Hi Skye,
My Best Bubble chart organizes my universe of issues, like this:
- time is on the x axis, from -180 days (6 months late) on the left, to zero (now) in the middle, ton90 days (way out in the future) on the right
- importance is on the y-axis, from 1000 (most important) at the top, to zero (indifferent) in the middle, to -1000 (ought to "retire" rather than "do") at the bottom
- each bubble is an open issue, with the diameter being the effort in hours, and the color being the priority
The chart's behavior is what makes this my favorite. Issues due >90 days out (to the far right) get a score of zero importance, "now is not the time", effectvely creating an initial vanishing point at zero on the 90 days out horizon. As the due date moves closer (left) to today (middle), each issue "floats higher" depending on priority, until at today, a critical = 500, high = 400, normal = 300, and low = 200. Then as issues age further, they continue to drift left, with criticals, highs, and normals floating ever higher, but lows sinking into the backlog basement.
At any point in time, the strategy is clear: tackle top left (late, high priority) issues first, working your way right and down until you catch up (due today), then move even further right and down (getting ahead), and occassionally cleaning up the bottom right (late, low priority) backlog.
By clicking the legend, I can alao toggle each prioriy series on or off, and for even more control, atrached it to our UberFilter which let me filter an entire dashboard with 10 reports (of the different quadrants of the bubble chart) with any Issue Filter I could dream up all at once.
I'd be happy to post a screenshot if anyone is interested.
Regards,
Doug
