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Building a Project Dashboard on a Small Budget Using Adobe Dreamweaver 
– by Randy Britsch, PMP
Companies that have been forced to virtually eliminate budgets for project information tools, file management tools, and communication tools risk having key decision-makers making uninformed decision about projects because they did not know important information, such as project constraints, issues, risks, key team members, and project priorities. This article shows how to alleviate this problem, using Dreamweaver CS4 to create an executive dashboard, a project-detail dashboard, and a project summary report that allow unencumbered project updating and easy dashboard maintenance, all with very little cost.

The Need to Communicate and Track Value Expectations
– by Timothy Brion Ritter, PMP
We have all seen situations where the most mature and well-managed programs have been derailed through no fault of the program’s implementation. Most frequently, the fault for thesefailures rests outside of the program manager’s authority, but that does not mean that the program manager cannot defend against these interferences effectively through additional processes that communicate and track the value expectations for the program. The program manager can more effectively communicate with the strategic leadership in order to understand, develop metrics for, report, and track against the expectations of these external stakeholders to limit the damage that can be caused by rapidly changing expectations.

Assessing Project Health 
– by Nicolas De Dobbeleer, MSc, PMP, Managing Director, The Project Gold Mine
When we are discussing metrics within project management, it is important to look at the big picture. In this respect, all aspects of portfolio, program, and project management, as well as the organization performance, should be considered. In this article, we will focus on project health metrics that enable management to make critical decisions that help the project manager and his or her team succeed. Without objective metrics, it is difficult to judge whether a project is actually on track.

Are Project Management Skills Transferable? 
– by Jennifer Schmidt, PMP
The author recently had an opportunity to switch into a technical project manager role after being a business project manager for over 12 years. She traces her 18-month journey to learn what skills are easily portable and which ones needed refining or, worst case, acquiring. She focused on two main areas: communications and teamwork.