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Post by thehartshillbadger on Oct 2, 2021 17:42:54 GMT
An absolutely superb piece of software if used correctly. As people have mentioned, pivot tables and all that kind of stuff. At work, I've created a High Level Overview which provides projections, dates, work that's not moving, work that's unlikely to finish on time etc, all from a raw dataset. The whole thing took a few days to create (on and off) but the time it has saved me over the few weeks I have had it is absolutely tenfold. By simply taking a dump of data from my issue management tool, I can copy the data into a new worksheet, copy the columns I need into a hidden section and within about 30 seconds, start to finish, I have an updated view of the world, with re-projected dates, things to watch, overruns etc. The key is to get yourself a solid workbook that does all of your maths for you automatically and then finding the most sensible way to quickly transpose data. Invest the time at the start and get it as automated as possible. Historically, I had done this manually, probably because I didn't have the time to work out a quicker solution. Now that I have, I will never go back. You can also use it to create simple Gantt charts. I mainly use it for Gantt charts, probably spend 25% of my working day on Excel and I’ve got a bit of a guilty pleasure about using it. Use it for estimating quotes, which is a bit old hat but works for me. Scheduling work for and working out profit margins against costs. Love it.
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Post by metalhead on Oct 2, 2021 21:00:49 GMT
An absolutely superb piece of software if used correctly. As people have mentioned, pivot tables and all that kind of stuff. At work, I've created a High Level Overview which provides projections, dates, work that's not moving, work that's unlikely to finish on time etc, all from a raw dataset. The whole thing took a few days to create (on and off) but the time it has saved me over the few weeks I have had it is absolutely tenfold. By simply taking a dump of data from my issue management tool, I can copy the data into a new worksheet, copy the columns I need into a hidden section and within about 30 seconds, start to finish, I have an updated view of the world, with re-projected dates, things to watch, overruns etc. The key is to get yourself a solid workbook that does all of your maths for you automatically and then finding the most sensible way to quickly transpose data. Invest the time at the start and get it as automated as possible. Historically, I had done this manually, probably because I didn't have the time to work out a quicker solution. Now that I have, I will never go back. You can also use it to create simple Gantt charts. I mainly use it for Gantt charts, probably spend 25% of my working day on Excel and I’ve got a bit of a guilty pleasure about using it. Use it for estimating quotes, which is a bit old hat but works for me. Scheduling work for and working out profit margins against costs. Love it. I've created some crazy big Gantts on it, as in 2 years of work inc burndown, training etc. There's a huge amount of manual Labour involved in the way I do it. I kind of hope I can automate it a bit more one day, I know Microsoft Project can. My High Level Overview does all the maths without the visual Gantt. Its all about using raw data and formulas that build on each other. I also have my special formula which calculates based on percentage progress whether we are tracking ahead of a remaining estimate. It's hard to put a time on how long I spent creating it. I'd say in the region of 14 to 15 hours but it makes my life, my bosses, coworkers life incredibly easy. I've not got as far as creating the graphs from data yet as the textual output is enough. I also use it to track even noddy things like holidays that my team have booked. There's also something nobody has mentioned yet. SharePoint... Hate it or absolutely despise it, version control is hugely important.
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Post by thehartshillbadger on Oct 2, 2021 21:02:29 GMT
I mainly use it for Gantt charts, probably spend 25% of my working day on Excel and I’ve got a bit of a guilty pleasure about using it. Use it for estimating quotes, which is a bit old hat but works for me. Scheduling work for and working out profit margins against costs. Love it. I've created some crazy big Gantts on it, as in 2 years of work inc burndown, training etc. There's a huge amount of manual Labour involved in the way I do it. I kind of hope I can automate it a bit more one day, I know Microsoft Project can. My High Level Overview does all the maths without the visual Gantt. Its all about using raw data and formulas that build on each other. I also have my special formula which calculates based on percentage progress whether we are tracking ahead of a remaining estimate. It's hard to put a time on how long I spent creating it. I'd say in the region of 14 to 15 hours but it makes my life, my bosses, coworkers life incredibly easy. I've not got as far as creating the graphs from data yet as the textual output is enough. I also use it to track even noddy things like holidays that my team have booked. There's also something nobody has mentioned yet. SharePoint... Hate it or absolutely despise it, version control is hugely important. Share point makes my piss boil!!!!🤨
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Post by metalhead on Oct 2, 2021 21:07:11 GMT
I've created some crazy big Gantts on it, as in 2 years of work inc burndown, training etc. There's a huge amount of manual Labour involved in the way I do it. I kind of hope I can automate it a bit more one day, I know Microsoft Project can. My High Level Overview does all the maths without the visual Gantt. Its all about using raw data and formulas that build on each other. I also have my special formula which calculates based on percentage progress whether we are tracking ahead of a remaining estimate. It's hard to put a time on how long I spent creating it. I'd say in the region of 14 to 15 hours but it makes my life, my bosses, coworkers life incredibly easy. I've not got as far as creating the graphs from data yet as the textual output is enough. I also use it to track even noddy things like holidays that my team have booked. There's also something nobody has mentioned yet. SharePoint... Hate it or absolutely despise it, version control is hugely important. Share point makes my piss boil!!!!🤨 How else are you doing your excel version management? Git? A new file with a date. SharePoint is horrible and the check in check out system is daft but it's absolutely vital to maintain the history of a dataset.
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