Gantt Charting: Definition, Benefits, and How They're Used

Various project planning tools are available in today’s project-oriented world. Different companies at present utilize different project management methodologies. Due to this, relying on one project planning tool can become harder for everyone. Fortunately, Gantt charting has appeared as one of the best project planning and management solutions.

Regardless of your project planning methodology, Gantt charts can make it easier to set up, assign, and track your tasks efficiently. A Gantt chart is a great tool to use for making project planning and management easier. Above all, there are certain ad-hoc that this solution cans solve for you. If you don’t know much about Gantt charting, don’t worry. This article is a guide to learn everything about Gantt charts. 

Introduction to Gantt charting: Definition

Gantt charts refer to a graphical representation of a project schedule. It is a unique bar chart type that shows different project elements' start and finish dates. These elements typically include project tasks, resources, dependencies, duration, etc.

A popular mechanical engineer from America Henry Gantt designed this technique.

Gantt charts have become the most commonly used tool in project management. The fact is truer, especially for multiple good reasons. These reasons typically include:

·   Planning projects

·   Setting up tasks

·   Defining task sequences

·   Setting dependencies, and much more.

Typically, Gantt charts come in horizontal representations of information. It contains horizontal bars of varying lengths representing different tasks and their scheduling in the project timeline. These horizontal bars can include task duration, sequence, and timeline from start to finish.

The length of a task bar in Gantt charts represents the timeline to complete that task. The team members have to complete the task accordingly.

Even though creating Gantt charts in Excel or Google Sheets can be tricky, however, now you don’t need to take that complex route. It is because various Gantt charts tools are now available out there to make the process easier. Tools like Instagantt have made creating Gantt charts and managing your products simple, easier, and more efficient. Now you can use Gantt charts to track the progress of your project quickly.

What are Gantt charts used for?

Gantt charts are one of the best tools that helps to visualize different tasks and projects occurring simultaneously within your company. These charts will also help you to see how long your project has gone from its beginning time. In addition, management teams also use Gantt charts to schedule and plan their projects efficiently. It ultimately helps them to allocate project resources more accurately.

Besides that, Gantt charts also provide a clearer view of dependencies in your project. You can, therefore, easily decide which task you should prioritize more optimally.

In short, Gantt charts are widely used for project tasks and resource scheduling, managing, and tracking. A Gantt chart will present your project timeline, including completed and scheduled tasks for a certain period.

Gantt charts help project managers to communicate their project schedules, current status, and task completion rate within a project. The practice will also help you stay on track.

Due to its multiple uses, the Gantt chart has become a standard tool to ensure unified communication among project managers and their teams.

Key benefits of Gantt charting you must know.

Do you want to know why Gantt charts are beneficial for you? Let's learn about some benefits of Gantt charts here to understand things better.

So, here we go:

1. Clear visualization of the project

The most important advantage of Gantt charts is that they provide big-picture visualization for your projects. The charts typically include all the details about a project. The information typically includes:

·   Different tasks of the project

·   Members who are responsible for performing a certain task

·   Duration in which the team needs to complete a task

·   Dependencies of tasks, and more.

Gantt charts contain a prominently visualized timeline. So, when planning a schedule, you can’t miss anything. Instead, you will have complete details of even the most critical aspects of project management.

2. Improved communication and cohesion in the team

We all know that communication is the key to success in project management. Lack of communication can be the biggest cause of a project's failure. Fortunately, Gantt charts can offer an amazing solution to clearly communicate with your team about their tasks, responsibilities, deadlines, etc.

Project managers can use Gantt charts to provide clear instructions on who will perform which task. They can also keep all the project members on the same page and pass relevant information timely to keep their team members updated.

It will not only help everyone to understand their particular duties and responsibilities but also help in improving teamwork and team building.

3. Better resource planning

Gantt charts are also beneficial to schedule and plan tasks and project resources more efficiently. The project managers or team leaders can better view their available resources’ capacity. Ultimately, they can assign and withdraw project resources accordingly.

In addition, Gantt charts can even help redistribute resources to avoid resource overload.

A quick overview of Gantt charts can help project managers to empower their resource planning. They can make more informed decisions based on resource availability, utility, and performance.

4. Improved task management

It is easier for project managers to lose track when working on multiple tasks and projects simultaneously. Fortunately, Gantt charts can keep the headache away here. Gantt charts can make task management super simple and easier for project managers.

You can easily manage tasks, dependencies, and checklist items using Gantt charts. In addition, it will also become easier for team members to focus on their particular tasks and put their efforts into making the overall project a great success for the company.

5. Efficient project progress tracking

The key objective of Gantt charting is to track the project's progress over time. The Gantt charts visualize all project management aspects in one place. The solution will make it easier to see in which phase your project currently is and how long it will take to complete.

6. Better productivity of the team

As mentioned earlier, Gantt charts provide real-time information about the project's progress.

·   Due to this, every team member knows the timeline in which they have to complete their tasks. As a result, it will become easier to track your project and keep the entire team well-informed.

·   The practice will help everyone to stay aligned with the timeline and current needs of the project. It will ultimately result in improving productivity at the team level.

·   In addition, Gantt charts also enable each team member to adopt accountability and transparency.

The latest Gantt charting tools also allow setting reminders or notifications for different project milestones. So that you can keep your team focused on a project.

7. Manage complex project management information easily.

Most importantly, Gantt charting has made it easier to manage even complex projects efficiently. A project with multiple tasks can be harder to manage on paper or an Excel sheet. Fortunately, Gantt charts can make managing your projects easier, even with a hundred tasks.

A Gantt chart is always helpful to summarize any project into multiple pieces of information. This information can play a vital role in decision-making processes.

We all understand that tracking linked tasks can be the most difficult part of project management. However, Gantt charts have made the process easier. It will let you define dependencies with every task. You can even set custom colors for every taskbar to make things easier to understand, even at a glance.

8. Increased accuracy of tasks scheduling

It can get trickier to estimate project timelines. It is because you must consider tasks that can be done separately and those dependent on another task. For this, you can set dependencies in Gantt charts.

The practice can even help you quickly identify any conflict or problem in your project management. It will ensure that you have more reliable project plans than ever before.

Above all, Gantt charts will also keep you from making false client commitments. Otherwise, it will put the reputation of your company at risk.

9. Balance multiple projects easily.

A Gantt chart can help project managers to schedule, plan, and even track multiple projects simultaneously. Due to this, it will become easier for project managers to balance their work without overburdening their team. It is mainly because Gantt charts Software can help managers to allocate the right resources to the right team member at the right time.

Above all, Gantt charts can help you set realistic project expectations and deadlines.

Final Thoughts

From simple task scheduling to complex project planning, Gantt charting has become the most helpful solution ever. It provides a comprehensive overview of a certain project's essential details. In addition, you can keep tracking your project’s progress live. The live project tracking will make rescheduling tasks or redistributing resources easier for optimal efficiency.

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