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Gantt Chart Excel

Gantt Chart Excel

Using project management software to create Gantt charts gives you more trouble than it is worth. Instead, you should use MS Excel to create your plans, and you will have increased flexibility and speed. Here’s why.

Creating your project gantt chart is not an easy task.

Firstly, using project management software to create gantt charts requires knowledge and experience with the software.

Secondly, in order to create the gantt chart you are required to enter data, and to group the tasks in certain ways.

Finally, fitting the gantt chart on a one side of paper, or on one presentation slide, with everything legible is a challenge! The formatting is often constrained by the software, and you don’t have control over the emphasis of different project elements.

The Gantt chart can take you hours, especially if you are new to MS Project.

Getting all of this together in time for your presentation can be arduous!

This is the reason why we created an easy to use Excel template for creating project gantt charts with Microsoft Excel. You will be able to create your schedule in minutes without any need of learning how to deal with MS Project software.

Solution: Use Excel to make a Gantt rapidly

Our Gantt Chart Excel template will help you make the most beautiful gantt chart for your projects in just minutes. It’s so simple that it doesn’t require any special training or skills! Just add the template to our shopping cart, checkout securely, download, and enter the data from your project plan sheet into our spreadsheet and see how amazing it looks at once! By using our Gantt Chart Excel template, creating visually appealing schedules has never been easier. Try now – this format is used by professionals around the world!

Some Gantt FAQs

What are the problems with MS Project Gantt Charts?

1. You have to learn how to use MS Project.
2. They take a long time to create.
3. They can be complex to read.
4. You have limited control over layout and emphasis.

What makes a good Gantt Chart?

1. It has clear timeline.
2. It is easily legible, including only the important task bars.
3. It fits on one A4 side / on one slide.
4. It shows only the important milestones.

What is the fastest way to create impressive Gantt Charts?

The fastest way is to use an Excel template to create a Gantt chart. While MS Project is often used, this requires learning how to use the software, and accurate data entry.

What are the benefits of an Excel Gantt Chart?

1. You can create it with simple Excel editing tools.
2. You have full control of the visual emphasis of different project elements.
3. You can mix Agile and Waterfall sequences and approaches.
4. You do not need to enter lots of data to build the chart.

How do you mix Agile and Waterfall project management on a Gantt Plan?

Using an Excel Gantt Chart, you can show a mixture of sequential and continuous project delivery processes. Rows can be shown as continuous task bars, and you can even write “Agile iterations” and show regular breaks inside a task bar.

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MoSCoW. The method not the place.

MoSCoW is an acronym which stands for Must, Should, Could and Will not. This is a method used on new projects which enables all stakeholders to agree what is really important.

Must haves need to be completed before the launch of the product or service.

Should have need to be mostly completed.

Could haves will have some completed before launch.

Will nots will have none completed.

Should I bother using it? It is quite a common approach and therefore projects teams are familiar with it. The main benefits are that in a sea of requirements its easy to see which are the most important. It also really helps focussing project time especially when scope creep starts in anger.

Any limitations?

Some. Whilst having all the Musts completed is easy, there is not always an agreement on how many Shoulds or Coulds need to be. Will nots is easy for day one launch although whether these features are dropped forever or parked for another day is not always clear.

So why are the o’s so small and what do they stand for?

They stand for absolutely nothing. It’s just that without them MSCW is quite hard to say.

I don’t suppose you have one for sale do you?

Never thought you’d ask. https://business-docs.co.uk/downloads/moscow-analysis/

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Disaster Recovery Planning in 2020 – be ready in the “new normal”

Disaster Recovery Plan - Template Toolkit - 48% off

Disaster Recovery Planning in 2020 has gained a lot of attention. In the past DRP has frequently been overlooked. Now, many organisations are struggling to manage in a serious business disaster situation.

Many DRP Templates are huge, daunting, and just not Agile!

If you don’t have time to read a text book and become a DRP expert, we can help you through the process.

We’ve spent a lot of time researching DRP templates and guides. There are plenty of free DRP resources trying to help, but they frequently very long winded, and use a lot of jargon.

What is there for the professional that wants to make a DRP, give an update presentation, and do all of this without going on training for 6 months?

Introducing the “Five S” Disaster Recovery Plan Toolkit

We have assembled a toolkit of DRP templates, complete with helpful guidance, to help professionals get rapid progress on their DRP plans.

This enables you to make a rapid, structured draft of your DRP, and start bringing your stakeholders on board quickly.

The DRP Toolkit uses our “Five S Methodology”

  1. Systems
  2. Services
  3. Staff
  4. Suppliers
  5. Sites
Disaster Recovery Plan Toolkit
Disaster Recovery Plan Toolkit

FAQs

How can I make a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) quickly?

1. Break your thinking down into the “Five S” DRP areas: Systems, Services, Staff, Suppliers, Sites.
2. Outline your plans for each area in the event of a disaster: Contingency plans, fallback plans, and operational procedures.
3. Roll it out across your organisation, and treat it as a living set of documents – it must be regularly reviewed, updated, and everyone should know their role.

How do I avoid common mistakes in Disaster Recovery Planning?

1. Use a structured approach.
2. Keep the plans and owners in each area updated frequently.
3. Be sure to have a summary of the plan, for new starters to use.

Is there an Agile Disaster Recovery Planning Approach?

You can use a structured, “5 S” approach to DRP in order to get the planning ready iteratively, so that you can show transparent progress to stakeholders and your whole organisation while the DRP is assembled.

How can I create, manage and present my Disaster Recovery Plan?

Use a set of templates to organise your approach to DRP creation, so that you can save your time, avoid common mistakes, and enable your plans to look professional in a short amount of time.

How do I present a Disaster Recovery Plan?

You can create an informative and impressive Disaster Recovery Plan Presentation using a DRP template made by experienced DRP professionals.

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Roadmap Project Template

Roadmap Project Template

We have been creating Roadmap Project Template designs since the early 2000s. Our customers include all the top consultancies, and professionals across over 190 countries.

Our History with Roadmap Project Templates

We first started creating Roadmap Project Templates in the early 2000s in the media industry. Our formats quickly became popular as a simple way to communicate strategy and project plans.

Why does the Roadmap format work well?

The Roadmap format is so effective because it enables your readers to see the whole story within minutes! You can see the timeframe, the key project elements, the risks, the milestones, and any important moments AT A GLANCE. A good roadmap can be read within 3 minutes.

Roadmap Project Template: in early 2000s

While the format remains the same – the timeline, workstreams and milestones – this roadmap format is considerably closer to 1990s design.

Portfolio Roadmap Template (Visio)
Portfolio Roadmap Template (Visio)

Then in 2010

As we left the 2000s, it became popular to include a dashboard and dials in your roadmap. This meant the presenter could report on project plans, and current status, within minutes. All in one screen!

The Powerpoint Roadmap + Dashboard communicates Product Status at a glance
This Powerpoint Roadmap includes a Dashboard to communicate project status at a glance.

Our formats in 2019

As we reach present day, the formats become more contemporary. This Hack Event Roadmap (for Hackathon planning) has more of an infographic style.

This Roadmap Template is used for Hackathon Event Rollout.

Find out more

See our range of Roadmap Templates here
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How to plan an Industry Hackathon Event

We have been involved in planning Industry Hackathon Events since 2012. As a result we have a refined process with expert resources.

“Hackathon” or “Hack Event”?

These days, the term “Hackathon” brings to mind herds of spotty nerds consuming pizza and staying awake for 3 days. It hails from the days when the event was more competition than a collaborative exercise.

“Hack Event” has become the more comfortable label for this routine of intense multidiscipline collaboration, with colleagues, to explore a shared challenge. Many successful corporations and product teams hold regular Hack Events as part of their working process.

Above all, Hackathons are a means to creating a culture of innovation.

The 4 stages of Planning & Delivery

This approach has worked well over the years for Industry Hackathons, where multiple competing organisations participate.

We base our approach on 30 areas broken into 4 sections: Business Case, Event Design, Event Rollout, and Event Delivery.

  1. BUSINESS CASE: Make the case for your Hackathon Event.
    1. Rationale.
    2. Benefits.
    3. Expectation Management.
    4. Hack Event Canvas.
    5. Three Horizons.
    6. FROST Innovation Framework.
  2. EVENT DESIGN: Design the key elements to deliver your Hackathon.
    1. Roadmap.
    2. Brand.
    3. Theme.
    4. Challenges.
    5. Target Participants.
    6. Location.
    7. Schedule.
    8. Support.
  3. EVENT ROLLOUT: Prepare your event and sign up your participants!
    1. Roadmap.
    2. Venue.
    3. Participants Hitlist.
    4. Suppliers.
    5. Managing invitations.
    6. Marketing Tools and Resources.
    7. Hack Team Formation.
  4. EVENT DELIVERY: Show time – Make your “event day” run smoothly!
    1. Get in.
    2. Registration.
    3. Kickoff.
    4. Support.
    5. Group Updates.
    6. Demo.
    7. Wrap up.
    8. Retrospective.
    9. Next Steps.

Extra tools for tracking your Hackathon delivery

Manage the detail while you deliver your event:-

  1. Master Checklist and Dashboard.
  2. Event Budget Spreadsheet.

Common Industry Hackathon Questions

Will a Hackathon event help us produce the next Unicorn?

It is not likely. However, if you hold Hackathons regularly, you will a) create exciting & feasible concepts more frequently, and b) shut down unviable concepts more rapidly. This will increase your efficiency exploiting new, profitable product opportunities.

How do we measure success for a Hackathon?

If run well, Hackathons are a great way to increase talent attraction and retention, and to increase competitive advantage. Ask the participants if they would recommend the experience to a colleague. If “yes”, you have a talent success. Monitor the concepts in your Three Horizons pipeline – if it is growing after the Hackathon, then you have a success.

Why run a Hackathon at all?

Hackathons encourage intense multidiscipline collaboration, and this serves to:-
1) reduce feedback loops for idea hand-off between disciplines from days to seconds.
2) Bad ideas get tested and closed down quickly.
3) Good ideas get iterated and optimised quickly.
This process is exciting, exhausting, and is the best way to get the best from your talented staff’s experience and expertise.
Hackathons offer a unique process of intense collaboration, where multidiscipline teams attack a problem with rapid iteration and multidiscipline thinking.

If we hold an Industry Hackathon, won’t our competitors steal our great new ideas?

In terms of the risk of competitors stealing your intellectual property, Hackathon events are no more risky that conferences; we regularly send our staff to conferences to “mix with the enemy”. The benefits of Hackathons in terms of a) advancing your staffs’ experience, b) job satisfaction, and c) talent attraction {if you do your PR properly} far outweigh the small risk that someone else will try and succeed in mobilising a new idea first!

Summary

The above 30 planning and delivery areas will help you deliver a great Industry Hackathon.

There will always be critics, but Hackathon events are a potent force in driving innovation in for your organisation.

The benefits are such that 80% of Fortune 100 companies use hack events, and 50% of those do it regularly (Source – HackerEarth).

Some of our Industry Hackathon Event Resources

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Breaking into Lloyd’s of London

At over 330 years old, Lloyd’s is the most recognisable insurance institution in the world. Specialising in non-standard risks others cannot or will not insure it is something of a world renown institution.

It is also necessarily a complex market place, steeped in history yet embracing the future. For example Lloyd’s works on a 3 year cycle – the time it took ships to circumnavigate the globe. It also can place Cyber insurance at a range of insurers.

The individual syndicates who make up the market place are always looking to evolve. As a result change programmes with innovation are a constant theme.

But how to translate complex projects to investors and boards who need to see everything on a single page?

One of consultants was approached with this very challenge, one which we were more than happy to oblige with. Step forward our Product Delivery Roadmap now part of a board pack in the Lloyd’s building.