Beyond Gantt Charts; Project Frontier Reports on Information Design Challenges

Garry Booker at Project Frontier is proving to be a key thought leader in project management. His latest essay explores the limitations of most graphical tools used today, such as Gantt Charts, Dashboards, Earned Value charts, and other tools we know and love. Unfortunately, most of these tools are two-dimensional at best, and only offer a snapshot of the whole picture (something Edward Tufte would certainly agree with).

No system lives in isolation, and this is the essence of Garry Booker's essay. The essay explores systems thinking, and the 10 top challenges for those looking to adopt a systems approach to presenting their project management data. The key to any information design layer is awareness-- awareness of both the forest and the trees (and, as presented in the essay, even the leaves). Booker feels he may have addressed these problems with his EV Maps, and perhaps he has (KIDASA's Milestones Professional certainly seems to think so).

Regardless, I encourage everyone to read this essay and think about the implications of how we present data currently. Never mind the fact that he praises PMThink in his essay --- honest! Our site is all about research and exploring ways to improve the status quo in project management. Project Frontier is certainly pushing the envelope and we fully support endeavors such as that.

Information Design Challenge