Can Anyone Advise on How to Create a Line Chart

Copper Contributor

Objective.  I am trying to create a burn down chart to show the progress of software development projects.  I have a simple deliverables matrix outlined like below:

Column A - Line Items like Project Scope, Team Charter, etc.

Column B - Anticipated deadlines like Jan-1, Jan-5, Jan-10, etc.

Column C - Completed dates entered when a line item is completed.

The legend or vertical axis should list the line items in Column A.

The horizontal axis should be the date range for the duration of the project.

The line should plot to Column C to show progress.

Problem.  After I have inserted the chart, when I select data from column A, I get numbers not the text line items for the legend.  When selecting the dates I get a single date, or numbers from 0 to 1.

Requirements.  As I update progress I can add the new data to the lines, so it does not need to be totally automatic.

Thanks for any suggestions,

Brent

4 Replies

@TecEFX Could you upload the chart that you are working on, with some of the underlying data? Be sure to remove any confidential information. I'm asking because your description is not entirely clear. You mention that there are three columns: Line-items, Due dates and Completed dates. I'm wondering what values you intend to plot in a line chart.

@Riny_van_Eekelen 

Hi Riny van Eekelen,

Thanks for the interest in my chart.

Here is a screen shot

TecEFX_0-1613981735080.png

Dates for project duration on bottom horizontal axis

Deliverable Line Items text on right vertical axis

A line plotting the completed dates for each line Item

I am not sure if I am using the wrong type of chart, need to create a pivot table, or what? 

@TecEFX From what I quickly learned on Burn Down charts, you need to calculate remaining days planned to get the work done versus actual remaining days. These values can then each be plotted on a line in time. That would be something like in the attached file. You may want to fine-tune it to your liking though.

I found quite a few examples searching, but many do not display the work items in the axis. Thanks for the suggestions.