Project management consultants need to communicate their status among a number of stakeholders. Building a status dashboard achieves that goal, and helps building your business at the same time. Typically, there are several audiences a project manager needs to update with their status. So, stakeholder meetings tend to require a lot of preparation. Typically, these meetings are held once a month and offer up a large amount of information in a very brief format. This is where the status dashboard is particularly useful. Once you define the format for presenting the information, it’s relatively simple to keep people up to date. For example, if you keep all of a project's data at a high level, it’ll help maintain the interest the stakeholders while minimizing the amount of space necessary to communicate details.

But...

But don’t start thinking you no longer need to hang onto the details behind your basic statements. You must be able to answer any and all questions that may come from reviewing the status document. The document is what actually takes the most amount of prep time -- the details and knowing how to roll them up into manageable statements. Whether you deliver this in person or a less personal way, it's essential to provide as much information as you can. Your status document should follow the formatting of current expectations. If you can't find a template that works for your project, then create one on your own. In other words, take the time to review the expected data set, and be sure to deliver it forward.