Performance Analytics, Reporting & Dashboards
About 2% of the CIS-SPM exam — see all 10 domains.
SPM ships Performance Analytics (PA) content, dashboards, and reports for portfolios, projects, resources, and financials. Know the difference: Reporting = point-in-time data from tables; Performance Analytics = time-series, snapshot-based KPIs and scorecards showing trends. SPM dashboards surface portfolio health, demand pipeline, resource utilization, and financial variance. Indicators/breakdowns and data collection jobs drive PA.
Sample questions from this domain
Three of the 6 in this domain, with the reasoning. The full set is in the question bank.
What does Performance Analytics (PA) add beyond standard reports in SPM?
- A. Inline editing of planned task dates and dependencies on the project Gantt chart
- B. Submission of ideas from a dashboard widget directly into an idea module
- C. Time-series/trended indicators (KPIs) with scorecards to track performance over time ✓
- D. Allocation of resources to project tasks directly from an indicator scorecard
Why: Performance Analytics provides trended indicators (KPIs) and scorecards that track performance over time, beyond the point-in-time view of standard reports. Editing task dates and dependencies is done on the project planning page, ideas are submitted through the Idea Portal, and resources are allocated through resource plans, so none of these is what PA adds.
Which artifact in PA defines what is being measured (e.g., 'number of at-risk projects') and is collected over time?
- A. An Indicator (KPI) with scheduled data collection ✓
- B. A breakdown that segments scores by a dimension
- C. A dashboard that groups several scorecard widgets
- D. A target that sets the desired score value
Why: A Performance Analytics indicator (KPI) defines what is measured, such as the number of at-risk projects, and is collected on a schedule to show trends. A breakdown segments an indicator's scores by a dimension such as portfolio or state, a dashboard displays widgets, and a target sets the desired value for an indicator; none of them defines the measure itself.
Which two components are typically used to build an SPM executive dashboard? (Choose two)
- A. Reports/visualizations (charts, lists) on a dashboard/homepage ✓
- B. Time sheet policies that set maximum hours per day and week
- C. Sprint cadences and planned velocity for each agile team
- D. Resource plan states such as Requested and Confirmed
- E. PA widgets such as scorecards and trend charts ✓
Why: Executive dashboards combine reports and visualizations (charts, lists) with PA widgets such as scorecards and trend charts. Time sheet policies govern timekeeping rules, sprint cadences and planned velocity configure agile teams, and resource plan states describe where a capacity request is in its life cycle; none of them is a dashboard component.