Communicating Plans to Global Teams

In today’s connected world, it’s increasingly common for project and portfolio managers to collaborate with teams across multiple countries and cultures.

In some ways, working globally is a great thing. Talent can be acquired and nurtured wherever it’s found, marketplace efficiencies can drive bottom-line benefits, and diverse viewpoints often lead to superior finished products and processes. But there are certainly challenges, too – and few see them more keenly than the project manager.

Keeping individuals and departments on the same page (and the same timeline) when they’re divided by distance, language, and culture can be difficult. As a result, many project and portfolio managers are turning to project visuals, like Gantt charts and “birds on a wire” timelines, to effectively communicate globally. Here’s why.

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Progress and On-time Status are two very different things

We often receive this question within our support interactions:  “Why doesn’t my % Complete bar match today’s date?”

progress behindThe answer is simple.

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Ever Check Out The OnePager YouTube Channel?

Not all of the OnePager tips and tricks videos make it onto our Support Videos page.  But every video we’ve ever made can be found on our YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/chroniclegraphics?sub_confirmation=1
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Displaying Variance in OnePager

I get asked a lot about how to display variance in OnePager.  This post will hopefully get your creative juices flowing about how to meet your specific needs. You might be interested in a project summary chart that looks something like this:

Variance PV
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Best of OnePager Blog – Most Read All Time

Happy New Year to all of our OnePager users!

We very much appreciate you and hope you find this week’s edition helpful.  These are our top-three most viewed blog articles of all time.

At #3 with 1,940 views – Best Practices for Project Reporting: Swimlanes (Part 3/6)

At #2 with 4,077 views – Building Gantt Charts in PowerPoint?  Think again!

At #1 with 7,133 views – Microsoft Project Formulas:  the Smart Way to Filter Tasks for OnePager Pro

We wish you and your colleagues the very best in 2016!

Sincerely, The Chronicle Graphics Team

Best of OnePager Blog – OnePager Best Practices

While we do have an upcoming 3rd and final Video for the 5.3 release, we’ve decided to hold that until January.

But, rather than give you all a cheeky holiday post, we thought another “Best of” was warranted.

We’ve had many blog posts over the years about best practices in OnePager, which are all still relevant today.  These three, in particular, are toward the top of the list, and we hope you find them informative!

OnePager Tip: Shorten Task Names for Clarity

Lesson From Biggest Loser – Weigh In More Frequently for Better Performance

Best Practices for Project Reporting: Standardization (Part 5/6)

Happy Holidays from the Chronicle Graphics Team!

The Project Manager is an Expert in Business Intelligence

What if I told you that a Gantt Chart was a form of Business Intelligence (BI)?  Wait, hear me out.

Wikipedia tells me that BI is “the set of techniques and tools for the transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes.”  Yep, sounds like a Gantt Chart to me.

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OnePager Tip: Shorten Task Names for Clarity

Prior to using OnePager, you didn’t have to consider how much space your project plan’s task or milestone labels would consume in a chart. Regardless of how long they were, you always had to re-type them anyway into whatever other application you were using to create your reports — and most people shortened labels while retyping.  But now that you’re using your actual plan data to drive your visuals, label length is a major consideration.

Take a look at the examples below.  The first has very long labels, while the second uses only what is necessary for the audience to understand what the activity or milestone is.  (Double-click to enlarge each image.)

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The von Restorff Effect – Why Project Managers Should Care

Several years ago I presented 3 options for a plan of attack on a large systems integration initiative using OnePager.  My presentation looked something like the below project view. Guess which option was chosen?

Systems Integration Options

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