I know I am late to the party, but better late than…, uh! forget it.
As the keen readers of our blog knew, I like cricket and I show my enthusiasm by making an excel dashboard (or infographic) whenever Indian team reaches a major milestone. So naturally, I was super excited when we won the ICC Worldcup 2011. Last time Indian won the event was in 1983 and my idea of a dashboard at that time was a bottle of milk and jingo-bell, my favorite shake-to-make-annoying-noise toy. I think our latest world-cup victory deserves something more than that. So here we go.
Excel Dashboard to Celebrate India’s World-cup Victory (2011)
(Click here to see larger version)
How is this Dashboard constructed?
This dashboard was one of the most difficult ones I built, because I did not know what to put in the dashboard. I know that the dashboard should reflect our team’s hardwork, journey, outstanding performances but I had no clue which format & layout exposed these qualities. So I took a lot of time drawing up sketches of possible dashboards before hitting on the present layout. Once I came-up with the layout, the actual dashboard took me about 4 hours to make (and may be another 4 for polish).
Here are some of the techniques used in the dashboard:
- The dashboard is divided in to 3 areas – Highlights, our journey to the victory and best performances.
- Highlights: This section shows overall summary of all the 9 matches India have played. It shows some interesting statistics, how much our top players contributed to our victory etc.
Techniques used: All parts of this are made with text boxes and simple text formulas. - Our Journey to victory: This was the most time consuming & intense part of the dashboard as I made this portion interactive. The left side shows all the matches we have played by date and the results. When you select a particular match, the right side portion shows a match summary. This includes match venue, result, toss details, India’s top 3 batsmen, top 3 bowlers, photos of India’s best batting & bowling performers, oppositions score, best batsman, bowler, their stats. It also shows the country flags etc.
Techniques used: The click to select as described in on-demand charts article, conditional formatting, picture links, more picture links, LARGE formula.
The most difficult part of this was to get a moving arrow that would change its position based on which match is selected. I did this with picture links, offset formula and a dynamic named range. (Examine the named range movingArrow). - Best performances (top 10): In this area, I showed the best batting, bowling, catching, partnership performances for all the matches in World-cup (not just India’s matches).
Techniques used: All the charts are made in Excel 2010 using solid bar conditional formatting & picture link based techniques. Later, I just copied them and pasted as images so that they look same in Excel 2007 also.
Colors & Fonts:
- I choose the blue color as it is team India’s jersey color. I used orange to contrast the best performances.
- The fonts are Bookman Old Style & Meriyo UI.
Download the Cricket World-cup Dashboard Excel file:
Click here to download the locked workbook. [mirror]
Why lock it? I am giving away unlocked version of this workbook + a 36 minute lesson to all the customers who buy Excel Dashboard Tutorial or Excel School Dashboards. So if you want an unlocked copy of this, go ahead and get either of them. (If you have previously bought one of these products, you will receive an email with instructions on downloading your bonus.)
Credits:
All the data for the dashboard came from espncricinfo.com.
Special thanks to Ravindra, my assistant, for compiling the data.
How do you like the Dashboard?
I was afraid whether I can do justice to our team’s glorious world-cup victory in a dashboard. So I kept on delaying this. But in the end, I am happy with the dashboard. It tells the story of our team’s journey and highlights best performers.
What do you think? Did you like this dashboard? How would you have designed it?
As an aside, Many of our readers know only about cricket that chirps. So I want to ask, did this dashboard make any sense to you?
Other Awesome Resources on Excel Dashboards:
- Excel Info-graphic Poster to Celebrate Sachin’s 200 runs
- Excel Dashboard with 10007 comments data
- Excel Dashboard to prove that Hui is awesome
- More on Excel Dashboards
- Want to make dashboards using Excel – Join Excel School.
15 Responses to “A Gantt Chart Alternative – Gantt Box Chart”
That's a great idea.
Maybe the planned End Date should be highlight more.
I don't know how it would look like (nor how to do it yet), but what if instead of finishing the bold line to the best case End Date, it finishes to the realistic End Date?
The idea is ok, I think other project management tools have this, already? Maybe not.
Gantt charts in my view are about the signal most unless thing in the world, theres no way you can look at one thats more that a little complex and understand what it's telling you. I'm going to write a diatribe on project management at some point, its one of my pet areas I think!! 😉
The issue I have with this chart Chandoo, is that Tasks need to be linked to each other, so they should inherit the uncertainty, which would mean the as you moved down chart the lines would be miles apart for later tasks, and you might have to add lots of lines for subsequent tasks to cover the various outcome of it's parents.
Having said that, for the high level board summary, it's a nice way to go, it it appeals to the management 😉
thanks Chandoo, great post.
Ross
Whoooa !!! That's a very clever idea Chandoo. I really love it.
I think i'll update my gantt project sheet with that idea soon (remember my template ?)
@ross : you can link start date to the end date of the previous task in your data. The only problem I still se is to which end date (real ? planned ? best ?) in order to have average amount of information.
If best end date, you'll tend to increase uncertainty at the end of chain, although if you link to real end date, uncertainty will be decreased too much, leading in both cases to wrong management direction.
Maybe planned till the task is finished then real will do the job ?
Hey chandoo, this looks good and this would definite add value in production planning / scheduling. Uncertainity in finishing a task is very high in production scheduling and this could give an insight or a bird eye view of possible shipments we can have....
I've always been frustrated by the limitations of gantt charts. Will definitely use this, I've always struggled with how to succinctly communicate the uncertainty of certain tasks without confusing stakeholders.
I like this, I think it's a very effective way of showing how a timeline can change and which parts of a project need close attention.
@Cyril / @Ross: I would intially link the the start date to the planned end date of the previous task, with the chart updating when a task has been completed to reflect the true end date.
Or what about giving a drop-down selection box to allow the user to see the chart based on planned/best-case/worst-case end dates?
Like the idea. Have found that Excel is more flexible than MS Project for graphical solutions. The "Best Case"\"Worst Case" metrics are theoretically appealing but once the project and\or phase commences their reliability diminishes. A chart like the above that showed Planned Start, Planned End, Replan End Start, Replan End Date, Number of Replans the Start and End Dates, and Actual would provide an active, actionable view of each task\phase. It would also highlight the areas which are riskiest.
It is always amazing how flexible excel can be.
My question is how would the chart show a scenario where the date moved up? If a task is dropped or the duration of the task is significantly reduced by applying more people or machinery to the task, the dates will move up.
The gantt chart has been around for a long time, but it is still quite useful to show progress.
Cheers,
B
I like the idea but seems bit complicated in case of long projects involving numerous activity.
Also, reading and explaining is required hence not feasible where plans are just send to audience for approval.
Cheers
SY
Great idea Chandoo,
When I was reading this idea regarding delivery dates, another thought popped into my mind, how can you show the uncertainty with MONEY!!
In this case, applies to cost management or even a normal budget, you think?
Would Box Chart and Gannt Chart help to understand the best case, middle case and worst case when money is spend or planned with these three risks are involved?
I imagine that this chart could help people who write their budgets get a better understanding of risks affecting their spending.
Peter
Chandoo,
I like it. How would you display an entry once it has been completed (actual)?
Thank you,
Matt
From what you have shown so far I think that this box Gantt chart is awesome! I think that this could be an extremely useful tool.
I can't wait to learn how to make my own charts in Excel.
Will the methods that you are going to teach us work in 2003 as well?
[...] Firday, we proposed a new chart for showing project plans. I chose an ugly name for it and called it Gantt Box [...]
You need to read Eli Goldratt's Critical Chain. The uncertainty you are looking for should be accounted for in a project buffer. Not at each task level.
Further you should spend time understanding Agile Development. This would have you plan only in 1-3week iterations. This allows you to embrace changes to work not yet started, and for your customer to re-direct your course at regular intervals (after each iteration) throughout your project. keyword search: Agile Scrum
These items will show you that you are solving a tracking problem for something that you can entirely avoid!
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