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Subject:icons for a status chart From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Wed, 20 Aug 1997 15:22:51 +0800
Janet -
1. Personally, I really dislike cutesy icons.
2. 'The Icon Book', by William Horton (0-471-59901-8) is very good.
3. You probably won't convince your lead of the former and don't have
time to read the latter, so here are my cute suggestions:
program as planned (I don't know what this one means)
program impact, watch runner drops baton
not started, no plan runner behind starting block
plan in place but not started runner on starting block
improving runner has cartoon-style 'whoosh' lines
getting worse runner has cartoon-style sweat/worry blips
getting much worse runner bites ear of other competitor
Do your projects ever finish ;^) If so you'll be needing an icon for
'project finished' -- runner breaking tape/crossing finish line?
FWIW, I had a manager (in 1984) who liked to go to a lot of leadership/
management training courses. One fascinating idea he brought back was
to put a project status chart up on his wall, titled 'Flight Plan'.
All projects were either 'On the Runway', 'Taking Off', 'In Flight',
'Approaching Landing', or 'Landed'.
This was just too cute for words and gave him immense pleasure as he
drew up the chart and explained it to the troops. There were many
suggestions for new categories, such as: 'Hijacked By Terrorists',
'Mid-Air Collision' and 'Lost in Bermuda Triangle'.
IIRC no 'flights' actually made it as far as the tarmac, though the
development work seemed to carry on pretty much as normal.
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield
Functional Software Pty Ltd mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
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