Large finance projects often have hard deadlines with complex nested requirements. But you can completely school that challenge by organizing with a Gantt chart. Add in the hassles of dealing with a demanding mandatory topic list, and a lot of information that relies on previously-taught information, and you've got a challenge. Trying to keep track of who is teaching what to who when is so complicated that even this sentence was hard to read. Construction hasn't gotten any easier today, so if you're juggling multiple contractors and trying to keep track of dozens of tasks, it's Gantt to the rescue. Massive projects like the Hoover Dam and various interstate highways made use of Gantt charts to ensure that sufficient resources were allocated to each task, and that any tasks with dependencies were handled appropriately. Common usesĬonstruction projects were some of the earliest uses for Gantt charts. But leaving that aside, a Gantt chart simply charts what tasks need doing, when they are scheduled to be done, and how far along they have progressed. And stand proudly.Īdvanced features in Gantt charts include Milestone marker diamonds that indicate important milestones (such as the Project Start above), and Dependencies indicated by lines linking multiple tasks together, when starting one task relies upon the completion of another. The shading on a bar indicates the progress towards completion, so you can see at a glance exactly where you stand. On the right, you'll see bars over time where each bar represents a specific task and the length represents the start and end dates. The left-hand side of the chart is your main Task list, which is a full list of all your main tasks, associated sub-tasks, start and end dates, and progress status. Once you know what you're looking at, a Gantt chart is no more difficult to read than a TV Guide. How do I read that Gantt chart template?ĭon't panic. Gantt charts give you an overview of the whole project with current progress reports on all relevant tasks, allowing you to instantly provide accurate status reports upon request, or reschedule tasks and reassign resources while keeping the larger project on track. If you expect all parts of your projects to proceed exactly as planned and on schedule, you may not have a lot of experience as a project manager. And a Gantt chart will let you update your team's current progress instantly, creating a chart that anyone can read for up-to-the-minute progress reports on your entire project. With our software, simply entering information on the task list will automagically update the chart to reflect your changes, allowing you to update your resource allocations and schedules without messing with complex reports. That's how Gantt charts help managers manage. More importantly, it lets you see when the task behind schedule is being held up by another task it depends on, and re-assign resources to compensate. But not every task requires the dependency function you might prefer to have design finalized before starting your advertising push, but if deadlines get tight, you can advertise before design is finished.Ī Gantt chart combines an itemized task list on the left with a charted timeline and progress tracker on the right, allowing you to see at a glance where you are, where you should be, and what's behind schedule. you can't start painting until you have bought paint. Setting up dependencies in your Gantt chart template can be useful for absolute dependencies, e.g. But breaking tasks down too far into small pieces creates unnecessary bureaucratic overhead. Listing sub-tasks for each phase is good. You want the main phases of your project represented in your Gantt chart template, but with an appropriate amount of detail. This makes them a good fit for complex, multi-phased projects with teams simultaneously working on many sub-tasks, but a bad fit for simpler projects or projects with only one worker, which could use a more basic Project Plan Template. * Does this project actually need a Gantt chart template?Īs you may notice, Gantt charts are complex. Okay, you've got this free Gantt chart template, so now what do you do with it? Well, sometimes the most important parts of putting together your Gantt chart are the decisions you make before you type in a single task.
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