Capital Insight Pty Limited ABN Berry Street North Sydney NSW 2060 t f CI Training CI Standards – Use, Abuse and ***** July 2014

Overview Why? All document requirements Word documentsSpreadsheetsPrograms

Why have standards? Quality: – and compliance with our ISO 9001 – Quality Accreditation Teamwork: – to enable our colleagues to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, etc – to enable colleagues to understand and edit programs Efficiency: – best practice – focus on the message, not style Performance: – DPP evaluation – it’s important to us

All documents must have.. A client or project A description of what it is A date so it has context

Standard documents and templates list

Use the Word documents Benefits of the template? Headings Table formats – and data alignment Bullets Captions and cross-referencing (If you insert a diagram or table, explain the message the reader should get) Word

Use the Excel templates Benefits of the template? Insert the Client/Project in A1 Insert the Sheet title in A2 Insert the titles and copy the cell formatting Don’t insert blank columns – why? Don’t insert blank rows – why? – deepen the row and align the entries Use colouring that prints well and can be inserted into other documents (Word/PowerPoint) If a complex workbook, also: – provide a summary/contents page – provide a version control and instructions sheet Excel

MS Project template rules Project Benefits of the template? Start with the Project Information Enter a header Enter the givens (milestones) at the top Enter the tasks (actions with durations) in less than 6-7 words Insert milestones (status with 0 day durations) Link the tasks (predecessors) with lags A critical path? Avoid – Hanging tasks – Fixed starts, finishes

Guide to good presentations Open with an Overview (try using Smart Art) Tell the messages in the slide titles Use tables and relevant graphics if possible Limit the ‘death by bullet points’: – only 6-8 per slide – less than 10 words per point – not more than 3 bullet point slides in a row Graphics fonts must be legible Close with Conclusion Delete slide when finished

Standard contracts

Conclusions and discussion Templates provide a ‘head start’? They reduce inefficiency? They enable collaboration? They get you a better DPP review outcome…..