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Timeline
What is it?
A timeline highlighting key project milestones, deliverables and activities.
Why and when should I use this?
This is a useful tool for visualising key project milestones, defining deadlines, deliverables, and outlining the key activities needed to achieve them. This will help you keep on tack and ensure your efforts are always focused on what you need to deliver. Doing this and refreshing activities with you team as you go, will help bring your team together.
How much time should I spend on this?
20-30 minutes. Spending a bit of time to get the details down will help you plan realistically. Working with a medium-sized group will help you work faster.
Who should I involve in this?
Use this with your project team.
How to use it...
- List final deliverables: In a group of 1-8 people, start by breaking down each deliverable into manageable chunks: "to deliver this product I will need to...". Working backwards, add them to the timeline to help you place them accurately. Deliverables should be fairly generic, like 'Frame the brief' or 'Developing ideas'.
- Add activities, outputs, and important dates: Using a different colour of post-it for each, start to add the activities, outputs and important dates to the timeline under your deliverables. This will create columns of activity where you are working towards a specific goal.
- Review: Ask your team members to check from beginning to end to see if anything is missing. Keep your timeline and build on it as your project progresses.