Using the wrong tool – Excel

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Few things make me scratch my head more than people who insist upon using lousy tools way outside their envelope.

Case in point:

Product Requirements Document done in Excel.  While there are a few positives, like easy to prioritize, and re-order lists, it is too constraining.  Not enough space in a cell to really explain what is needed (I know, you should break them into smaller pieces, but sometimes, something is so fundamental, it can’t)

Competitive Analysis in Excel.  Again, there are pro’s:  Easy to create lists.  Easy to match across a row features that are related.  Can be formatted into a pretty table for insertion into a PowerPoint presentation.

Meeting minutes captured in Powerpoint.  There is nothing worse than a 2K text file being blown up into a 2 megabyte presentation to capture the minutes and actions, then sent to the team.  Really, Microsoft OneNote is a perfect vehicle to do this.  Or Notepad. Or, if you are a Mac-phile, TextWrangler or BBEDIT.  Sigh.

I wonder if anyone reads these posterous posts anymore.

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geoffand

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By geoffand

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