by Sam Brock

Over the years, I have attempted several ways of tracking projects.  So far, this one has been successful for me. Microsoft Project was too hard to change and not easily observed by others; custom Excel layouts, Franklin Planners, and notepads all had their problems. The idea came after I talked with a project manager for a large corporation that had disposed of their intranet site and computer models and had gone back to the common, everyday sticky note. We bought a 4’ x 8’ sheet of white board from Home Depot, cut it down to 4’ x 5’, and attached a 1’ x 2’ board with a chain across the top. With a few large binder clips, tape, several different colors of sticky notes, and our Outlook calendar printed on 11” x 17” paper; we were ready to go with a whole year in front of us on our 72-inch big screen (click for picture). What are some of the benefits? It’s wireless, cordless, and energy efficient; has a touch screen; is always on; has intuitive interface; has a huge screen; and is scalable. The board has been most helpful to reset deadlines after they have been missed. In the time that I’ve used it, I’ve found the following things to be helpful:

– A chain at the top allows us to move our “big screen” around.
– When our project team really gets to working out details, we set the board in front of us and sit in a semi-circle around it.
– Each person (team) gets a different color.
– The brightest colors are used for deadlines.
– Keep a key in the upper, left-hand corner for all the colors used.
– Allow each team member to add his deadlines on his own time.

Use a meeting to coordinate all the deadlines and tweak them. A second board with the next year would be helpful. Right now, we print updated calendars every six months and redo the board then.