A challenge timeline is a visible illustration of the duties that make up the challenge, displaying the sequence of occasions and key dates.
Let’s be clear: I’m not speaking a few detailed challenge Gantt chart, PERT chart or a circulate chart. I’m speaking a few beautiful, skilled trying slide (or slide-shaped display screen) that exhibits the challenge exercise in chronological order. You would possibly comprehend it as a plan on a web page (POAP).
Each governance assembly I am going to must see the plan on a web page. My plan on a web page milestones are rolled up into the portfolio plan on a web page. Execs love a fairly timeline, and on this article, I’m going to point out you what you ought to be together with in yours to wow your stakeholders (and construct some credibility on the similar time).
What do you must create a challenge timeline?
Earlier than you’ll be able to create a challenge timeline, you’ll have to know some core particulars about your challenge.
- Begin date: When are you beginning the work?
- Key actions: What work goes to occur?
- Period of key actions: How lengthy will the duties take?
- Sequence: What order do the actions occur in?
- Milestones: What are the important thing milestones throughout the challenge lifecycle?
When you don’t have a minimum of these fundamentals, you’ll be able to’t begin placing your timeline collectively.
What in the event you don’t have a begin date?
I’ve labored on tasks the place now we have needed to put collectively a timeline however with no mounted begin date. That’s OK, it’s doable. As a substitute of utilizing particular dates, use ‘Month 1’, ‘Month 2’ (or ‘Week 1’ and so on) throughout the highest.
Then every time the work begins, the timeline continues to be true, and you may change out the placeholder ‘Month 1’ titles with the precise months.
What if I don’t wish to present the complete challenge?
You don’t have to point out the complete challenge as a horizontal chart. A challenge administration timeline is a communication instrument so if you wish to talk concerning the plans for coaching, simply do a slide displaying that.
Make it clear that the timeline individuals are taking a look at solely exhibits a portion of the challenge.
What makes an efficient timeline?
An efficient timeline is one which will get the message throughout shortly and simply.
It’s a visible overview of the work accomplished and to do. In case your timeline communicates the important thing actions that allow you to finish the challenge deliverables and obtain the advantages, then it has accomplished its job.
Gadgets to incorporate within the challenge timeline
At least, your timeline ought to embrace these key components:
- Begin dates and end dates
- Actions in the proper sequence
That’s it. However you may make your timeline much more helpful by together with extra issues on it. Under, we’ll take a look at the options you’ll be able to embrace within the timeline to showcase precisely what your challenge is doing.
Date bar
The dates go throughout the highest of your timeline to point out linear development all through the month, quarter or yr.
Select a time interval or interval that works greatest for you. If my challenge is barely 3 months lengthy, I might select to show intervals in weeks. Longer tasks may be cut up by quarters.
You may have a couple of date bar. For longer tasks, you could possibly have a bar throughout the highest displaying the quarter after which one other one displaying the breakdown by month, so mess around with what appears good to you.
When you use rolling wave planning, you might need your date columns displaying months or quarters, after which a ultimate part on the finish for the subsequent time interval — the place you haven’t bought a whole lot of element but however wish to symbolize that the challenge nonetheless continues into the longer term.
Job bars
You may’t have a timeline with out duties!
A timeline is totally different to a Gantt chart, as it’s a instrument for communication and a high-level view of the challenge. Gantt charts can stretch to a whole bunch of traces with detailed dependencies, process proprietor names, varied totally different dates relying on early or late begin, float and extra. That’s an excessive amount of for a timeline.
The purpose of a timeline is to share the general journey of the challenge, so take into consideration what duties you must present to try this (and it received’t be your total challenge schedule).
These duties would work nicely on a timeline:
- Provider choice
- Plan
- Construct
- Testing
- Coaching
- Rollout
Take your general record of duties and group them or roll them as much as provide the stage of detailed wanted. Keep on with excessive stage actions, not particular person duties that solely final a few days or which can be a specialist process that wants explaining.
Durations and dates
Job bars are helpful, however the query I get requested essentially the most is ‘when is that taking place?’ As a challenge supervisor, it’s additionally what I wish to know from workstream leads.
Make clear your timeline by including additional textual content that spells out key dates or the period of duties. Then folks received’t be attempting to depend up what number of weeks the rollout is as a result of it’s proper there spelled out for them.
Workstreams/swimlanes
Most of my tasks have workstreams or varied groups being liable for various things. The wonderful thing about a timeline is which you can visually cut up the work into swimlanes that may be color-coded. You may see at a look who’s doing what.
For instance, within the picture beneath you’ll be able to see there are 3 main swimlanes: Improvement, Testing and Launch. Every of those is cut up into additional sub-swimlanes. Improvement is cut up into scoping and improvement.
You may additionally cut up by challenge part, the division liable for the work or the rest that is smart to you.
Breakdown your timeline into logical chunks utilizing multi-level swimlanes so folks can shortly perceive how the work progresses by means of the challenge.
Milestones
Milestones are particular factors in a challenge that symbolize a call or marker. They’re added to a plan however they’ve the period of zero days – they don’t seem to be a process.
Examples of milestones embrace:
- Enterprise case submitted
- Approval from board
- Gate reviews and different governance factors
- Testing full
- Coaching materials log off (any log off level)
Undergo your challenge deliverables and see if any completion dates or log off dates may be added as milestones. Once more, hold it excessive stage, you don’t want to repeat each milestone from the schedule.
On a Gantt chart, you’ll see milestones represented as a black diamond form. On a timeline, you have got the artistic freedom to make use of just about any form you want! We use coloured circles on our timelines. You need to use triangles, flags or no matter.
Shade-code milestones to point out if they’re accomplished (blue), on observe (inexperienced), in danger (amber/yellow) or missed/excessive danger (crimson). When you acknowledge these colours, it’s as a result of they’re the identical as what we use to symbolize challenge standing for RAG reporting.
‘Right now’ marker
Add a vertical line down the web page to mark ‘right now’ in your timeline. This exhibits challenge progress.
I like utilizing a marker that represents right now because it helps folks perceive how a lot precise progress has been made towards what was deliberate and what’s nonetheless to come back. It helps give a ‘actual time’ really feel to the work.
Tip!
Keep in mind to replace the ‘right now’ line every time you present your doc to somebody! I’ve been caught out the place I’ve put a timeline slide on the display screen and all of the duties and milestones are correct however the ‘right now’ line nonetheless exhibits as final month.
Gridlines
Add traces to the grid to assist draw folks’s consideration to the months or weeks. You don’t have to make use of gridlines, however I feel they’re helpful when the timeline appears busy, as a result of they assist present a visible body of reference to know what you’re looking at.
Legend
Add a legend within the nook of your timeline when you’ve got used totally different colours to imply various things.
Title
Don’t overlook the title! Depart house on the web page for a descriptive title and subtitle that explains what readers are taking a look at.
Colours and branding
Individuals can inform in the event you’ve used the default PowerPoint colours or the palette that comes out of the field together with your challenge timeline software program.
Swap out the defaults to your group’s model colours and fonts. Add some design components that make it seem like it’s a part of the usual PowerPoint deck.
What to not embrace
There are many issues you’ll be able to embrace in a timeline, however what must you keep away from placing in? Listed here are some objects I might keep away from.
Dependencies between duties
Keep in mind, your plan on a web page is a excessive stage abstract so it’s not essential to mark up relationships between duties. Except it’s actually vital, don’t add traces or arrows to dependent tasks – it’s simply going to look messy.
Flag interdependent duties – particularly if the dependency is coming in from one other challenge – with a name out field or some textual content as an alternative.
Job progress
OK, you could possibly shade within the bar chart traces to point out process progress as a illustration of percent complete, however that’s a whole lot of extra work and extra traces to maintain updated.
Stick to the excessive stage strategy. If an exercise is working behind, you’ll be able to change the colour of the entire bar, or simply transfer it to the brand new anticipated supply date (so long as you have got had approval to replace the baseline).
Job homeowners
You need to use swimlanes to designate actions to a division, however I wouldn’t add the element of every particular person process proprietor. Does your challenge sponsor actually need to know that Claire is doing that process?
You probably have caught to the precept of preserving issues excessive stage, most ‘duties’ shall be labored on by a number of folks within the challenge crew anyway as a result of the bars will symbolize a bunch of actions.
Useful resource availability
Flag points with useful resource another way. The timeline is to point out key stakeholders and challenge leaders what is occurring when.
You probably have points with assets being accessible, flip your milestones amber or crimson and use your danger administration course of to flag that there isn’t anybody accessible to do the work.
The jury is out on the vital path…
I personally don’t add the vital path to my timeline. As the general look of the plan on a web page slide is clear, I don’t wish to mess that up with additional traces.
Additionally, the vital path may not be tremendous clear anyway as grouped actions will not be at a granular stage. Most likely your entire timeline is the vital path!
Use Gantt chart software program with vital path methodology options inbuilt if you wish to determine the vital path. Then select key factors on the challenge schedule which can be on the vital path and add milestones to your timeline that spotlight these essential instances.
Venture administration instruments for timelines
The instrument I like to recommend for timelines particularly is Office Timeline. Most of my stakeholders wish to see plans in PowerPoint, and Workplace Timeline’s plugin provide you with precisely that, with a great deal of customizable options.
Sure, you’ll be able to create a timeline from scratch in PowerPoint, however why would you when you will get timeline templates prepared accomplished? You can begin with a ready-made template, sync it together with your knowledge, and shortly alter the format or styling as wanted. This protects a lot time and ensures you have got all the required parts described above.
Subsequent steps
Able to create a timeline?
Keep in mind, yours doesn’t need to look the identical as mine. If you wish to add additional options as a result of it helps with comprehension or your challenge leaders have requested for it, then do.
Begin with Office Timeline’s free 14-day trial and see what it may do. The PowerPoint plugin creates a slide which you can edit to your coronary heart’s content material utilizing the drag-and-drop overlay. And when it’s time to replace the plan, you’ll be able to simply herald your new knowledge through the Refresh choice.
Share your timeline with the challenge crew. Get it accredited if vital, after which present it off to as many stakeholders as you’ll be able to!
