Why To Use Gantt Chart For Your Next Project?

Gantt chart software has helped many teams. But are they still effective? Here are some key benefits and limitations of using a Gantt chart in project management.

By Vartika Kashyap

Should You Use (Or Not Use) Gantt Chart For Your Next Project?

The art of project management has been in existence for a long time. Still, every new project brings a new set of challenges for project managers. These challenges range from unrealistic deadlines to a disinterested team member. Many studies have looked into the reasons why projects fail—and in most cases, a project team fails to achieve what it sets out to achieve due to: unclear project objectives, poor project planning/scheduling, and lack of communication.

Now, the question is—What can be done about it? How can you be sure that your next project will move successfully from start to finish?

In this article, I am going to tell you how a Gantt chart tool can help you (and your team) get control over many aspects of project management and ensure that the project is completed on schedule.

Gantt Chart Definition

A Gantt chart, in project management, is one of the most accurate ways to visualize, plan, and schedule various activities in a project against time. Wikipedia defines it as “a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.” The bar chart provides a clear illustration of all the tasks and milestones involved in a project along with key details like—sub-tasks, start date, due date, dependencies, progress and more.

Below is a very basic example of what a Gannt chart looks like.

7 Good Reasons To Use A Gantt Chart For Project Management

When managing a project, you often struggle to predict the duration and resources for the project. As a result, you put in extra hours to meet project goals and experience heavy workload. The best way to solve this problem is to visualize every individual task required to complete the project against its duration and dependencies. And a Gantt chart can help you do that. Mentioned below are some insights to prove how powerful a Gantt chart tool be can in project management.

Do you need a reason to use a Gantt chart in your next project? We’ll give you seven.

• To represent the project visually

There is a huge difference between writing down every project requirement on an excel sheet or Word document and visualizing them in a graph. Gantt charts are designed to eliminate the tedious explanation involved in planning and monitoring a project. It makes complex information more manageable—allowing you to see the start and finish date, duration, priority and resource allocation of each task in the project at a glance. Moreover, you can check the exact progress of each task via progress percentage and keep up with the time. By letting you visualize your projects, Gantt charts allow you to keep an eye on the feasibility of your schedule and make appropriate adjustments in time.

• To set realistic schedules

Planning a project in mind usually leads to vague and ambiguous project expectations. However, when you put a plan together using a Gantt chart, you go deeper into the details to make things clear. You consider factors that affect the priority and practicability within the project. All this results in having a more realistic project schedule and avoiding any kind of delays that may come into notice.

• To understand dependencies between tasks

Planning your projects the traditional way i.e. by using a calendar is adequate for plotting tasks. But there is one problem – traditional project calendars do not show dependencies between tasks. You don’t have any idea of how a preceding task impacts the one that follows. Now, to plan a realistic schedule, it is important for you to know if a task is dependent on another one. Understanding task dependencies is one of the key advantages of using Gantt chart software. A Gantt chart is structured in a way to help you better understand how tasks flow and interact within the project.

• To identify your project’s Critical Path

Unexpected things come up during project management – it happens all the time. Do you know what that means? Well, that means there is still room for a little improvement in your project timeline and you need to make some quick changes in time to stay on track. The best way to do that is by using your project’s critical path in the Gantt chart. If your project is falling behind, you can simply trace the string of dependent project activities and identify the tasks that are putting your project at risk of finishing late. Gantt charts allow you to stay agile and quickly adjust to shifting deadlines during different stages of a project life cycle.

• To distribute work more effectively across resources

As mentioned above, Gantt charts make complex project information more manageable by clear visualization of projects and the tasks involved. The kind of visibility these Gantt charts provide helps project managers and leaders save a lot of time – not only while explaining the project to the team but also while assigning tasks to each team member. Gantt charts make it easy for project managers to get clarity of the project breakdown, thus making everyone clear about their role and distributing various project activities within the team without making anyone feel overworked.

• To ensure clarity and good communication

Besides making project planning easy, Gantt charts also help to engage the team and establish accountability. With Gantt chart, everyone has a clear idea of everyone’s role in the project, thereby, enabling them to coordinate project activities and communicate effectively with each other to get the project completed on schedule. It makes clear how various tasks are interrelated and how important it is to set mutually understood expectations to meet specific objectives. In all, using a Gantt chart allows teams to have the same information and have fewer chances of misunderstandings.

• To manage multiple projects at once

Having more than one project on your plate is like an everyday situation for any team these days. It almost seems impossible to keep track of everything, especially when you are using a single calendar to view all your tasks and deadlines. Gantt charts can make it easy to manage multiple projects at once.

You can use any Gantt chart software to create separate Gantt charts for separate projects and even understand how they fit together. Not only is this approach less cumbersome, but it is also time-saving. You don’t need to manage 10 different projects on 10 different calendars. You can follow a more streamlined approach and manage your workload/resources effectively with the help of technology and automation in 2019.

Doubts And Drawbacks In Using Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are not perfect. Here are some common doubts and disadvantages that you may come across when you use Gantt charts.

• Sometimes, it can be overly complicated

There will be times when you will realize that Gantt charts work best in terms of small projects with fewer tasks and resources. In terms of a complex project with an overly complicated set of tasks, Gantt charts can often stretch to multiple pages—which further increases the complexity instead of simplifying things. If your project is too complex (even for a Gantt chart), then try using a project management software with Gantt chart functionality—it will help you declutter and simplify your projects without the need of switching screens.

• It is often time-consuming to manage and update

Another major disadvantage of using a Gantt chart in project management is that they need to be updated frequently. Things can get a lot harder if you’re creating Gantt charts the old-fashioned way i.e. on a Word document or in Excel. Deadlines shift during the course of a project and it is easier to keep up with the shifting deadlines and priorities when you are using project management software.

• It does not show the amount of work required

You probably already know that TIME is the main focus of a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart focuses on providing a visual representation of the time period over which a task will be completed. It doesn’t provide clarity over how much work is required to complete a specific task. This makes it a bit difficult for managers to know how many resources will be needed to complete any given task.

Now that you know a bit more about why you should (and shouldn’t) use Gantt charts in project management, hopefully, you have a better chance at planning and delivering your projects successfully. Remember, like any other tool, Gantt chart has a few limitations. However, that doesn’t change the fact that a Gantt chart software should be complementary to your arsenal of project management tools. Balance out these limitations by using Gantt charts to its strength and you will definitely be able to reap all the above-mentioned benefits in your next project.

Good luck!

Author Bio

Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2018. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.

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