Hacking the Google Chart API from Excel

a bit of code on a Saturday night …I’ve written before about a simple way to measure and report IT value to the business – quantifying alignment with strategic initiatives  project spend in context. It all culminated with a single, simple slide – numbers, with some Tufte-esque Sparklines thrown in. Click on the picture for [...]

Zodiac of Knowledge Capture

The start of a new year gives me a rare chance to measure my knowledge capture output over time. I maintain electronic journals for the various projects I am driving, business units and functional areas I support, and people I work with. This results in a hundred or so separate MS Word documents, with generally [...]

Inspiration, Images, Insight, Imitation, Innovation

Just a quick post on this pre-holiday weekend, with my design-leaning kids out of school / back from college for the holidays, and a general sense of creativity mixed in with the holiday spirit. Inspiration …… can come from many places. Nothing new there, but I like to get inspiration for X from looking at [...]

Excel 2007 is a BOB system (Bag’O'Bugs)

I am getting seriously aggravated with the flighty behavior of Excel 2007. Yes, I acknowledge that the spreadheets in question is quite complicated …

shared VBA modules in an XLA file
database read/write using ADO
array-manipulation for ranges of cells (see this post)
lots of macro (VBA) logic to control look/feel of the tabs
code to automatically insert formulae into [...]

Linkfest: Data Visualization

I’m a long-time fan of effective visualizations, and I’ve often written about the effective use of visual information when making presentations or communicating complex information. I’ve subscribed to my share of blogs and feeds on the topic, and have amassed quite a backlog of interesting links … presented here for your hyperlinking enjoyment …
Best Blogs
information [...]

Where to Start? (2 of 2) Metrics & Measurements

Bullet point #1 in your executive-friendly PowerPoint about “Achieving Operational Excellence in IT” covers Process and Procedure; so how do we measure our effectiveness? I’m a big proponent of Metrics and Measurements as well – but often times the biggest challenge is where to start?
Measure the Unmeasured
In most organizations (especially manufacturers!), the business has plenty [...]

More On Executives (are Smarter than You Think; the 5 Biggest Misconceptions)

A recent post got a surprising amount of feedback – at least, different feedback than my other stuff. No flames, just folks agreeing with the ideas and wanting to engage in more direct conversation (phone calls, as opposed to blog comments or email – interesting …)
I’ve noted that people like to second-guess and/or heap scorn [...]

Can you, should you, bother Executives with The Details?

In a recent post on Thinking Faster, Phillips expresses concern about the apparent propensity for project sponsors to skim over the details and jump to quick answers. He’s talking about [what I believe is] a peer relationship, when external expertise is brought in to develop the solution that they (the sponsors) are responsible for “owning” [...]

No Silver Bullet for Group Collaboration over Distance?

Lots of organizations have to deal with the challenge of implementing standard work and best practices over physical distances. With sales offices, distribution centers, and manufacturing locations scattered across the country, what’s the best way to get people who know their stuff to collaborate on process improvement – and then take that knowledge back to [...]

Stretching Your User Interface Design Muscles

A follow up to my previous post on innovation in user interface design:

If you want to keep up with cutting edge thinking on technology – in a very approachable, effective format – ReadWriteWeb is a must for your feed reader. I’m constantly amazed by the number of solid articles they generate every week. Here’s one [...]