BENEFITS OF GANTT CHART

1. Clarity
One of the biggest benefits of a Gantt chart is the tool's ability to boil down multiple tasks and
timelines into a single document. Stakeholders throughout an organization can easily understand
where teams are in a process while grasping the ways in which independent elements come together
toward project completion.
2. Communication
Teams can use Gantt charts to replace meetings and enhance other status updates. Simply
clarifying chart positions offers an easy, visual method to help team members understand task
progress.
3. Motivation
Some teams or team members become more effective when faced with a form of external
motivation. Gantt charts offer teams the ability to focus work at the front of a task timeline, or at the
tail end of a chart segment. Both types of team members can find Gantt charts meaningful as they plug
their own work habits into the overall project schedule.
4. Coordination
For project managers and resource schedulers, the benefits of a Gantt chart include the ability to
sequence events and reduce the potential for overburdening team members. Some project managers
even use combinations of charts to break down projects into more manageable sets of tasks.
5. Creativity
Sometimes, a lack of time or resources forces project managers and teams to find creative
solutions. Seeing how individual tasks intertwine on Gantt charts often encourages new partnerships
and collaborations that might not have evolved under traditional task assignment systems.
6. Time Management
Most managers regard scheduling as one of the major benefits of Gantt charts in a creative
environment. Helping teams understand the overall impact of project delays can foster stronger
collaboration while encouraging better task organization.
7. Flexibility
Whether you use Excel to generate Gantt charts or you load tasks into a more precise chart
generator, the ability to issue new charts as your project evolves lets you react to unexpected changes
in project scope or timeline. While revising your project schedule too frequently can eliminate some of
the other benefits of Gantt charts, offering a realistic view of a project can help team members recover
from setbacks or adjust to other changes.
8. Manageability
For project managers handling complex assignments, like software publishing or event planning,
the benefits of Gantt charts include externalizing assignments. By visualizing all of the pieces of a
project puzzle, managers can make more focused, effective decisions about resources and timetables.
9. Efficiency
Another one of the benefits of Gantt charts is the ability for teams members to leverage each
other’s deadlines for maximum efficiency. For instance, while one team member waits on the outcome
of three other tasks before starting a crucial piece of the assignment, he or she can perform other
project tasks. Visualizing resource usage during projects allows managers to make better use of people,
places, and things.
10. Accountability
When project teams face major organizational change, documenting effort and outcomes
becomes crucial to career success. Using Gantt charts during critical projects allows both project
managers and participants to track team progress, highlighting both big wins and major failures. During
 professional review periods, team members who frequently exceed expectations can leverage this
documentation into larger raises or bonuses.

BENEFITS OF GANTT CHART

1. Always know what’s going on in your projects
Project managers have a basic need: complete knowledge of a project’s timeline. Using a Gantt
chart is the best response to this need. Creating a Gantt chart provides total overview of the project from
start to finish, the members involved in each step, and all the tasks required to complete the project.
Once your project’s Gantt chart is complete, you now have a grip on the project. You can see it
and visualize the steps to completion.

2. Easily communicate the project plan with your team

Communication is critical in any project, and that’s one of the biggest advantages of Gantt charts
— crystal clear communication.
If everyone can see the project’s Gantt chart, then everyone can be on the same page by setting
clear task dates and important project milestones.

3. Prevent resource overload

Within a Gantt chart, you can delegate tasks to different people and align team resources without
overloading people in the process. When resources are properly managed, a project is more likely to be
completed on time.

4. Track the progress of your project

Once you schedule your project in a Gantt chart, you have the ability to check in and see how the
project is progressing. By using a Gantt chart, everyone on your project can update the percent complete
of each of their tasks. This provides a quick view of how far behind or (in a rare case) ahead of schedule
your project is.

5. Free up brain space

Once you have a plan in a Gantt chart, you can start working towards getting tasks done. There’s
no need to stress about remembering the next steps, who is doing what, or what may have been
forgotten. Everything is in the Gantt chart. You can now focus your precious time, effort, and brainpower
on actual work.

6. Give your team more clarity and motivation

Members of a project can see when they need to get their tasks done. They can also see if future
tasks depend on them. When others see exactly what their role is in a project and how others depend on
them, it provides real motivation!

7. Provide accountability and coaching

Good project managers use more carrots than sticks. And nobody likes a micromanager. But in
the world of project management, it pays to know what your team is up to.
Gantt charts help you do that. A few simple clicks will show you how tasked up a team member
is, who has a lot of time on their hands, and who might need a few more carrots.
Visualizing this information in a beautiful heatmap helps project managers keep their team
accountable and provide some mentoring along the way.

8. Identify ways to reduce costs

 A Gantt chart is much more than a glorified calendar. The reasons why PMs love Gantt charts is
because they provide a whole suite of features that make them better managers.
One of the best features? The ability to reduce costs.
Wouldn’t your client love it if you were able to tell them, “We delivered your project under
budget.” Seriously, how many times does that happen?
When you as the project manager have total oversight of the resources, timelines, dependencies,
and start-to-finish visualization, magic happens. Okay, it’s not exactly magic (it’s science). But the simple
fact is this: A Gantt chart shows you management opportunities to lower the overall cost of your project.

9. Complete projects ahead of schedule

Have you ever looked at a map and found a shortcut to where you were going? You locate Point
A and Point B, then you spot a way to get to your destination faster!
A Gantt chart is like a map. This map makes it easy to see those project shortcuts. Simple changes
produce big results — like slashing a week or month off a project.
Besides making you look good (way to go, PM!), it makes pretty much everyone happy.

10. Become ridiculously productive

Some people think that productivity is the result of insane drive and genius time management
hacks. And they’re right.
But that’s not all. In a team context, productivity is the result of having the right systems, software,
and processes in place. Gantt charts are the ideal tool for teams to amp up their productivity — allowing
them to work together seamlessly, efficiently, and successfully.

ADVANTAGES OF GANTT CHART

 It is easy to understand
 It gives clarity of dates
 It enables time management
 It brings efficiency
 It ensures accountability in terms of timeline
 It expects coordination among stakeholders in order to deliver things as per Gantt timeline

DISADVANTAGES OF GANTT CHART

 Tedious if one need to keep it updating regularly
 Can become unmanageable for detailed project plan
 Unclear amount of work expected
 Not easy to view everything on a single paper

PARTS OF GANTT CHART

Here are nine key components of Gantt charts.

1. Dates
Dates are displayed along the top. One of the main components of a Gantt chart, the dates allow
project managers to see not only when the entire project will begin and end, but also when each task will
take place.
2. Tasks
Tasks are listed down the left side. Large projects always consist of a large number of sub-tasks.
A Gantt chart helps project managers keep track of all of the sub-tasks in a project, so nothing is forgotten
or delayed.

3. Bars
Bars are used to represent the time frame each task is expected to take. Once the sub-tasks have
been listed, bars are used to show exactly when each sub-task should take place. This helps ensure that
every sub-task is done on schedule so that the entire project will be completed on time.

4. Milestones
Milestones are those tasks that are instrumental to a project's completion and success. Unlike the
minor details, which also have to be done, completing a milestone offers a sense of satisfaction and
forward motion. On a Gantt chart, milestones are displayed as diamonds (or, sometimes, a different
shape) at the end of a particular taskbar.

5. Small Arrows
While some of your tasks can be done at any time, others must be completed before or after
another sub-task can begin or end. These dependencies are indicated by small arrows between the task
bars on a Gantt chart.

6. Task Bars
While many sub-tasks can be completed fairly quickly, there will be plenty of times when you will
want to see at a glance exactly how your project is coming along. This can be accomplished by shading
the task bars to represent the portion of each task that has already been completed.

7. Vertical Line Marker / Timeline Marker

Another way to see your project's process at a glance, a vertical line marker indicates the current
date on the chart. It helps you manage your time effectively as you can see at a glance how much you
have left to do and see if you are on track to complete the project on time.

8. Task ID
In today's fast-paced business world, you likely have several tasks going on at the same time.
Including the task ID on the Gantt chart helps everyone involved to quickly identify the task you are talking
about.

9. Resources
While not every Gantt chart lists the names of the people who will be working on it, if your project
will be completed by a number of individuals, listing names and the tasks that are assigned to them can
be incredibly helpful.
When managing a project, you need to make sure all of the individual tasks are completed in a
timely and efficient manner. A Gantt chart will help you do just that.

STEPS IN MAKING GANTT CHART

Step 1: Identify Essential Tasks
Gantt charts don't give useful information unless they include all of the activities needed for a
project or project phase to be completed. So, to start, list all of these activities. Use a work breakdown
structure if you need to establish what the tasks are. Then, for each task, note its earliest start date and
its estimated duration.

Step 2: Identify Task Relationships

The chart shows the relationship between the tasks in a project. Some tasks will need to be
completed before you can start the next one, and others can't end until preceding ones have ended.
 Linear Tasks – These tasks are dependent on the other tasks. You have to complete the first task
in order to start the another task. Also called Sequential Tasks.
 Parallel Tasks – These kind of tasks can be done at the same time as the other tasks.
Identify which of your project's tasks are parallel, and which are sequential. Where tasks are
dependent on others, note down the relationship between them. This will give you a deeper
understanding of how to organize your project, and it will help when you start scheduling activities on the
chart.

Step 3: Input Activities Into Software Or a Template

You can draw your charts by hand or use specialist software, such as Gantto, Matchware, or
Microsoft Project. Some of these tools are cloud-based, meaning that you and your team can access the
document simultaneously, from any location. (This helps a lot when you're discussing, optimizing, and
reporting on a project.)
Several Gantt templates have been created for Microsoft Excel, and you can also find free
templates with a quick search online.

Step 4: Chart Progress

As your project moves along, it will evolve. For example, in our scenario, if quality assurance of
core modules revealed a problem, then you may need to delay training, and halt development of the
management information system until the issue is resolved.
Update your chart to reflect changes as soon as they occur. This will help you to keep your plans,
your team, and your sponsors up to date.