Action, goal, outcome non sequential chart...

[jeraldjunkmail]

OK, I have been struggling with this for a couple of days now.  Every chart I try to come up with just doesn't seem to work.

Here is my problem.  I have a table that lists Action, Goal, Expected Outcome, Responsible authority, phase, current status, and potential future actions.

The Action section is a description of things that need to be done to attain the goal.

The goal is one of 4 possible goals.

The expected outcome is a description of the things that should result from attaining ythe goals as they relate to the actions.

The responsible authority is whom is responsible for implementing the action.

There are 4 phases, they overlap and are at times non sequential.

The status describes the current status of the action, and what will be required to complete the goal.

Finally, future action lists the future steps that may be needed to complete the goal.


Those are the requirements.  I am looking for a way to destroy this table, and present it in a multi-paged Visio diagram that is not too dense or busy per page.  I just can't decide how best to do this.  Your suggestions on anything about this are welcome!

Cheers, Jerald!

[wapperdude]

For a given project, if that's the correct term, idea, are there 4 possible goals?

Initial thought was a variation of a Gantt chart -- structure-wise.  Didn't see any mention of time, so, that's not part of this?

But, perhaps a spider chart might be better? 


Anyway, just throwing out some ideas to get the ball bouncing...

Wapperdude

[jeraldjunkmail]

I know this sounds crazy, but a gannt chart is a bit too busy (like the table I am trying to display).  I have also looked at a cross functional diagram, but am not sure if it would be workable (because I am a charting noob), though if I knew how to format it it might work.  There are no times listed on this chart, just phases.  Another possibility would be to roll some of these details into tool tips somehow that pop up over my chart blocks or pieces?  Even having something happen when I double click them?  I think that this should somehow take the shape of a process based chart, but the actions are not linked, so none of the outcomes are linked.  The actions contribute to the goals, which are about as close as anything comes to linking them to each other.

Anyhoo, I will plug away at it, and check in here for your suggestions...  Thanks Wapperdude!

[wapperdude]

Something like this...  

[jeraldjunkmail]

I think I have come to a brainwave moment.  I took a piece of paper, and drew the variables out on the page.  It still wouldn't jive with my design principle.  So, I took a step back from it, and started scribbling on the page.  And I decided that a cross functional chart would be ideal, but was not able to convey the idea I had in mind fully.  Train of thought went along a ways, and I drew a convergence tree of the various combinations on the paper.  Looks like this:

Goals \
          \
            \
             >------ Chart of both of these
            /
          /
Phase/


Action \
           \
             \
              >------ Chart of both of these
             /
           /
Phase /

And so on...  Which lead me to this idea on the paper:

        / _____________________  /|
       / / ___________________/ / |
      / / /| |                           / /  |
     / / / | |                          / / . |
    / / /| | |                        / / /| |
   / / / | | |                      / / / | |
  / / /  | | |                     / / /| | |
/ /_/__________________/ / / | | |
/________________________/ /| | |
| ______________________ | | | | |
| | |      | | |_________ | | |__| | |
| | |      | |___________| | |___| |
| | |     / / ___________ | | |_  / /
| | |   / / /                    | | |/ / /
| | |  / / /                     | | | / /
| | |/ / /                       | | |/ /
| | | / /                        | | ' /
| | |/_/_______________| |  /
| |____________________| | /
|________________________|/

A cube diagram, of sorts...  Well, the idea was more of a simple 3d diagram.  How to do this in Visio?  Pages of course.  No actual "3d" diagram, but the idea that underlies it is.  So, on each page of the "3d object" is a cross functional diagram of 2 categories...  the intersecting shapes leads to another page, which is composed of 2 categories with the same thing, making it a "cubed diagram".   

I'll let you know how it goes!