Attending Gleb Arkhangelsky's two-day training "Time Management", conducted by him at Wimm-Bill-Dann, made a strong impression on me. Its main result is a new impulse of interest in the relevant issue. This was already the third training on this topic for me with different facilitators, but it differed favorably from the others both in its conceptual approach and liveliness of presentation, as well as in practical value.

Perhaps one of the main practical acquisitions was the method I developed for daily planning of working time in the environment Microsoft Excel using a few ideas from the workshop. It was a big step forward in the organization of work compared to the old method of planning in a regular diary in terms of convenience, time savings and manufacturability.

I will describe this method below. It allows you to simultaneously plan both your tasks and the tasks of subordinates. So in this case, the file with the work plan for the day can be uploaded, say, to shared folder so that all employees can see it. I want to note right away that, in my opinion, such a technique operational planning makes practical sense when you have to do at least 4 5 different tasks every day. If this is not the case, then for operational planning, the same diary or any of its analogues will be more in place.

To begin with, I will briefly describe the ideas received at the training, on which the method is based.

1. Planning tasks according to the scheme "day week month (year)".

In my opinion, this is a very flexible and successful planning technique. From the point of view of practical application, perhaps, my most valuable acquisition at the seminar. Its main idea is that all tasks are divided into three types (or statuses):

• tasks to be solved today
• tasks that are planned to be dealt with within the next week,
• tasks that need to be addressed in the longer term.

The first and second lists are viewed and updated at the beginning of each working day (or at the end of the previous one), the third weekly.

2. Time budgeting, dividing tasks for the day into hard (tied to a specific time), flexible (which can be performed during the day) and budgeted (flexible tasks with a certain amount of time allocated to them).

3. Contextual planning, the use of kairos randomly occurring moments that are favorable for solving some problems.

The Project Tracking Spreadsheet is a useful visual tool for tracking the progress of each task against the original plan. The table should include all tasks, their status, task owner, percent complete, and planned duration versus actual duration.

Project managers need to see which tasks are dependent on the completion of previous tasks before they can begin. To do this, they can use a critical path table that lists all of their tasks, the scheduled duration for each task, and whether the task is dependent on another. This gives project managers a visual way to plan the fastest path to complete their project.

Description of the planning methodology

1. All newly emerging tasks are recorded in the general list as they appear. At the same time, in addition to the task itself, its status is indicated (day, week or month-year), as well as, if necessary, the employee responsible for the implementation, the date the task is timed for, the time, the expected day the task will be completed (usually for projects), kairos.
2. Every day at the end of the working day, based on this general list, the next working day is planned. A list of tasks for the day is compiled, broken down into hard, flexible and budgeted ones, if necessary, the employees responsible for the execution, time, and other notes are indicated.
3. During the day, the work plan is in front of your eyes, it is being adjusted: making notes on execution and new urgent tasks.

Description of the implementation of operational planning in Excel

An example implementation of the planning method is given in the attached planir.xls file.

The file consists of two sheets: "1 7 31" and "by day".

1. On the sheet "1 7 31" there is a general list of emerging tasks. Description of the fields (mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk):

no..* order number of the task in the list

TASK * the task itself

DATE the date the task was updated, i.e. on what day it needs to be completed or started to be performed

To measure progress, the project planner can also include today's date marker.


Use a graphical project planning tool rather than a list-based tool if you prefer to manage your project. visually or need to communicate plans and status to others.

Reporting on a project's performance may require creating a dashboard that tracks key performance indicators and other data such as budget, risks, and blockers. Project management is one of my favorite topics.

TIME task update time (meeting start, etc.)

DEADLINE * Job status. Has 4 possible values ​​selected from the list: "day", "week", "month year", "completed". To improve visualization, each of the values ​​is automatically colored with its own color by the conditional formatting method.

INTENDED COMPLETION and
REAL COMPLETION these two fields can be useful for evaluating the work of employees completing the task

Project Dashboards and Project Management

The Gantt chart is the traditional way to prepare and track a project plan. It shows activities on the left and dates on the top. The intersection of an activity cell and a date is highlighted if the activity is due on that date. Reporting is one of the most important aspects of project management.

• How is the project going?
• What are the important issues we should be concerned about?
• We track budget, resources, etc.

From my project members and sponsor team. The answer to these questions will be very simple if you have prepared good panel project management. The project dashboard provides all important information about the project in a snapshot.

KAIROS field for contextual planning; example “boss”, i.e. this feature will indicate issues that need to be resolved at an unscheduled meeting with management.

If necessary, the specifics of the work on the sheet, you can add other fields. For example CONTACT PERSON a person from an adjacent department with whom you need to interact on this issue, a NOTE, etc.

Project Dashboard Example

Scheduling and project management tools

One of my bosses used to say, "If you can't measure, you can't handle." A good project manager always stays on top of the various things going on in the project. And this is where the image is tracked. On any given day, the project manager discovers tracking.

Closed Questions - Sample Project Management Diagram

Problems in the project Risks in the project About the movement Activities in the project Make elements of different team members Schedules and budget and money. Graphs or visualizations help project managers understand where the project is. Closed questions: clearly indicate how well the problems in the project are being solved and indicate a trend. Budget vs Actual Charts: Show how the scope of the project, plans, costs are progressing against planned budgets. Just follow these links to get Project Management Templates and Tutorials.

The changes made on the sheet "1 7 31" can be of two types.

The first one is adding new tasks to the list and modifying the existing ones. These additions are made to the sheet in the "on line" mode upon their appearance.

The second type of changes is the analysis and adjustment of job statuses. As mentioned above, tasks with the status "day" and "week" are analyzed every day at the end of the working day or the beginning of a new one. The analysis of tasks with the status "month year" occurs weekly. In this case, if necessary, the status of tasks is changed to one of the other three possible types. To select a list of tasks with a given status, it is convenient to use an autofilter. For example, at the end of the working day, all tasks with the “day” status are selected in this way, then the list is viewed, if the task is relevant for execution the next day, then the status does not change, if the task is completed, the status changes to “completed”, if When the urgency level is lowered, the status of the task changes to "week" or "month year". Now, if after the completion of the daily analysis of tasks using the autofilter, you select tasks with the “day” status, you will get a list of tasks for execution on the next working day, which is transferred by copying to the “by day” sheet.

2. The daily sheet is used to schedule tasks for each day.

Description of fields:

DONE end sign; white background not done, black background done, gray background not done and will not be done that day (lack of time, rescheduling, job cancellation). The field is filled during the day as the situation changes

However, despite the vital importance of the work plan, some managers or project managers view it as a necessary inconvenience, instead of recognizing it as the main tool for managing their work, it is at the required time to be able to develop.

Graph automation

What is the best use of the resources they have in the project? . In conclusion, we should move from the operational to the administrative part, that is, start thinking about the goals for the future growth and development of where we are. A project is a set of interrelated activities, usually involving a group of people working toward a common goal or goal over a period of time.

No. pp.. ordinal number of the task

RESPONSIBLE last name of the employee responsible for the execution of the task

FLEXIBLE list of flexible tasks

HARD list of hard tasks

TIME start time for tough tasks

If necessary, the specifics of the work on the sheet, you can add other fields. For example BUDGETABLE a list of budgeted tasks plus a field for the time allocated to them, or this time can be indicated in the TIME, NOTE, etc. field.

As mentioned above, the list of tasks for the day is the result of a daily analysis of the total list of tasks for their status. After adjusting the statuses on the “1 7 31” sheet, tasks with the “day” status are selected using the autofilter and copied to the “by day” sheet for the corresponding date under the tasks of the previous day. Two columns are copied: RESPONSIBLE and JOB. Further, for convenience, the lines relating to the previous day are hidden.

After copying, all tasks fall into the FLEXIBLE column, respectively, rigid and budgeted tasks must be manually transferred to the corresponding columns with filling in the TIME field.

After that, on the “by day” sheet, the work plan for the current day is almost ready. For better visualization, I also apply the following cell background color formatting:

• I highlight the names of the performers in green
• in yellow the most important tasks to pay attention to
• pink urgent tasks for which you need to report to management
• in blue support questions that are not directly related to the workflow.

Summing up some of the above, I would like to say that the fact of the appearance of the described methodology has already become for me a worthy result of attending G. Arkhangelsky's seminar.

Sergey Olekhov,
Head of Analytical Service
Lianozovsky Dairy Plant 25.04.06

Sergey Olekhov, April 2006 Editing Gleb Arkhangelsky,
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Almost all people perceive information “drawn” rather than “listened to” better. And even better, if this information is presented in images, and not a series of numbers and indicators. Imagine that a stranger is talking about his dog. He does not describe her appearance and pedigree, does not specify her color and age, etc. The imagination of each listener will draw its own image. And when we already imagine a handsome dog, it turns out that we were told about a lovely pug. In this situation, we will laugh, but faced with something like this at the enterprise, it will no longer be a laughing matter.

Therefore, in production, everyone is trying to visualize as much as possible. One of the most important documents, especially in construction, is the work schedule. We can safely say that the entire project without this schedule is a waste of time. Since it contains all the accepted engineering and technical solutions, as well as optimized deadlines.

What is a calendar plan?

The very title of this document gives an idea of ​​its importance and significance. The calendar schedule for the production of works is a table that displays all their volume and deadlines. In addition, the graph clearly shows the sequence of work performed, tied to specific dates (or simply the duration of the execution of various types of work - for standard projects). Most often, this document also contains information about the resources required at each stage of construction: basic materials, equipment and personnel.

The ability to draw up a work schedule is one of the most important skills of managers of different levels. The more accurate and detailed the schedule is, the better all the planned work will be carried out. Despite the fact that the "native" industry of the work schedule is considered to be construction, the leaders of all areas will not interfere with knowledge of the principles

Where to begin

Any job can be broken down into small tasks. The simplest example is the preparation of a fresh vegetable salad. It would seem that it is easier? But even this elementary task can be broken down into a sequence of actions. First, purchase all the ingredients, then wash them, cut and mix, season with sauce. Moreover, all actions can be broken in time (breaks in work appear), or they can be done sequentially, without breaks in time. In addition, all this can be done by one person, or maybe a whole team of cooks. So, there is a sequence of actions. It remains to calculate the time for each stage and determine how many and what kind of personnel is needed for this work. And the production schedule is almost ready for us.

Regardless of the industry, when planning, you first need to highlight the scope of work: break the whole process into components. Moreover, the criteria can be not only technological differences, but also the number of employees, and the necessary mechanisms and devices, etc.

Deadlines

After dividing everything into a sequence of actions, you can begin to calculate the timing of the work. For production and construction, there are norms and standards according to which specific terms are calculated for a given amount of work. For mental work, it is impossible to calculate the timing of the work according to the formula. But a manager with extensive experience, who has information about his staff, can quite clearly set the time frame for solving the task.

Knowing the deadlines for each type of work, we can begin to determine the time required to complete the entire process. It should be remembered that some tasks can be solved in parallel, and technological breaks are also needed for certain processes.

Resource calculation

Certainly the staff essential element process. The schedule for the production of works in construction involves determining the number of performers, the specialization of workers and their qualifications. At this stage, we calculate the number and composition of teams and draw up a calendar plan for their employment at the facility.

Next, we turn to the definition necessary equipment, mechanisms and devices. In manufacturing industries, there are also regulations for this. And, finally, last but not least, this is the calculation of the materials necessary for the work.

Calculation of the delivery time of materials

All this information will allow you to combine the work schedule with the schedule for the supply of materials and equipment. Uniformity and continuity - these are the two main principles of planning. Optimizing the schedule in the direction of reducing the time may not give the desired result, because the work will be downtime due to lack of materials (or, conversely, the construction site will be literally clogged with them, and therefore it will take a lot of time to find the right one at the moment).

Force majeure increases the timing of work

Another important detail is that when drawing up a work plan, it is necessary to foresee possible risks. For construction, this can be anything from bad weather to heavy traffic on the roads. Given the force majeure circumstances, it is necessary to slightly increase the timing of certain types of work. Most often, this also affects the duration of the execution of their entire volume.

Despite this, planners should not chase after minimizing time. After all, when the production of work is disrupted, the general contractor will have to pay a penalty to both the customer and related contractors.

Graph automation

A few years ago, the calendar plan was drawn up manually. Specialists calculated all the deadlines and the need for personnel and materials, and then visualized it with the help. For small volumes work, it's an easy task. Another thing is if we are talking about a serious contracting organization that manages several objects at the same time.

Programmers are developing many auxiliary programs designed to automatically calculate and build a work schedule. Sample calendar plan, calculated from help from Microsoft Office Project 2010 Professional, for example, is easily found on the Internet. However, not every company will agree to spend additional funds on installation software and training staff to work with it. In addition, each specialized program has its drawbacks. One does not take into account the possibility of shift work, the other without writing macros is not consistent with the calculation of materials, for example, etc.

Therefore, most planners have learned to build a work schedule in Excel.

This program has many advantages:

1. It's free. In the sense that Excel is part of the standard MS Office package, which is unconditionally installed on almost every computer.
2. She is simple. Having minimal knowledge about calculating formulas and linking sheets to each other, you can do planning.
3. She is visual. All calculations and the result are displayed on one sheet. And the changes are immediately displayed on the chart.