Anatomy of a OnePager Chart
The figure below shows the main features of the OnePager project view chart:
This very busy screen has more than you would normally put into one graph in order to illustrate all of the following elements. Not all elements in the list below are shown in the project view above to avoid clutter. (The red callout text bubbles are not part of OnePager, of course, but are used to label the elements):
1) Swimlanes: swimlanes are defined as a set of contiguous rows, grouped together, sorted in sequence, and labeled with a title in the left most column of the project view. Swimlanes can be manipulated in various ways (i.e., ordered and reordered, moved up or down, added, deleted, merged, split, hidden and unhidden, and created from existing rows).
2) Swimlane Labels: optional labels for each swimlane. Click this area to add or edit the label.
3) Swimlane Stripes: alternating swimlane colors giving a horizontal stripe effect to the project view. (Not shown above.)
4) Rows: rows are the lowest level of horizontal organization. Rows contain tasks and milestones and are always contained in a swimlane, even if the swimlane label column is hidden. Rows can be manipulated in ways similar to swimlanes: ordered and reordered, moved up and down (within and between swimlanes), added, deleted, hidden, and unhidden. Rows may be moved to different swimlanes.
5) Row Labels: row labels are the text contained in a column to the immediate right of the “Swimlane Label” column.
6) Row Stripes: alternating row colors giving a horizontal stripe effect to the project view.
7) The Corner: this is the upper left and lower left corners of the project view where the Row/Swimlane Headers and Timeline Axis Unit Label reside.
8) Swimlane Header: the optional swimlane header shares the same area (The Corner) as the Timeline Axis Unit Label. One or the other may be shown, but not both. When swimlanes labels are hidden, the swimlane header is not displayed. When a column is selected for the swimlane label from the Microsoft Project plan, the swimlane label value will be shown in the header. The swimlane header may be edited after the project view is created.
9) Row Header: the optional row header shares the same area (The Corner) as the Timeline Axis Unit Label. One or the other may be shown, but not both. When row labels are hidden, the row header is not displayed. When a column is selected for the row label from the Microsoft Project plan, the row label value will be shown in the header. The swimlane header may be edited after the project view is created.
10) Timeline Axis: this set of tic marks and labels on the top or bottom of the graph (or both) shows the time divisions of the timeline. You can choose the have the divisions be days, weeks, months, quarters, etc. You may specify calendar year or Fiscal Year formats and there are provisions for handling Fiscal Year starts mid-week. You may also specify background colors for the Time Axes. The Timeline Axis Unit label, not shown in the diagram above, may be in either one of the corners (as defined above).
11) Time Cursor: this optional vertical line shows the “Snapshot date” related to the Timeline Axis.
12) Tasks and Milestones: these are the main elements of your project plans and reside in rows. Task/milestones are provided in different shapes, colors, fill patterns, and borders. Additionally, task/milestones may be “decorated” with deadline shapes and endpoint shapes positioned by date information input from the Microsoft Project plan.
- a) Tasks: a colored Gantt bar that shows the start and end dates.
- b) Milestones: a colored symbol that represents a milestone. You can choose to represent any task by a milestone symbol at its start or finish date. Additionally, OnePager can represent milestones that are 100 percent complete as filled in with the designated color and milestones that are not 100 percent complete as hollow milestone. As with tasks, milestones are available in various selected shapes, fills, and borders.
13) Baseline decorations: these optional slightly-transparent shapes symbols show the baseline schedule of a task or a milestone.
14) Percent-Complete: “thermometer bar” in the lower part of the Gantt bar showing how much of the activity was completed as of the snapshot date. This is shown as a yellow bar in the diagram above. Note that this bar does nothing more than represent the percent-complete column imported from Microsoft Project.
15) Critical-Path Segments: optional bar segments on the upper part of the Gantt bar showing where the critical path intersects the Gantt bar.
16) Deadlines: Task and milestones may be decorated with deadline shapes. Deadline dates are taken from your deadline column. (Not shown above.)
17) Endpoints: Tasks may have up to four (4) endpoints defined based upon imported date fields. By default the following columns are assigned to the following Endpoints: (Not shown above.)
- Endpoint 1: Start Date.
- Endpoint 2: Finish Date.
- Endpoint 3: Baseline Start Date.
- Endpoint 4: Baseline Finish Date.
18) Comment Box: this versatile element lets you attach additional information at one or more positions along any task or milestone. You can use this to convey information about milestones, meetings, and phase gates that happen “inside” an extended time period. These comments can change from snapshot to snapshot. Each comment box can have an optional anchor on the task/milestone (connected) that it is attached. Comment box borders and anchors may be transparent in which case only the content of the “box” is visible. Finally, comment boxes may be repositioned and resized by using conventional drag and drop mouse operations. (Not shown above.)
19) Event Link: these connecting line segments show relationships among tasks/milestones. For example, they can show cause and effect, or they can show task dependencies.
20) Curtain: a top to bottom colored and labeled area of the project view that can be used to designate an important time period. You can define any number of curtains and specify their start and end period dates. Additionally, curtains may be resized by using conventional drag and drop operations.
21) Hover Box: this is a text box that appears and then later disappears when the mouse hovers over any task/milestone. It can be turned on and off from the project view “View” ribbon. In addition to displaying task name and dates, it displays a unique identifier that lets you trace the task or milestone back to the row in your Microsoft Project plan.
22) Legend Item: an entry describing one color/shape combination on the screen. Right clicking the legend item lets you change one color-shape combination for all affected tasks and milestones.
23) OnePager Ribbon:consists of four tabs titled: File, Home, View, and Insert. Additionally, above the ribbon are the “save file” button and the “UNDO/REDO” buttons.
24) Project View Title:descriptive title of the project view.
25) Project View Filename:the name of the TAM file in which the project view is stored and retrieved.
26) Header/Footer Element: one of six elements (header and footer) that are entered in the “Project View Properties” form.
27) Snapshot Date: The date of the snapshot being displayed.
28) OnePager Editor Last Action: The last editing action taken by the OnePager Editor.
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