This is a bonus post in the project management using excel series.
Gantt charts are very good to understand a project progress and status. But they are heavy on planning side. They give little insight in to what is happening. A burn down chart on the other hand is good for understanding the project progress and how deliverables are coming along. According to Wikipedia,
A burn down chart is graphical representation of work left to do versus time. The outstanding work (or backlog) is often on the vertical axis, with time along the horizontal. That is, it is a run chart of outstanding work. It is useful for predicting when all of the work will be completed.
An Example Burn Down Chart:
Making a burn down chart in excel
Step 1: Arrange the data for making a burn down chart
To make a burn down chart, you need to have 2 pieces of data. The schedule of actual and planned burn downs. As with most of the charts, we need to massage the data. I am showing the 3 additional columns that I have calculated to make the burn down chart. You can guess what the formulas are. (Hint: there is a NA() too)
Step 2: Make a good old line chart
Just select the Balance Planned and Balance Actual series and create a line chart. Use the first column (days) in the above table for x-axis labels.
Step 3: Add the daily completed values to burn down chart
Select the “daily completed” column and add it to the burn down chart. Once added, change the chart type for this series to bar chart (read how you can combine 2 different chart types in one)
Step 4: Adjust formatting and colors
Remove or set grid lines as you may want. Adjust colors and add legend if needed.
Step 5:
There is no step 5, just go burn down some work.
Download the excel burn down chart template
Click here to download the excel burn down chart template. Use it in your latest project status report and tell me what your team thinks about it.
Download 24 Project Management Templates for Excel
What Next?
This is a bonus installment to the project management using excel series. We will revisit the burn down charts during part 6 of the series – Project Status Reporting Dashboards. Meanwhile, make sure you have read the remaining parts of the series:
Preparing & tracking a project plan using Gantt Charts
Team To Do Lists – Project Tracking Tools
Project Status Reporting – Create a Timeline to display milestones
Time sheets and Resource management
Issue Trackers & Risk Management
Project Status Reporting – Dashboard
Also check out the budget vs. actual charting alternative post to get more ideas.
Where would you use burn down charts?
We have used burn down charts in a recent presentation to client and they loved the way it was able to tell them the story about status of Phase 1 of the project. We needed to deliver 340 items in that phase and we have finished 45 when we made the presentation. My client could easily understand where the project is heading and what is causing the delays (of course by asking questions).
What do you think about burn down charts? Where will you use it? Tell me about it using comments.
Resources for Project Managers
Check out my Project Management using Excel page for more resources and helpful information on project management.
One Response to “SQL vs. Power Query – The Ultimate Comparison”
Enjoyed your SQL / Power Query podcast (A LOT). I've used SQL a little longer than Chandoo. Power Query not so much.
Today I still use SQL & VBA for my "go to" applications. While I don't pull billions of rows, I do pull millions. I agree with Chandoo about Power Query (PQ) lack of performance. I've tried to benchmark PQ to SQL and I find that a well written SQL will work much faster. Like mentioned in the podcast, my similar conclusion is that SQL is doing the filtering on the server while PQ is pulling data into the local computer and then filtering the data. I've heard about PQ query folding but I still prefer SQL.
My typical excel application will use SQL to pull data from an Enterprise DB. I load data into Structured Tables and/or Excel Power Pivot (especially if there's lot of data).
I like to have a Control Worksheet to enter parameters, display error messages and have user buttons to execute VBA. I use VBA to build/edit parameters used in the SQL. Sometimes I use parameter-based SQL. Sometimes I create a custom SQL String in a hidden worksheet that I then pull into VBA code (these may build a string of comma separated values that's used with a SQL include). Another SQL trick I like to do is tag my data with a YY-MM, YY-QTR, or YY-Week field constructed form a Transaction Date.
In an application, I like to create a dashboard(s) that may contain hyperlinks that allow the end-user to drill into data. Sometimes the hyperlink will point to worksheet and sometimes to a supporting workbook. In some cases, I use a double click VBA Macro that will pull additional data and direct the user to a supplemental worksheet or pivot table.
In recent years I like Dynamic Formulas & Lambda Functions. I find this preferable to pivot tales and slicers. I like to use a Lambda in conjunction with a cube formula to pull data from a power pivot data model. I.E. a Lambda using a cube formula to aggregate Accounting Data by a general ledger account and financial period. Rather than present info in a power pivot table, you can use this combination to easily build financial reports in a format that's familiar to Accounting Professionals.
One thing that PQ does very well is consolidating data from separate files. In the old days this was always a pain.
I've found that using SQL can be very trying (even for someone with experience). It's largely an iterative process. Start simple then use Xlookup (old days Match/Index). Once you get the relationships correct you can then use SQL joins to construct a well behaved SQL statement.
Most professional enterprise systems offer a schema that's very valuable for constructing SQL statements. For any given enterprise system there's often a community of users that will share SQL. I.E. MS Great Plains was a great source (but I haven't used them in years).
Hope this long reply has value - keep up the good work.