Creating a quick project status diagram in Lucidchart can help you easily see accountabilities,
timelines, roadblocks and updates.
Plus, you can use the notes and information you already have in spreadsheets to automatically
populate and update your diagram - that way, you always have an accurate, easy-to-read
visualization of what’s happening with your project.
In this video, we’ll show you how to create a diagram like this in Lucidchart, how to
link data from existing spreadsheets in order to automate updates to your diagram, and how
to use conditional formatting to automatically change the color and style of your diagram,
depending on its status.
First, we’ll set up multidimensional swimlanes so that we can track the people responsible
for different aspects of the project and the timeline for the project.
I’ll click on the search button at the top of the toolbox on the left side of the editor,
and type in multi swimlane, then drag this shape directly out onto the canvas.
Quick tip - whenever I’m working with swimlanes, I’ll usually lock them into place so that
I avoid accidentally selecting them when I’m adding shapes and lines to the rest of my
diagram.
Next, I want to create a shape that can display all the spreadsheet data that I want to quickly
reference and track—things like a description of the task, dependencies, task duration,
etc.
Personally, I find text shapes to be the easiest to work with when adding data to shapes, so
I’ll pull a text shape out and do some quick formatting.
I won’t spend too much time on this, because we’ll want to really customize how this
looks once we have our data in Lucidchart.
Now let’s add data from our spreadsheet.
Right now, I’m keeping project details in an Excel spreadsheet.
Instead of re-creating all of this in Lucidchart, I’ll link my entire spreadsheet to Lucidchart
by clicking this “data” button toward the bottom of the dock on the right side of
the editor, then follow the prompts to upload my Excel spreadsheet.
You’ll want to make sure to include a header row in your dataset so that you can easily
identify data in Lucidchart, plus identify a column of information that is unique, like
our “task title” column so that no matter how many times you sort your data, add or
delete information, Lucid can always keep the correct data linked to the correct shape.
I can now reference all of the data from my spreadsheet right here in the data panel on
the right side of the editor and can start adding it to my diagram.
You have a few options for adding data to diagrams, and if you want to fully explore
those options I recommend watching our “Link Data to Diagrams” tutorial.
For this diagram, I want to link all of the data for a specific task to a corresponding
shape, then customize how that data appears in my shapes.
To do that, I’ll drag out the entire row of data for each task, and drop it on my shape.
When I drop the data on my shape, the top half of the data panel shows me all of the
data that’s now linked to my shape.
From here, I can customize how this data appears on my shape by using the “+T” button to
display that data on my shape.
In addition to the task description, I’ll add the label and name of task owners, approvers,
and any comments.
Once I’ve visualized the data I want on each shape, I can style it using the options
on the Properties Bar.
I’ll make my description bold and slightly bigger, italicize approvers, and put some
space above the comments section.
I can treat each of these data fields just like regular text, including things like putting
colons after labels like “Owner” and “Reviewer/Approver.”
Now it’s time to create shapes for the rest of the tasks in this project.
Instead of repeating the steps we just took all over again, I’ll save some time by creating
an exact clone of this shape by pressing and holding “alt” then clicking this shape
and dragging away from it.
I can also use copy/paste keyboard shortcuts or commands to do the same thing.
I can drag a new row of data onto my shape, click “replace” and in a matter of seconds
I have my second task visualized.
I’ll quickly do this for the rest of the tasks in my project.
The best part about these data linked shapes is that I don’t have to update information
in multiple places whenever something changes.
All I’ll do is update the information in my spreadsheet, replace my dataset in Lucidchart
so that I’m referencing the most current version of my spreadsheet, and the changes
I’ve made are then automatically pushed into Lucidchart.
We can further automate this diagram by using conditional formatting to trigger changes
to our shapes’ color, border, or special icons that indicate the status of certain
tasks.
For this diagram, I’d like to use shape color to indicate whether or not tasks have
been completed, are in progress, or are blocked.
I’ll create a quick shape key that shows the colors I want to use for each status,
then I’ll click the conditional formatting button at the bottom of the dock to start
creating conditional formatting rules.
Let’s first create a rule that changes the color of any task that is marked “Awaiting
Approval.”
I make it a habit to name my rules right away, so I’ll double click on the title at the
top of the panel and call this one “Awaiting Approval.”
The first step in the panel is choosing between shape formatting or icon sets to visually
represent the status of the tasks in my project.
Because I want to use shape color to show status, I’ll choose “shape formatting.”
Next, I need to tell Lucidchart where to look to see if this task is complete or not.
Because the status of each task is something I’m tracking in my spreadsheet, I’ll have
Lucidchart look at the “Shape Data” then the “Status” field, and finally, I want
this rule to apply if the status “Contains” the word “complete.”
In the “Shape Properties” section, I can determine the color and/or border style I
want Lucidchart to apply whenever it sees that a task is complete.
I’ll click on the fill color, then use the eyedropper tool to grab the color I’ve set
in my shape legend.
I’ll create a rule for each status in my project by clicking the three dot button on
my first rule, then clicking “duplicate” and changing the text in the “contains”
field, then changing the color for each rule.
When I’m done, I can select the individual shapes that I want to be part of my new conditional
formatting rules, or, because I’m always keen to do things a little bit faster, I’ll
just push CMD+A to select everything in my diagram, then drag each of these rules either
out on to the selected shapes, or up to the top part of the conditional formatting panel
in order to apply these rules to each of these selected shapes.
As you can see, once I’ve applied to rules, the color of each task changes to correspond
with its current status.
I can share this document with my team via Lucidchart, or even embed it in a Google Doc
with other project tasks, a PowerPoint if we have a deck we’re using to present status
updates, or even back in my Excel spreadsheet!
As the team make changes to our Excel spreadsheet, I can update my diagram by selecting the data
icon in the dock, click on the dropdown arrow next to my dataset, then click on the three
dots to the right of my Excel file and select “replace dataset.”
Make sure to “replace” instead of deleting and re-uploading - if you delete your original
dataset, you’ll have to remap your data to each shape.
But as you can see, I can quickly replace my dataset and see my updates automatically
applied in my diagram.
Just a quick note here as well, if you use Google Sheets as your data source, you can
get live updates to your dataset without having to replace anything.
Check out our video on data linking with Google Sheets by clicking this button.
There’s also a link to more resources in the video description.
One final strategy for making project tracking diagrams super efficient is to use custom
shapes and templates.
With just a few clicks, we can ensure that future project status diagrams only take a
few seconds to create.
First, I want to make a template so that my swimlanes, shape key, and conditional formatting
are all ready to go in each future project diagram I undertake.
I’ll go to the documents page and make a copy of our current project status diagram,
then click on the three dot button of this new diagram tile and click “convert to template.”
I’ll rename the diagram “Project Status Template,” and finally, I’ll click on
the three dots again to edit my template and make it a little more generic and user-friendly.
Before I delete all of these data linked shapes, I want to make sure I have an easy way to
access this same shape style and format for future projects.
To do that, I’ll open my shape manager by clicking the “shapes” button at the top
of the toolbox, then scroll down to “custom shapes.”
I can create my own custom shape library by entering a name for my new library and then
clicking the + button to create my new library.
When I push “save” and move back into the editor, my new library is available in
the toolbox.
Now I can drag one of my task shapes into my custom library, or right-click on the shape
and select “add to custom shape library”, name it, and see it appear in my new library.
When I pull it onto the canvas, its data values, formatting, and even conditional formatting
rules will automatically be applied each time I pull it out of my shape library.
This means that anytime I use it in the future, all I need to do is drag new data onto this
shape and it will be fully updated and ready to use.
Okay, let’s quickly clean up this diagram by deleting all of our old tasks, maybe putting
placeholder text in our swimlane headings, deleting our dataset, and perhaps adding some
quick instructions for how to use this diagram.
When I come back to the documents page, I can share this template with others on my
team, or use it to create my own “new” project based on my template.
When I click “new” Lucidchart creates a new document based on my template.
Now I can add a new dataset, drag out the shape in my custom shape library, and create
a new project status diagram super quick.
Check out our other videos for more ideas on how to visualize projects, data, processes,
really just about anything, using Lucidchart.