Project communications should tell the story of the project. They should give technical and non-technical stakeholders the same, clear message. If we fail to convey the baselines of our project, we are failing to communicate at a fundamental level.

In this post we will look at pictures, graphics and other visual representations that help us communicate the complexity of the project, turning it into something meaningful and memorable to our stakeholders. A central tenet of this concept is that the three baselines – schedule, cost and scope – represent the most important information for everyone to know.

The visualizations you create for each should populate the three slides at the front of every major presentation. This will help ensure everyone in the audience is at least fundamentally aware of what is happening. You would include these slides in presentations such as that given at the project kickoff, governance committee meetings, executive or board meetings or in other stakeholder forums.

Visualizing Schedule

One look at our project schedule should tell us whether it is presentation-ready. Hundreds or even thousands of tasks will have been sequenced, dependencies applied, and early/late start/finish dates calculated to help us ensure that the total work effort is reflected. But nothing about the project schedule format should compel you to reveal it in any forum where you are hoping to communicate with a broader set of stakeholders.

For general stakeholder communication, our first tool to translate the schedule is a GANTT chart. This streamlined representation of project activity can provide sufficient detail so as to set the stage for project phases without burying your audience in the minutiae of daily project tasks. It is also a straightforward way to communicate milestones and to speak to how the work happening on the ground today will summarize at major checkpoints throughout the project.

A simple GANTT chart is shown here:

The above chart shows at a summary-level the work that will take place over a 12-month project. The simplified representation of the schedule allows you to speak to activity within each phase of the project without losing your audience in detail.

Visualizing Cost

Possibly the trickiest baseline to visually represent is the cost baseline. We are taking something that is intentionally precise and communicating it in generalities. The cost baseline is also one of the most contentious due to the sensitivity in the sector about spending dollars – even if those dollars are an investment in future revenue. Ultimately, an effective visualization is based on what you hope to demonstrate and who your intended audience is.

A common representation is the overall cost baseline: comparing monthly projection vs. actual. It can effectively communicate where the project budget is trending. For example:

You may also add the cost baseline itself to this image to help represent total cost. Or, you might add a trend-line to indicate the overall projection. In the image above you can see less actual cost than projected for months 1 and 5 but otherwise costs are steadily running over each month. This is the kind of graphic that can be used for general audiences. More detailed analysis (ex. an indication that cost is actually in a “red” state) is likely to appear on slides that follow this one.

Visualizing Scope

Technology projects are both complex and intangible. The complexity is found in what is typically a web of interrelated systems and a carefully scripted sequence of winding down dependencies while also deploying new tools and related processes. These projects are simultaneously intangible in that we work in data that is impossible to actually see, software that is licensed and not owned, and hardware that is hidden somewhere in the “clouds.” This reality underscores the importance of being able to create a meaningful representation of what is actually happening, despite the elusive nature of the project itself.

An end-state diagram is one means of translating this complexity into something a general stakeholder audience can appreciate. For example:

The above diagram represents a fundraising system replacement project. It visually indicates the two legacy systems to be replaced through the project. It indicates three systems (mail, general ledger and online portal) that will be affected by the project. It also notes three “other system” icons to delineate where the project scope ends. There are clear representations of major integration points represented by directional arrows.

For projects with multiple change points, you may provide beginning and end-state diagrams for each phase. For example, a second phase may add a green circle as a new advocacy portal is deployed. The critical point to your presentation is visual consistency. As you flip through PowerPoint slides representing each state the transformation should be obvious to all involved.

Summary & Conclusions

If this does not look like rocket science, it might be a sign that you are doing it right. As Project Managers we are immersed in the project details: task plans, reconciling invoices against budget line items and meeting countless requirements. But, it’s equally important that we are able to translate all of this detail and complexity into meaningful information to our stakeholders. If everyone generally understands schedule, cost and scope baselines, we all will be better equipped to engage the details that lie ahead.