There are no fixed rules for what you should or shouldn’t present in a weekly progress meeting. It all depends on your audience. But if you’re presenting to board members or senior management, there’s one golden rule: keep it simple, clear, and focused.

At the heart of every good progress report is a strong first page. You only have a few seconds to catch attention, so start with a clean and informative summary. One single, well-designed chart should be enough to tell the story of the project at a glance.

Your headline numbers should always include the following:

• Elapsed time vs. remaining time

• Total delay

• Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

• Planned Value vs. Earned Value

It’s not about impressing the room with complexity—it’s about making the key information impossible to ignore.

From my experience, many project managers just want the bottom line: How far are we behind or ahead? How much value have we earned? What’s our SPI? I designed this dashboard for those who don’t want to dive into pages of numbers—just the essentials, presented with impact.

Within one minute, your audience should be able to read:

• The elapsed and remaining time, in days and percentages

• The total delay up to the progress date

• Monthly cash flow values

• Earned vs. planned value

• The overall SPI for the project

To make it effective, use no more than three chart types. Keep fonts clear and large, especially for critical numbers. Avoid clutter. And never hit your audience with control data too early—guide them gradually, and keep things smooth.

In summary: Let the dashboard speak before you do.Clarity wins the room—every time.