Visualization for Project Managers: Basic and Advanced

Bruce is the founder of ProjectManagementHacks.com, a resource for growing IT project managers.

  Communications Management   Estimating   Leadership  

Effective communication is at the heart of successful projects. In my experience, there is no upper limit to improving our communication skills. You may already have strong listening skills and the ability to present; creating and using visualizations may be your next opportunity to grow.

Why Visualization Opportunity Matters
Big picture understanding is essential to leadership and interacting with leads. In my experience, leaders, managers and sponsors are interested in the big picture. They trust that you have the fine details managed. That leads us to the question: How can we effectively communicate the big picture of our projects? Effective visualization—using charts, graphics and other visual techniques—is one of the best methods.

Introduction Starters for Visualization
Let’s assume you have a visualization software application on hand. You are excited to put it into production. There’s just one question: What should be your focus? The following four areas are good starting points because they tend to be both meaningful and have significant data:

• Overall project health: The classic red/yellow/green “traffic light” status. This approach is useful only if you have a clear definition for each stage. If your project needs help to get back on track, speak up to the sponsor and management with a few ideas.
• Lagging indicators: …

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