Project and Visio: Friends for Life

 

 

In a previous post  I was a bit critical of the "tubular" timeline view that one can produce in Visio.

TIP  Click the screenshot image to see a larger view.




 My complaint about this diagram type is that it's too tempting to overload the timeline with details to the point that it becomes cumbersome to read. In addition, it's a static diagram and not a dynamic schedule. I estimate that at least half of the Visio timelines like this that I see are out-of-date when I see them.

Meet the Swimlane

I don't want to sound too harsh on Visio though; it's my second or third favorite desktop app from Microsoft  (right after Project, and neck-and-neck with OneNote). Happily I have found one happy combination of Project's Timeline view ( a new feature in Project 2010) and a Visio diagram type called the cross-functional flowchart, or swimlane diagram. This combination is the subject of this week's post.

First, let me explain the swimlane diagram. I have sung the praises of this diagram type in a previous post. Normally, a swimlane diagram communicates tasks per resource, as well as relationships between tasks. Here's one example:




In this example, I've even included a timeline in one of the lanes to give a general sense of when each activity is to be performed. This diagram does not have the precision of a Project Gantt chart, but for my money it's a big improvement over a basic flowchart.

Who's Doing What?!?

I much prefer the swimlane format to a standard flowchart because it forces you to identify the actor (or resource) of each task. When modeling complex activities, I have often found that it's the question of who should perform a given action and not what that action is that is the most contentious or difficult to answer. A swimlane diagram is a great format for keeping the focus on "who does what" and not just "what needs to be done."

Meet the Timeline (Again)

Now, here's one example of combining Project and Visio. Running Project to manage multiple projects as I do, I get great benefits like a common resource pool, cross-project linking, and an "all-up" portfolio view via a consolidated project. However, the Timeline view in Project is unique to just a single project plan. I can't as easily get nice apples-to-apples comparisons across project plans' Timeline views as I would like right out of Project. Here's an example of the Timeline view in Project; the Timeline sits above the Gantt Chart view from which select data has been exposed on the Timeline:




Twice the Timelines, Twice the Fun

This is great for the one project plan, but what if I have several projects and I'd like to show each of their Timeline views together? What I can do is copy each Project plan's Timeline view into a lane of a swimlane diagram in Visio. Add a static timescale in Visio, and I end up with a highly approachable portfolio view:




I line up the various Timeline snapshots from Project so their timescales match the one in Visio. And because this is a Visio diagram, I'm free to add whatever other shapes and formatting I wish in Visio:




This is still a static diagram and I still have the updating chore as my Project plan changes, however. I could partially automate this process on the Project side at least with a macro.

There are undoubtedly other compelling uses of the Timeline view in Visio or other apps that I haven't yet thought of. What would you do with the Timeline view? Let meknow via a comment.

Hands-on with Project Step by Step

To read more about this blog entry's subjects in the two most recent editions of Tim Johnson's and my Project Step by Step books, see the following cross-references.

 

Working with the Timeline view

1. Project 2010 Step by Step: "Customizing the Timeline View," pg. 104; "Formatting a Timeline View," pg. 324. 
2. Project 2007 Step by Step: None! The Timeline view is not available in Project 2007.

 

Working with macros

3. Project 2010 Step by Step: "Recording Macros," pg. 351.
4. Project 2007 Step by Step:  "Recording Macros," pg. 373.

 

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Comments

[Daniel Rohwer]

Check out the automated Swimlane Timeline Visio add-on solution that won the BEST MICROSOFT PROJECT 2007 APPLICATION award and works with Visio/Project/Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 at the following url:

http://www.milestoneconsultinggroup.com/visibility.biz/SwimlaneTimeline/default.aspx