How to do a good job in project management with Excel? Finally, you must know

Excel is an old and young product. It is old-fashioned because all of us, when we have our first computer, the first software installed is the office family bucket;

The reason why you are young is that after so many years, the utilization rate is still among the best.

Old fans who are familiar with Lao Yuan know that I like to watch the recruitment in JD.COM best, and I also like to show you the recruitment in JD.COM.

After reading more about JD recruitment, you will find that in addition to the hard PMP certificate, our management position also has a very important ability-proficiency in using office software such as Excel.

Many companies will add such a clause when recruiting Project managers: proficiency in Excel is required, and sometimes even Project is not mentioned, but you must write and use Excel.

Here, Lao Yuan would like to ask how many people know why?

In fact, there are two main reasons:

First, the leader or Party A's computer may not have Project, but Excel must be shared by all.

Secondly, I have to boast that Excel is so powerful that it can even be said that 95% of the problems in the project can be solved directly with it, but many people don't know it.

Today's content is mainly divided into two parts:

1, how to use Excel for project management?

2, 5 Excel workplace habits help you improve collaboration efficiency.

Not much nonsense. Today, Lao Yuan will tell you how to do the project well with Excel. Don't miss the Excel template of project management compiled by Lao Yuan. Can be obtained by private mail.

First, Excel can solve 95% of project problems.

Excel plays a vital role in the whole project management process. I also organized a general process into a picture, which can let everyone see more clearly what Excel is doing in all aspects.

I believe that after reading the above picture, you should understand why Lao Yuan said that 95% of the project problems can be solved by Excel.

For the following contents, Lao Yuan suggested to understand the above picture by referring to the following words.

0 1? Excel for task decomposition

In fact, whether using excel, project or other tools, the first step must be task decomposition.

Only by learning to break down tasks in sufficient detail can you know what you are doing, work in an orderly way and arrange the timetable as a whole.

Correctly decomposing tasks is the first step to the success of the project, which is WBS.

How to decompose WBS: goal → task → work → activity.

As for how to make good use of WBS, I won't go into details in this article. You can review my previous sharing about WBS.

Recommended reading: The more advanced the project manager is, the more afraid he is of not doing well.

After the task is decomposed, you can use excel to define what information needs to be displayed.

Clear task association with Excel

In the course of the project, it often happens that colleagues come to you in a hurry, leaving a message that I can't finish the task and I have to postpone it for X days.

It may be reasonable for the other party to do so: I told you in advance, so I can't refuse, can I?

At this time, the task correlation diagram is very important.

You can use this form to tell him that this is not my decision alone. You have to see if there is anyone to answer the following tasks and if there is anyone in charge to answer them.

If you delay, your post-task B will not start as scheduled. If task B is delayed, it will affect the normal start of task C, which is the domino effect.

Using Gantt Chart to Optimize Task Allocation

It is really practical to mark Gantt charts with different colors.

The color of the Gantt chart is related to the color of the name in the Task Breakdown section. That is to cooperate with the person in charge.

So in a small project, we can specify a logo color for each role, which can clearly identify everyone's tasks and processes.

In complex projects, you can also use excel's color filter to directly filter out all tasks of someone:

04? Key milestone

The so-called key milestone is the time point that a stage of work must be guaranteed. The successful completion of this time point determines whether the work after the milestone can also be guaranteed to proceed smoothly.

If the key milestone cannot be guaranteed, it means that the tasks after the milestone should be readjusted.

It is a good idea to mark key milestones in bold red and add milestone descriptions.

05? Excel changes to the project-in the one-second freeze pane

For the schedule made by Project, when dragging the view, you can lock the date line and task line in the original position, but Excel can also do it.

Excel's pane freezing function also has the same effect. As shown in the figure: click the intersection pane of the pane to be frozen, and click the freeze pane to achieve the goal.

2. Five Excel workplace habits to help you improve collaboration efficiency.

Too versatile to introduce, there are not many useful things.

Share some Excel habits/tips that are really useful in my practical work.

0 1 Use Excel as word

Although this is a joke, the real function of tables is data processing, okay?

But in practical work, some information will become more intuitive in Excel. This information has a unified name, called "list"

Compared with Word, Excel does have several advantages in making documents.

1- The information is combed more clearly

2 picture typesetting is more convenient

Pagination of three tables is easy.

4- The recorded data is easy to count.

02? Some good workplace habits of Excel

Many students will also ask Lao Yuan some Excel questions in private. In fact, many problems come from habits.

I also summed up several good habits of Excel, which are so simple that you wouldn't notice them at ordinary times, but once you get into the habit, you can not only improve your efficiency, but more importantly, you can make your colleagues feel that your work is very reassuring.

1. Do not use sheet 123 as the worksheet name.

Similarly, do not use the default new Microsoft Excel worksheet as the file name.

It takes 5 seconds to name the form and explain its purpose, which is not only convenient for yourself, but also reduces the inconvenience caused by colleagues.

2. Add a table of contents to the form

The student form was sent to me. I opened a dozen worksheets and basically gave up.

-What's each worksheet for?

-Which table is the problem?

-What are the various forms of interrelationships?

Different jobs, this information gap is like a mountain.

Maybe the project management problem I answered for you is very simple, but the other party doesn't want to go over the mountains to answer it for you.

3. When modifying the form, please save the backup first.

Before using the template form, you must save the blank form and the original template as a backup. Anyone who has used it knows that emptying the data in the template is also a manual job.

4. Preview the page before printing

Everyone who uses forms has had this experience.

The form is obviously only one page, and there are several pages printed, and the contents of each page are incomplete. This is a print preview of the form, but the settings are incorrect.

Behind these four good habits are actually some communication and cooperation habits in the workplace.

First, the habit of filing and copying.

Do a good job of backup, sum up advantages and disadvantages, and improve and upgrade in time.

For example, save the form as a backup and confirm the preview effect before printing.

Second, pass on the habit of altruism.

When cooperating with colleagues, we should consider many aspects to ensure the quality of our work output and make it easier for the other party to take over, no doubt.

For example: the habit of naming files, don't choose all copies, finish the work first and then learn advanced methods.

On the other hand, no matter what software is used, whether the project can be completed perfectly depends on people. Only when the team has enough execution can the tools play a greater role.

Project manager is a position that requires strong communication and cooperation. With more "altruistic thinking" in the work, the project progress will be much smoother.

————