PM Resources

7 Free Microsoft Excel Video Tips for Project Managers

Do you want to manage your projects but don't need a heavy duty tool like Microsoft Project?  Or maybe there are some things you wanted to do but didn't want to learn a new tool to create a checklist or agenda plan? If you've got a copy of Microsoft Excel, you already have a tool that can perform a lot of project management tasks.  Want to learn how?  Here's some videos to show you...

    • Create a Basic Gantt Chart - A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that helps visualize the start and end dates of project tasks.
    • Create a Work Breakdown Structure - The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) shows the hierarchical view of a project into phases or deliverables.  The WBS is presented either in a diagram (more common) or text format. This video show how to create the text form with the numbered notation.
    • Create a Checklist - A simple checklist "tool" to show items either checked off or not done.
    • Create a Thermometer Chart - A thermometer chart shows an actual versus target metric. Good to show how well something is doing against a goal.
    • Create a Bullet Chart - The bullet chart is an extension of the thermometer chart that show not only a  actual versus target metric. It also shows qualitative ranges such as poor, average, or good.  This type of chart was created by visualization guru Stephen Few.
    • Create a Pareto Chart - Based on the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule.  This is a combination column/line chart that shows the 80/20 principle in visual form.