Main task scheduling form showing help and command buttons
Requirements
The client, a UK financial services company needed a tool to manage an ever-changing schedule of ad hoc IT tasks so they could improve planning efficiency and inter-team communication.
Challenges
The process the client was using to manage task planning was ill-defined, leading to inefficiency and poor communication between departments.
It was also a process that was very specific to the company in question, so there were no obvious, ready-made solutions.
Solution
The task calendar and Help screen
The solution was a custom built VBA system based on Excel that had 9 user forms (mostly calendars) and 54 procedures. It was delivered via SharePoint and included a dynamic calendar display, data entry form, search and help facilities.
A detailed specification and high level user guides were also produced so that the client could use and support the system themselves.
Design Highlights
The system had a lot of date fields, so an Excel calendar Add-In was used to make it more use friendly.
Although to the expert eye it was technically unremarkable, it illustrates a situation where the very implementation of a tool forces adherence to a process, thereby driving consistency and savings.