Francesca RobisonDirector of PM/PMO| Delta Point, IncDowningtown, Pa, United States
I am working w/ a client that does tracks projects using excel and MSProject. I've been asked to determine a way to show in a picture or tool the portfolio view of:
- 20-30 projects
- their development & rollout timelines
- key client meeting dates
- other key organization activities
They've used both visio and excel to get these views, but I'm betting there's a better tool. Does anybody know of anything that would meet these requirements? (not looking for a full portfolio management suite). Saving Changes...
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Debbie Clemons, PMPEnterprise Application Project Manager| AvailityJacksonville, Fl, United States
I am interested in finding the same type calendar view. With all these projects using the same resources we are going to have a collision sooner or later. Thanks Debbie Saving Changes...
Each bar represents a project, and its span shows the start and end dates. This paper talks a little more about some related ideas for tracking strategic projects:
http://www.alexsbrown.com/align-proj-strat.html
If you have any questions, contact me anytime. I found these charts very helpful for our senior managers.
These charts were created using a line-drawing program (PowerPoint, GIMP, and Inkscape). They could be data-driven with some extra programming, but for 20-30 projects I recommend doing it by hand. You will probably spend more time automating the diagram than it would take to draw in a good graphics program.
Of course, my diagram just shows a few points of data for each project. If you are tracking five or more items for each project, it might become worthwhile to automate it.
I have found that MS Project is pretty hard to configure to create a drawing like this. It is possible, but MS Project REALLY wants to use its specific calendar views and Gantt views. My senior execs did not care for them.
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Francesca RobisonDirector of PM/PMO| Delta Point, IncDowningtown, Pa, United States
Update - since I posted this question I've found two solutions that may be of interest to others.
The first is a tool from Reel Logix, the Calendar Planner. It looks a lot like an Outlook calendar but has some great features, like being able to filter projects on categories (like by program or by team) to easily change the view.
The second is using the Shareponit 2007 calendar functionality. Similar to the Reel Logix solution, tho maybe not quite so pretty. Saving Changes...
Thanks for sharing the link on Calendar Planner. It looks like an interesting tool.
I went through the demo and it seems very similar to the calendar view in MS Project. I am curious why Calendar Planner is more helpful to you than MS Project.
I have created MS Project views with similar color-coding and other features, using the advanced formatting features. The same way MS Project creates views that highlight the critical path tasks in BOLD RED, I have created views that add text or color to key events, or filter events in the view, based on custom criteria.
I wonder if you might be able to create what you are looking for in MS Project.
Of course, if you are not using MS Project for your project schedules, Calendar Planner would be less expensive and perhaps easier to use. If you are using MS Project already, though, you might want to revisit its formatting options. I always hate to buy, install, maintain, and do double-entry with a second piece of software.
If you have specific questions around how to manage the advanced formatting options, please contact me. I am happy to help. Saving Changes...
Debbie Clemons, PMPEnterprise Application Project Manager| AvailityJacksonville, Fl, United States
Thanks for the feed back. Since purchasing new software is not an option right now I think I will try to use MS. We do currently use MS for individual project tracking. Alex, I'll review the information on the link you provided and contact you if I need a little extra help. :) There are over 100 high level projects that we are more interested in tracking time lines than tasks. A mixture of construction projects and clinical projects. The real issue is they all keep a seperate calendar and share resources. We are very good at getting the job done but now we need to get better at tracking and managing the level of work.
