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Thoughts on agile project management based on human values and behavior and using PRINCE2, Scrum and Lean principles.

New cool video: The Marshmallow Challenge

Posted on | April 3, 2012 | No Comments

Recently I found another cool video. Again on TED.

This video is about an exercise called "The Marshmallow Challenge".
In eighteen minutes, teams of four must build the tallest freestanding structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow has to be on top.
The team with the tallest structure wins.

What's interesting to me about this exercise is that the same factors for success apply to creating business and software solutions. It's more about the strength of the team than about the individuals expertise. Also some of the Agile values apply, like cross functional teams, prototyping, etc.

Here's the video.

Here's the challenge homepage.

Category: Business & IT
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How to create a Gantt Chart in Excel 2007 or 2010

Posted on | November 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

Previously I posted an Excel Gantt Chart template for Excel 2007 (or 2010). The template works great as is, but it's hard to reproduce on your own. Here's the step by step instruction:

Create the chart data

For this example I use the following data:

Task Startdate Fase Activity
DESIGN 5-12-2011 12  
module1 5-12-2011   5
module2 12-12-2011   5

The Gantt Chart spans weekend dates. The fase Design takes two weeks, which makes the duration 12 days (Mo-Fr + weekend + Mo-Fr).

Manually create the chart

Create a horizontally stacked bar chart. The chart is empty at this point.

Insert first data range and vertical labels

Click on the 'select data' button.

  • Add the start date of the fases and activities.
    The label is 'Startdate'. (Important, don't skip this one).
    The data range is indicated below in yellow.
  • And the labels
    The data range is indicated below in orange.
Task Startdate Fase Activity
DESIGN 5-12-2011 12  
module1 5-12-2011   5
module2 12-12-2011   5

The chart now looks like this:

There are a couple of problems here:

  • The chart doesn't start at the correct start date
    Right click on the X-axis. Change the minimum value to 'fixed', value 40882.
    40882 is the decimal representation of Dec the 5th.
  • The X-axis should have a weekly interval
    Right click on the X-axis. Change the primary unit to 'fixed', value 7.
  • The Y-axis is reversed
    Right click on the Y-axis. Reverse the categories.

The chart now looks like this:

Add the Fase and Activity data ranges

Manually add both ranges (orange and yellow in the example below).

Task Startdate Fase Activity
DESIGN 5-12-2011 12  
module1 5-12-2011   5
module2 12-12-2011   5

The chart now looks like this:

Notice that somehow the chart title 'Startdate' has disappeared.

Visually remove 'startdate' range

Delete the label 'Startdate' from Excel (make the cell empty) and set the bar color and border color to 'none'. 
Of course the Startdate bar and label are still present within the chart, there just invisible!

Optionally, beautify the Gantt chart

Category: Project Management
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