
So he first collected the outage events into a single row per server and grouped the servers into swimlanes based on location: Houston and Denver. His intuition told him it’s better to convey the message in a timeline format on a single slide rather than using complex system diagrams. Since many of these review meetings can become tense, he started looking for a way to show that data, which would call attention to how they can bounce back instead of adding fuel to the fire.Īfter a critical incident that led to a multi-site production outage for a web server, Arthur decided to use Office Timeline to put together a timeline that analyzes the events. But since no business is perfect, incidents happen sometimes and when they do, he has to act quickly to fix the problem.Īnother crucial part of Arthur’s job is to perform a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) when the incident is over and present his findings to his managers. Server outage incident timelineĪrthur, a DevOps Engineer for an IT services company in Houston, US, manages the server activity, ensuring that client companies function without disruption. And after finding the right mix of simplicity and customization bottled into one intuitive app, she no longer feels like splurging money on more expensive tools. Overall, Office Timeless made Sandra’s sprint planning a stress-free affair. Now, her team can visualize the tasks they need to complete in the current sprint and better prepare for the next ones. So there’s no surprise that the customizable timescale is slowly becoming Sandra’s new favorite feature. Then, she groups the tasks on swimlanes by feature categories, thus ensuring the product improves in user experience with each sprint.Ĭonsidering their fast delivery cycle with one-week sprints, she chooses to display tasks three sprints in advance. She begins by color-coding the deliverables based on approval status to avoid misunderstandings as work progresses. What Sandra loves most about this PowerPoint roadmap tool is that it allows her to simplify and neatly organize project information with just a few clicks. She was pleasantly surprised to see that creating an Agile task board from her Excel sheets took her only 15 minutes. Nevertheless, despite being cost-effective, this tool is pretty basic when it comes to creating project visuals.įortunately, Sandra has recently come across Office Timeline, an app that lets her import project data from Excel into one PowerPoint slide that’s easy to understand for stakeholders.
#Taskboard bird software
Since their team is still relatively small and can’t afford pricy software subscriptions like Jira, Sandra uses Excel to capture and track the deliverables across the team’s sprints. In other words, she has to prioritize new features, plan releases in sprints, and present all this data to stakeholders in a comprehensible format. While she acts as the Scrum master of her small Agile team, she’s responsible for maintaining the product backlog for the Fintech software they develop. Sandra’s experience as a Business Analyst for a growing Silicon Valley IT startup has taught her that great communication and collaboration rely on a clear roadmap to project completion.
#Taskboard bird free
Plus, you can pick whichever visual best suits your project needs and customize it using the Office Timeline 14-day free trial.
#Taskboard bird download
You can download all the PowerPoint slides we’ve created for these examples free of charge. That being said, we’ve put together 4 possible scenarios below that illustrate how project visuals can help you prioritize stakeholder communication and keep your teams in sync. There are powerful project visuals out there, such as Gantt charts, timelines, and roadmaps, that will do the hard work for you. You don’t need magic to get a bird’s eye view of the project and its progress and help everyone collaborate efficiently. So if you’re an IT project manager, product manager, or team leader wishing they’d never again have to deal with writing lengthy explanation emails or impromptu war room meetings, we’ve got good news for you. And let’s not forget about communicating these changes to stakeholders and internal teams. New technology may appear or client priorities may shift, challenging you to make hard decisions to keep the project on time and on budget. And even then, initial plans can change without warning.


Keeping everyone informed and ensuring complex projects run smoothly from one deadline to the next requires you to be an excellent communicator.

It’s not easy being the go-between among team members, company departments, and stakeholders when you’re a project leader in the information technology sector.
