Four Quadrant Bubble Chart in Excel?

[aww91]

Hello,

Looking for help on creating a four-quadrant bubble chart in Excel that
will depicts a Project Portfolio along the axes of Risk and Potential
Benefits. This is a common diagram used in Portfolio Management to
visualize how projects compare to one another (Four-quadrant BCG -
Star, Cash Cow, Dog, and Wildcat).

My question is can this chart be created in Excel. If not, can anyone
recommend a charting program or add-in to accomplish what I described.

Thank you for your attention,

 

[Jon Peltier]

You can do the quadrants with a technique like this:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ColoredQuadrantBackground.html

A bubble chart type cannot be combined with other chart types, so you can't
use an official bubble chart with this background. But for a small amount of
work, you can simulate the effect. Make the quad chart with an XY series
overlay. Then make circles in the worksheet in the sizes that you need. Copy
one, then select a point (two single clicks, one for the series, one for the
point) and paste. This replaces the point's data marker with the pasted
shape. Repeat with different size bubbles for the other points. This can be
automated as well:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;139662

The person writing the macro couldn't figure out how to create a bubble
chart in VBA (put the .ChartType = xlBubble line after the .SetSourceData
line to correct the macro recorder code), so s/he wrote a macro that made
use of the custom marker capability of Excel's XY charts.

- Jon

 

[Tushar Mehta]

You don't need to do anything special. As long as you have -ve values, XL
will automatically adjust a bubble chart to include the corr. -ve axis.

Of course, you may need to set the axes max/min values to by symmetric. To
do that, double click each axis one at a time and from the Scale tab set the
max. and min. values appropriately.

--
Regards,

Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
Excel, PowerPoint, and VBA add-ins, tutorials
Custom MS Office productivity solutions

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

Another option, which will allow retention of bubble chart, would be to
create a image which can be used as the plotarea fill.
I used MS Paint to create a 4 colour quadrent. Then as long as the chart
is divided evenly the effect works quite well.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guest]

Hello:
I am not sure if you need coloured quadrants. This can be done in Excel, by
plotting against yr variables on a 0-100% scale, i.e. yr Risk 0-100% and yr
Potential Benefits 0-100%. Take yr project size as parameter for yr bubble
diameter. In the plot area you cld choose a graded two-colour e.g. from red
to white diagonally, to visualise the attractiveness of the project, or use
the somewhat more elaborative yet elegant mechanisms Jon and Andy mentioned.
The size of the bubble gives a feel for the importance of yr project. This
principle can also be used to display products (bubble size is market share
or annual revenues), with market attractiveness and business position on the
XY axes. You cld even take it one step further and add arrows to the bubbles
to show which way it is heading at (with a combination chart).
HTH, GL,
Henk

 

[Ed Ferrero]

You can also download the 'BCG Matrix' chart from
http://www.edferrero.com/charting.aspx

This uses some of the techniques described by the previous replies to build
a bubble chart with quadrants. The upside for you is that this sample is
already set up to do classic BCG analysis.

There you go - a five MVP answer, you have to be happy with that :^)

Ed Ferrero

 

[aww91]

Outstanding! Thank you, and all the other contributors.

 

[Jon Peltier]

I meant to point out that the bubble variable shouldn't be used to try to
convey precise information to the audience. Judging values by area in one of
the worst ways a human can do it, with colors being about the only worse
approach. While it sounds like a great idea, you really can't do much better
than Small-Medium-Large.

- Jon