How to report progress in an agile setting with dashboards

Martin Osterloh – Consultant and Trainer, Maxpert GmbH, and Reviewer for PRINCE2 Project Management and PRINCE2 Agile

Effective agile delivery depends on teams constantly monitoring their progress. This awareness is primarily driven by team members – developers, designers and specialists involved in the work – rather than by tools or top-down oversight alone. Progress is not just a formality or a report to file, but a continuous conversation about work, commitment and accountability, owned by those creating the product. Teams that regularly monitor their progress are better equipped to adapt, improve and provide value.

In this article, Martin Osterloh, a consultant and trainer specialising in management best practices, examines how PRINCE2 Agile transforms progress tracking into a collaborative practice. Rather than seeing reporting as bureaucracy, the method fosters a dialogue between individuals creating the product and the users. This approach ensures that quality and alignment are embedded throughout delivery, not left to a last-minute check.

Monitoring progress in agile is just as important as in traditional project management. Projects are temporary investments with specific delivery expectations. Even within an iterative and flexible framework, teams must track their progress against agreed goals. This awareness is not only about reporting to someone else, such as a project manager, but also about intrinsic accountability.

When an iteration begins with a plan to deliver a specific set of features, the team needs to track progress throughout. For example, if a particular interface or module takes longer than expected, developers must recognise this early. This allows the team to adjust priorities, redistribute effort or escalate issues before they become critical. Awareness is not optional; it is central to delivering quality on time.

Keeping governance lightweight

Agile teams may be self-organising, but accountability is still essential. In PRINCE2 Agile, the product owner serves as the primary point of contact between the team and the project manager. However, it is the team members who drive progress awareness, continuously checking their own work, identifying issues early and ensuring that tasks remain on track. Governance exists to support them, not to replace their intrinsic responsibility.

Reporting should be viewed as a means of transparency, not bureaucracy. Teams collectively decide how to track progress and address issues. When deviations exceed agreed-upon tolerances – whether in scope, schedule or quality – they are escalated through the governance process, typically by the product owner or team member responsible. The focus is on clarity, speed and minimal friction, rather than producing paperwork.

Agile reporting versus traditional reporting

In traditional project management, reporting typically takes the form of lengthy status reports. From a Lean perspective, this is a form of waste (“muda”): over-processed, rarely read and slow to provide insight. Teams may spend hours creating documents that never inform decisions.

In contrast, agile promotes a lightweight, visual and continuous approach. Updates are communicated through daily stand-ups, Kanban boards, Scrum boards, team or project dashboards, or digital tools such as Jira or Azure DevOps. These systems let everyone, from developers to managers, see the current state of work at a glance. This reduces over-processing, sparks open discussion and supports rapid problem-solving, making tracking part of the team’s daily routine rather than an administrative chore.

Efficiency and effectiveness through visual management

This shift from lengthy, static reports to visual, real-time updates improves clarity and discussion but also sets the stage for using visual management tools that make reporting both more efficient and more effective. PRINCE2 Agile Version 1 first introduced the concept of the “information radiator”, a visible display of key project information. Tools such as dashboards, burn charts and visual boards convey complex data quickly, allowing teams to make informed decisions without having to read lengthy reports.

Efficiency comes from cutting unnecessary work. If a report goes unread, it provides no value. Visual dashboards, on the other hand, present information in a way that enables the team to interpret, discuss and take immediate action. However, visibility alone is not enough; accuracy and governance are essential. Teams should agree upfront on which tools and visual management systems to use, as well as how to collect and communicate data. When governance is embedded in the process, visuals become informative, dependable, actionable and trustworthy.

Simple tools, big impact

Burn charts are a simple but powerful way to track work during an iteration. A burn-down chart displays the amount of remaining work over time, enabling the team to identify bottlenecks and maintain focus on delivery. In contrast, a burn-up chart tracks completed work and progress towards the iteration goal.

Both tools are visual, intuitive and low-tech, yet highly effective. Burn-down charts encourage discipline by preventing teams from adding new work mid-iteration, while burn-up charts offer flexibility in adjusting tasks based on the team’s capacity. The choice between the two depends on the team’s goals and the complexity of the iteration. However, either approach ensures that progress remains visible and actionable.

Aligning progress with business objectives

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are another helpful tool, providing a strong mechanism for alignment. By linking individual contributions to broader project or programme objectives, teams gain clarity about the purpose of their work. OKRs encourage team members to think like “miniature business owners”, understanding both what to deliver and why it matters.

For example, in a hospital project to improve patient booking times, the development team could define key results such as “80 per cent of patients booked in under three minutes”. This direct link between work and outcomes helps the team prioritise, take ownership and align closely with the organisation’s strategic goals. PRINCE2 Agile encourages this mindset by combining structure with empowerment.

Progress transparency over bureaucratic reporting

Ultimately, agile progress tracking is about creating visibility, fostering discussion and building trust. While PRINCE2 Agile provides tools, roles and processes to support this aim, the real value arises from the team actively engaging with their progress. Reporting is not bureaucracy; it is a dynamic practice that informs decisions, motivates the team and highlights opportunities for improvement.

In Germany, practitioners say “PRIMA = PRINCE2 mit Augenmaß, i.e., PRINCE2 applied with common sense”. This reminds us to use PRINCE2 concepts pragmatically: don’t overburden people with rigid reporting processes and always return to tailoring as a fundamental principle. Focus on transparency by using lightweight visual tools and facilitating regular discussions. So, when teams can clearly see their progress, they become empowered to act, collaborate and deliver results that exceed expectations.

Agile reporting is not a one-off event or a document to file away; it is a continuous practice. Through visual management, clear governance and alignment with business objectives, teams gain insight, ownership and accountability. When project managers, product owners and team members all contribute, progress becomes a collective achievement.