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Power BI for Project Controls and PMO Dashboards
An applied programme for PMO analysts, project controls engineers, planners, and cost controllers — building Power BI dashboard capability for schedule, cost, risk, portfolio, and executive PMO reporting across the GCC.
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Description
Programme Highlights
End-to-End PMO Dashboard Build
Go from data model architecture and Power Query to fully interactive, executive-ready visuals.
Schedule & Cost/EVM Visualisation
Bring P6/MS Project schedule data and full EVM metrics together in one coherent, decision-ready view.
Risk & Portfolio Reporting
Build RAID heat maps, RAG scoring, and drill-through executive views that surface what actually needs attention.
Capstone Working Dashboard
Build a complete, functioning Power BI dashboard from sample project controls and PMO datasets.
Course Curriculum — 8 Modules
PMO Dashboard Architecture
A dashboard built before its purpose is defined is destined for rework. This module builds the planning discipline that precedes any Power BI development — starting with reporting objectives: what decision each dashboard is meant to support, and for whom. Participants map stakeholder reporting needs across the PMO hierarchy common on GCC megaprojects, from working-level project controls teams through steering committees and sponsors, recognising that each audience needs a different level of detail and a different visual language. The module introduces KPI selection discipline and data model concept — thinking through what data sources, relationships, and granularity a dashboard will need before opening Power BI — and closes with a survey of dashboard types (operational, tactical, and executive) so participants can match the right architecture to the right audience from the outset.
Power BI Fundamentals
This module builds core Power BI technical competence, starting with data import from the sources common on GCC project environments — Excel exports, CSV files, and direct connections to project controls systems. Participants learn Power Query fundamentals for cleaning and transforming raw data before it enters the model, avoiding the common mistake of trying to fix data problems inside visuals instead of at the source. The module covers model relationship design — building the star-schema thinking that keeps a Power BI model fast and maintainable as it grows — and introduces DAX measures, the calculation layer that turns raw data into meaningful metrics. The module closes with report page design fundamentals: layout, visual selection, and the basic interactivity that makes a report usable rather than merely decorative.
Schedule Data Dashboards
Schedule dashboards are among the most requested — and most frequently misbuilt — PMO deliverables. This module builds practical competence in bringing Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project data into Power BI, covering export logic and the field mapping needed to preserve WBS structure, activity relationships, and critical path status during the transfer. Participants build milestone tracking visuals that clearly distinguish achieved, at-risk, and missed milestones, and design slippage analysis views that show schedule movement over successive updates rather than a single static snapshot. The module covers lookahead report construction — the near-term activity view that site and delivery teams rely on — and closes with critical items visualisation that surfaces the schedule risks a steering committee actually needs to see on GCC project reviews.
Cost and EVM Dashboards
This module builds dashboards that turn raw cost data into the financial visibility a PMO is expected to provide. Participants design visuals that track budget, actual cost, and committed cost together, giving a complete financial exposure picture rather than a partial view based on invoiced spend alone. The module covers building Earned Value Management (EV) metric visuals — PV, EV, AC, CV, SV, CPI, and SPI — in Power BI, with attention to presenting these technical metrics in a way that non-specialist executives can interpret at a glance. Participants build forecast and variance visuals that combine historical trend data with EAC projections, and close with dashboard layouts appropriate for the monthly cost-control reporting cycle common on GCC construction and infrastructure programmes.
Risk and Issue Reporting
Risk data buried in a spreadsheet protects no one. This module builds practical Power BI skills for visualising RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) log data in ways that drive action rather than simply archiving it. Participants build risk heat maps that plot likelihood against impact, giving sponsors an immediate visual read on where exposure concentrates across a project or portfolio. The module covers aging analysis visuals that flag issues and actions that have sat open too long, and action tracking views that show ownership and due-date status clearly. The module closes with escalation view design — dashboards structured specifically to surface the items that require steering committee attention on GCC project governance structures, rather than presenting every risk with equal visual weight.
Portfolio and Executive Views
Executive audiences need a different visual language than working-level project teams. This module builds portfolio-level dashboard skills, starting with portfolio health summary views that give sponsors an at-a-glance status across multiple projects without overwhelming detail. Participants build RAG (Red-Amber-Green) scoring visuals with consistent, defensible scoring logic behind the colour, avoiding the common failure mode of RAG status that doesn't match the underlying data. The module covers dependency mapping across a portfolio of interconnected GCC projects, and closes with drill-through report design: building the navigation path that lets an executive move from a portfolio summary down to project-level and activity-level detail without needing a separate report for every level of the organisation.
Data Governance
A dashboard that looks polished but runs on stale or inconsistent data is worse than no dashboard at all. This module builds the data governance discipline that keeps a Power BI environment trustworthy over time. Participants design data refresh schedules appropriate to different data sources and reporting cadences, and build quality check routines that catch broken links, missing data, and calculation errors before they reach a steering committee. The module covers naming standards and documentation practices that keep a growing dashboard portfolio maintainable as more PMO analysts contribute to it, and closes with version control and access permission design — managing who can edit versus view dashboards, and how changes are tracked, on shared GCC PMO reporting environments.
Capstone PMO Dashboard
The programme closes with an applied capstone: participants build a complete, working Power BI dashboard from realistic sample project controls and PMO datasets, drawing on every skill built across the previous seven modules. Working from schedule, cost, and risk data for a sample project portfolio, participants design a data model, build schedule and EVM visuals, construct a RAID risk view, and assemble an executive summary page with drill-through navigation. Facilitator and peer feedback focuses on whether the finished dashboard would genuinely serve a live GCC PMO reporting cycle — clear, accurate, and fast enough to load — not just whether it looks visually impressive.
Frameworks, Tools & Accreditation
Course Outcome
On completing this course, you will be able to design a PMO dashboard data model, build schedule, cost/EVM, and risk visuals in Power BI, construct portfolio and executive-level reporting views, and apply data governance practices that keep dashboards trustworthy over time — capabilities directly applicable to PMO analyst, project controls engineer, planner, and cost controller roles across major construction and infrastructure programmes in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and the wider GCC.