Have you ever worked on a project which has a plan? What is your experience like?
Let me tell you what my experience is like:
The project plan was changed dozens of times. Delivery dates, shipping dates, testing dates or any other important milestones were constantly revised, sometimes until the last week. Uncertainty seemed to be the biggest problem project managers spent their time on. My managers worked hard to avoid unpleasant surprises.
And this is where the ubiquitous gantt charts often fail.
- A gantt chart based project plan assumes that there is only one possible end date for each activity.
In real world, the end date for each project activity depends on various factors like productivity, progress of other tasks, extra work, employee mood etc.. Thus, the end dates are best expressed in a format like {best case, realistic case, worst case} instead of just one date.
So I am boldly proposing a new type of project plan, henceforth to be called as,
…wait for it…
Gantt Box Chart
Think of Gantt Box Chart as a holy matrimony between Gantt Chart with Box Plot. The Gantt Box Chart shows uncertainty in project activity end dates by clearly showing 3 end-dates instead of one in the familiar box plot format. The end dates (best case, realistic or plan and worst case) are encoded as a box while the start date is shown as a dot.
Here is how a Gantt Box Chart looks like:
Despite the ugly name, I think the chart is very useful because,
- It shows the uncertainty in plan, very clearly
- It is as easy to read since we follow the Box Plot protocol
- It lets manager focus on the most uncertain portions of project, quickly
- It is new, so the chances of it getting neglected by everyone in boardroom are less 😀
I have summarized few additional observations you can get from a Gantt Box Chart here:
How to make a Gantt Box Chart in Excel?
I will be showing a way to create the gantt box charts in excel on Monday (12th July). Meanwhile, feel free to discuss this new chart and share what you think.
What do you think about Gantt Box Chart?
Would you use Gantt Box Chart for your next project or is this a little too much? What do you think about my proposal? Please share using comments.
Related: Project Management using Excel – an extensive collection of resources, templates, tutorials and ideas for project managers using excel.
18 Responses to “Best Charts to Compare Actual Values with Targets – What is your take?”
Great post. I can't vote, though, because the answer I want to put down is "it depends". As with all visualisations, you've got to take into account your audience, your purpose, technical skills, where it will be viewed, etc.
I'm with Andy: It depends. Some I would use, some I might use, some I won't touch with a barge pole.
Naturally I have comments 🙂
The dial gauge, though familiar, is less easy to read than a linear type of chart (thermometer or bullet). It's really no better than the traffic lights, because all it can really tell you is which category the point falls in: red, yellow, or green.
By the same token, pie charts are so familiar, people don't know they can't read them. Remember how long it takes kids to learn to read an analog clock?
Bullet charts don't show trends.
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or ine component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.
[...] Best Charts to Compare Actual values with Targets (or Budgets … [...]
I voted for #6 even though I agree with the other comments that it depends.
The majority of the votes are for the #2, thermometer chart. I still have yet to understand what happens when you are above plan/goal, which was brought up in yesterday's post.
Also, I agree with Jon in that it would be better to flip the series and make the filled part the target or goal and the line or marker the actual.
I am also a fan of using text when appropriate if the data is among other metrics in a type of dashboard. Calling it out by saying actual and % achievement is a good option.
Another "it depends" vote. Are you just looking at one or are you comparing a number of targets with actuals? You didn't include a text box. The problem with sentences is that they can get lost in a page of gray text. A text box can call attention to the numbers and line them up effectively.
I'm with Jon: "Some I would use, some I might use, some I won’t touch with a barge pole" and I'm surprised that some of your readers voted for the last group.
Jon says:
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or line component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.
Why does this make more sense? I like 6 the way it is, although I would use a heavy dash for the plan/target marker.
"It depends" is also my take. What I usually try to drill into my clients dashboard design is the fu ndamental difference between spot results (am I on target for this month) and long term trends.. I always try to create 3 different set of graphs to represent real perormance:
- spot results vs objectives
- cumulative results vs objectives
- long-term trend (moving average) mostly) to see where we're going
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Jon says:
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or line component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.
Why does this make more sense? I like 6 the way it is, although I would use a heavy dash for the plan/target marker.
I totally agree, Bob. I would normally favour a line for the target and a column for the actual, you can see quite easily then which columns break through the line, then.
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Thermometer charts: "Not appropriate when actual values exceed targets" - this is easily solved by making the "mercury" portion a different color from the border, then you can clearly see where the expected range ends and the actual values keep going.
People seem to knock gauges quite a bit in dashboarding, but trying to show comparison of realtime data between operating sites and targets for each site can easily be done with a bank of gauges that have the optimal operating points at 12 o'clock.
The human eye is great at pattern stripping, and any deviation of a gauge from the expected 12 position will quickly register with an operator and attract his attention. Using a colour background, or meter edge, will also indicate the sensitivity of a particular site.
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I am wondering how will the plotting work, for some of the targets which may have been achieved before time. E.g. for the month of Jul the target was 226 and the actual was 219. So the chart will show a deficit in meeting the target by 7 points but what if this 7 may have been completed earlier in month of June. So ideally it not a deficit.