Microsoft Excel (and other MS tools like Powerpoint) believe in single ownership of documents with limited support for collaboration.Īnd that’s hardly the complete list of why Excel can’t deliver. Non-collaborativeĭo you work in a non-hierarchical Agile environment where the whole team is involved in the decision-making process? Not only is it terribly inconvenient (and frankly annoying) it gives you no idea about your project’s progress. What will your strategy be? Email colleagues, conduct hourly check-ins, or tap on everyone’s shoulders to ask if they’re done with their task. In the age of customized app notifications and uber-smart reminders, Excel project management depends on manual follow-ups. However, let’s say you physically type out each person’s deliveries in a sheet, you still have the problem of… 2. Unless your idea of a team meeting is looking into your spreadsheet’s soul with a magnifying glass, Excel won’t cut it for to-do lists.

Something that tells you what you need to do.Īfter all, Excel can’t help you build a functional to-do list and assign it to individual team members.

Sure, being able to access gigantic spreadsheets and data series with conditional formatting is great. Here’s why you need to move on from Microsoft Excel for your project timeline needs. It fits you just right and has the coolest hashtags!īut if you want to achieve audacious goals, you’ll need to move beyond both of them. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the long-term issues of Excel project management: 3 Limitations Of Using Excel To Create A Project TimelineĮxcel is like the old t-shirt that you never want to give away.

Edit the text in the text pane to reflect your project timelineĪn Excel template should ease your project timeline worries.

Find the Basic Timeline chart type and click on it.

Click on the Insert tab on the overhead task pane.

Here’s how you can create an Excel timeline chart using SmartArt. SmartArt tools are the best choice for a basic, to-the-point project timeline in Excel. There are two main approaches to create a timeline in Excel. How To Create A Project Timeline In Excel? In short, it’s something your project team will refer to track what’s done and what needs to be done. Here’s what a comprehensive project timeline chart contains: It’s a series of tasks (assigned to individuals or teams) that need to be completed within a set time frame. A project timeline chart is a visualization of the chronological order of events in a project.

Microsoft excel 2007 timeline template