Difference between revisions of "Using Rows and Swimlanes for OnePager Version 7.0"

Revision as of 17:37, 8 January 2020

About Rows and Swimlanes

1) This article introduces you to OnePager’s rows and swimlane management features.

2) To help illustrate this approach we will repeat the Rows & Swimlanes tab from the Chart Properties form below:

3) As the Rows/Swimlanes tab above illustrates, there is a step wise approach to constructing an informative and useful Gantt chart.

4) The general philosophy is for you to create or modify the chart by making the following determinations:

a) Determine how tasks will be collected into rows.

b) Determine how rows will be grouped into swimlanes keeping in mind that steps (a) and (b) are related.

c) Determine how many swimlane levels are needed to organize the source plan data.

d) Determine how row will be ordered in swimlanes and how swimlane will be ordered.

e) Determine how many additional text columns are needed.

f) Determine how row and swimlane gridlines will be labeled.

g) Determine how row and swimlane borders will be formatted.

5) The discussion that follows is divided into six (6) sub-sections, one each for the decision steps listed above.

Step 1 – Collect Tasks into Rows

1) Collecting task shapes into rows is the first step, although the most common situation is to make one task per row.

2) Once completed, you have additional controls over row and swimlane manipulation with respect to grouping, ordering, labeling, and border formatting.

3) Task shapes may be collected into rows by various techniques under your control.

Make one task shape per row

4) As the button name suggests, OnePager will place each task shape in an individual row.

5) Note that no collection occurs in this case.

6) When this command is selected, you have the following two (2) optional choice to make:

a) Checking the Keep row count between X and Y checkbox On. When this checkbox is checked On, OnePager takes the total task shape count and assign them to rows such that the resulting row count is between your stated minimum (X) and maximum (Y).

b) Unchecking the Keep row count between X and Y checkbox Off. When this checkbox is unchecked or Off, OnePager creates as many rows as there are tasks/milestone shapes imported from the Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan.

Collect task into rows by source column name

7) OnePager examines the selected Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan fields for each encountered task and collect them into as many unique rows as there are unique terms.

8) When this command is selected, you have the following three (3) choices to select from:

a) Collect tasks automatically. OnePager puts task shapes into rows such that there is no overlapping of task shape in the row with respect to start and finish dates.

b) Collect up to ____designated number of tasks per row. OnePager collects the imported task from your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan into rows such that the number of task shapes per row is less than or equal to the designated number of task shapes per row. Collected task shapes may overlap within the created rows.

(c) Make user designated number or rows. OnePager creates your designated number of rows and collect the imported tasks into that number of rows only. Collected task shapes may overlap within the created rows and are not collected by means of a Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field.

9) After task shape collection into rows is determined, you can determine how rows should be grouped into swimlanes.

10) If the control is not checked On, OnePager ignores the grouping step and will make one swimlane containing all rows.

Step 2 – Group Rows into Swimlanes

1) If you check the checkbox On specifying that rows are to be grouped into swimlanes, OnePager uses the designated Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field to control row grouping.

2) Since rows may contain multiple task shapes, each with unique data from the Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan' field controlling grouping, OnePager must first determine the number of swimlanes and then place the rows in their proper swimlane.

3) Please consider the following example.

4) OnePager first looks at all the data from the Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan and determines the number of unique values present which determine the number of swimlanes to be generated.

5) You do not have control explicitly over the number of swimlanes that can be generated.

a) If there is more than one task shape in a row and the task shapes have different data, OnePager uses the majority rule to compute the value for each row.

b) For example, suppose your designated Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field contains the values Red and Green such that:

• Row1 contains two Red tasks and one Green task,
• Row2 contains one Red task and two Green tasks,
• Row3 contains one Red task
• Row4 contains two Red tasks.

c) In this situation, two swimlanes are generated. One of these is the Red swimlane and the other is the Green swimlane. Row2 belongs to the Green swimlane and the other three rows belongs to the Red swimlane.

6) At the completion of this step, OnePager performs the ordering of rows within swimlanes and ordering swimlanes as described in the next sub-section.

Step 3 – Order Swimlanes and/or Order Rows in Swimlanes

Order Rows in Swimlanes

1) You have two (2) options when controlling how rows will be ordered within swimlanes.

Order rows like Microsoft Project

2) Selecting this ordering technique uses the sequence from top to bottom provided by the Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan.

3) If several task shapes are collected into the same row, OnePager first sorts them into their natural Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel order and then chooses the first task shape in the list to represent the entire row if ascending order is your choice.

4) If you choose descending order, OnePager uses the last task in the list.

Order rows by user selected Microsoft Project source plan field

5) You may choose to order rows under the control of data in a designated Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field and further choose either ascending or descending order.

6) It should be pointed out that your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field used to order rows may be the same as your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field used to collect task shapes into rows or a different Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field.

7) As discussed just above, OnePager chooses the first (last) value from list of values within each row when rows consist of task shapes with differing data.

Order Swimlanes

8) At this point, task shapes are assigned to rows and rows to swimlanes.

9) OnePager now uses the data from your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field to order the swimlane within the chart.

10) You have two (2) options when controlling how swimlanes are ordered.

Order swimlanes like Microsoft Project

11) Selecting this ordering technique establishes the sequence from top to bottom provided by your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan.

12) Since the various task shapes comprising a swimlane have different natural occurrence orders, OnePager first performs the analysis at the task level within each swimlane to determine the swimlane ordering value to assign to the swimlane.

13) In other words, OnePager first sorts the set of task shapes comprising all the rows in the swimlane into their natural order and then chooses the first task shape in the list to represent the entire swimlane.

14) If you specified descending order, OnePager chooses the last task shape in the list to represent the entire swimlane.

Order swimlanes by Microsoft Project source plan field

15) You may choose to order swimlanes under the control of data in a specified Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field.

16) As discussed in the item above, OnePager chooses the first (last) value from the list of values with each swimlane when swimlanes consist of rows that consist of task shapes with differing data in the designated Sort swimlanes by field.

17) At the completion of the ordering rows and swimlanes steps, you may choose to show text columns and swimlane labels as described below.

Step 4 – Label Rows and Swimlanes

1) Labeling Rows - General Considerations If you check the Show text columns checkbox, you must designate a Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field to be used for OnePager to select the appropriate additional text columns.

a) Since tasks may be collected into rows using your designated Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field, there is a need to resolve conflicts when rows consist of tasks with differing data in the designated Collect tasks into rows by field.

b) If there is more than one task in a row and these tasks have different values from your designated Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field, OnePager will display the label that occurs most frequently or the label that comes from the first task in the natural order of your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan for tasks with the same frequency of occurrence of label data.

2) Labeling Multiple Rows with the Custom Text Columns Form. OnePager Pro and Express version 6.0 allows the definition of up to five additional text columns. These are defined by clicking the Text Column Properties... button shown above when the Show text columns checkbox is checked. When you do this, the Custom Text Columns form appears as shown below:

a) This new form allows you to define up to five additional text columns which will be displayed to the right of the chart's outer left border if Swimlanes are not displayed or to the immediate right of the Swimlanes label showing. The additional text columns are defined from left to right.

b) How to use the Custom Text Columns form is described in the article at: Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes (Portal). 12.0.1-70

c) The chart example below shows a chart with a swimlane and three text columns displayed as an example:

3) Labeling Swimlanes. If you check the Show swimlane labels checkbox, you must designate a Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field to be used for OnePager to select the appropriate swimlane label.

a) Since tasks may be collected into rows using your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field and the rows grouped into swimlanes using another source plan field, there is a need to resolve conflicts when swimlanes consist of tasks with differing data in the designated Label swimlanes by Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan field.

b) If there is more than one task in a swimlane and these tasks have different values from your designated source plan field, OnePager will display the swimlane label that occurs most frequently or the label that comes from the first task in the natural order of your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan for tasks with the same frequency of occurrence of label data.

4) Finally, you may cause row and swimlane labels to be repeated on all output pages if the multi-page feature is being used.

5) After completing the selection of optional labels for rows and swimlanes, you have the further option to control format of gridlines that OnePager will place between rows and swimlanes as detailed in the discussion of Step 5 below.

Step 5 – Format Borders and Backgrounds

1) As the final step in preparing your rows and swimlanes presentation, you may choose to turn on the row and swimlane borders feature.

2) This feature allows you to exercise control of borders around rows, around swimlanes, the inner frame of the chart, and the outer frame of the chart as detailed in the next sub-section.

Format Borders

1) When the Format Borders button is clicked, a form consisting of five tabs is presented that allows you to control gridline color, width, and dash type.

2) The tabs are shown below and apply to:

(1) Swimlane borders

(2) Row borders

(3) Time cursor borders

(4) Inter frame borders

(5) Outer frame borders

3) Border commands for color, width, and dash type are as consistent as possible with those found in Microsoft Excel.

4) Swimlane borders, Row borders, Time cursors, Inner Frame and Outer Frame Common Controls. By clicking the Format borders… button in the Chart Properties form's Rows and Swimlanes tab you can configure borders for rows, swimlanes, and the other elements as shown below.

a) Line color This dropdown list provides a color palette from which the line color for the border can be selected.

b) Line width The line width for all borders is in units of font points.

c) Dash type There are five (5) line or dash types available for borders.

(1) Solid

(2) Dot

(3) Dash

(4) Dash dot

(5) Dash dot dot

d) Border type: There are three border types available:

(1) Above

(2) Below

(3) Both

e) The four controls mentioned above are consistently used for three (3) of the five borders tabs.

5) Vertical Gridlines Color. The Inner frame tab has an additional control for the color of the vertical gridlines. Vertical gridlines are shown to place time separations on the graph. Typically vertical gridlines are used to place separation between years or other major time boundaries.

6) The Inner frame tab below shows this control.

7) Example of Vertical Gridlines: The following segment of a chart illustrates the use of vertical gridlines:

(4.0.1.5-70)