Executive committees expect clear, up-to-date answers on how projects are performing, and it usually falls to the PMO to provide them. Preparing a status report means pulling cost, schedule and milestone data from several sources, and a new dashboard often means waiting for a specialist to build it. By the time the material is ready for the meeting, the figures may already be out of date and follow-up questions still need another round of analysis.
Planisware Prisma helps PMOs generate executive-ready reports, dashboards and portfolio insights directly from live project data, cutting consolidation work and helping leaders make faster decisions.
Let's follow a PMO lead as they use Prisma to prepare a status report and build a new dashboard for the executive committee.
From live project data to executive insight with Prisma
Generate a status report in one request
The PMO lead asks Prisma to generate a PMI-style status report on project R&D-004. Prisma produces a complete report in the side panel, showing the project's overall health, progress and schedule, cost and earned value indicators, WBS phase progress, milestones and gates, and a narrative summary. Alongside the report, Prisma explains its reading: cost performance is very strong, with the forecast well below budget, while the main exposure is schedule, since most of the work and later gates are still ahead. It is also transparent about its sources, noting which indicators could not be calculated and that figures come from the live cost data the user can access. A report that usually takes hours to consolidate is ready in moments, in a consistent format leaders can read at a glance and with figures they can trust.
Answer follow-up questions on the spot
Next, the PMO lead asks Prisma to show the state of the project's deliverables. Prisma reviews the document register and finds 67 deliverables, 13 approved and 54 still pending, lists the approved ones and displays the split in a chart. When a question comes up in a review, the answer is available immediately, without another round of data gathering.
Build a dashboard that did not exist
The PMO lead then describes a new dashboard in plain language: a "Dashboard Risks and Costs" for R&D-004, created without modifying any existing dashboard, with a tile showing the project's estimate at completion broken down by cost account. Prisma builds the dashboard and opens it in edit mode, ready to review. Teams no longer need to wait for a specialist or learn a reporting tool to get the view they need.
Refine it through conversation
The PMO lead fine-tunes the chart in a few short requests: a single bar with one color per cost account, a new title, no sub-legend, and values displayed inside each segment. Prisma applies each change and explains its choices, such as using detailed cost accounts so the segments add up without double counting. Adjusting a visual becomes as simple as describing the change, so the dashboard quickly matches what the audience needs to see.
Add new views in minutes
Finally, the PMO lead asks for a second tile showing the project's risks as a bubble chart, with probability of occurrence on one axis, impact on the other and bubble size reflecting the cost of each risk. Prisma adds the chart above the cost view, and a final request removes the bubble labels for a cleaner look. In just a few minutes, the executive committee has a dashboard that brings risks and costs together in one place, built directly from live project data.
What Prisma brings to PMOs
- Generate executive-ready status reports from live project data in a single request.
- Answer follow-up questions from leaders on the spot, with figures drawn straight from project records.
- Create new dashboards by describing them in plain language, without specialist support.
- Refine charts and visuals through simple conversation until they say exactly what is needed.
- Combine cost, schedule and risk views to give leaders a complete picture of project performance.
- Reduce time spent on consolidation and give decision makers up-to-date information when they need it.
