude and Destination Longitude will be also created. Those two fields along with Latitude and Longitude fields available by default in PMWeb project template, will be used if the project was a straight line. It should be also noted that using the LineString option for the WKT field will also serve the same requirement.
The project’s definition data and other performance data from the business processes needed by the stakeholders for the performance reports will be extracted, transferred and loaded from PMWeb to MS Power BI. Queries will be used to extract the required data fields for PMWeb MS SQL database to create the required datasets. MS Power BI will automatically link those datasets to each other depending on the data fields that are common to those datasets. This data will become the basis for creating the data models that will become the basis for the shared performance information.
This could also include creating new calculated measures using the extracted data fields. MS Power BI also setting the option on how the data extracted will be refreshed. There is the option of real-time data as well as the option to refresh the data on selected time intervals during the day.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with 40-year service record providing project management, project controls services and project management information system to over than 200 projects with a total value in excess of US $100 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment, Hospitality and shopping malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker in topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 40 years he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South America. He has written more than 500 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.