What are Gantt charts?
A Gantt chart is an all-in-one scheduling, budgeting, and reporting application tool that uses bar charts to track and monitor that helps in project management. The toolbars simplify the visual perception of the time taken by each step of a project to complete and what will be the subsequent steps of the project. They can be both simple as well as complex. Daily monitoring of progress in a project allows project managers to identify fields that require attention.
Henry Laurence Gantt, who was not only a management consultant but also an engineer, sketched a chart to help manufacturing administrators visualize their work schedules. Over time, this primary sketch underwent many modifications and then transformed into Gantt charts. Hence Henry Gantt is acknowledged as the founder of Gantt Chart and henceforth the name.
Due to the simplicity and ease-of-access of important data of Gantt charts, it is widely used in project management and is the perfect option for project teams to use them for organizing work schedules. Apart from project management, you can also use Gantt charts in marketing, engineering, product launch, and manufacturing teams can acquire an overview of the development of tasks in a project.
Benefits that Gantt charts in project management
Monitoring project tasks:
One significant advantage of using Gantt charts in project management is that you can monitor the tasks of the project sitting at a single place. It serves as a visualization application tool that provides the entire overview of the project. It informs crucial data regarding how many members you require in each step of the project, the order in which you have to complete the tasks, duration of each task, approximate beginning and end dates, and the progression of each task. Therefore, Gantt charts are a necessary application tool that equips project managers with the data they need to overview while managing projects.
Improves team communication and cohesion:
Communication is a fundamental component of any successful project. Lack of proper communication and cohesion among team members and managers are the biggest reasons for project failures. With Gantt charts, project managers can get to know which member is working on what, and it is easier to assign tasks and give feedback. It eradicates the requirement of maintaining a separate software tool for tracking and communicating with the team members.
Avoid resource overload:
Gantt charts allow using the resources optimally by providing a project’s timeline where the project manager can easily track how and where you are using your resources. You can delegate appropriate tasks among the team members aligning the resources in such a way without overburdening a single person with too much work. When you distribute resources effectively, you can complete projects within budget and deadlines.
Progress on the project can be measured:
You can track the progress report of a project in a Gantt chart. It adds flexibility to the project, making it possible to change the strategy if the progress report is lagging behind its schedule. This data is very beneficial to determine if you are supervising the project on the right track or not.
Control task dependencies and overlapping of activities:
A new task cannot be assigned to a member unless another task that is dependent on the former is complete. The tasks stack up, and you fail to complete the project within the deadline. Using Gantt charts, project managers can effortlessly view which tasks are dependent on whom and schedule them in a manner that they don’t affect the overall development of the project and team members share equal responsibility.
Better time management:
For a project to be successful, it is imperative to manage time efficiently and complete the tasks within the assigned deadline. Gantt charts help to schedule work and distribute resources more efficiently, thus reducing delays in each step of the project. A project manager can easily allocate time to each task and execute it with perfection when he/she has an overview of the progress of the project.
Facilitates to work with a remote team and encourage them:
It is not easy working with a remote team. It becomes very difficult to coordinate, communicate, and assign tasks to the remote members. A Gantt chart allows the members to visualize the completed tasks, the ongoing tasks, and pending tasks. It contains all information, such as you have assigned which task to whom, thus decreasing the communication barrier during the project management regardless of the country or time zone they are in.
Creates a sense of responsibility and accountability:
Using Gantt charts while project management allows both project managers and team members to track the progress of the project highlighting milestones and major drawbacks. It helps to create a sense of accountability and responsibility among the project managers as well as team members. It also helps in increasing productivity and motivating them, which results in the completion of the project effectively.
Encourages flexibility into the project:
Everything might work in a project as planned. It is crucial for success to make flexible project strategies. Gantt charts add flexibility to the project, making it feasible to adjust strategies if the progress of the project is lagging behind its estimated schedule. It helps the team members to reach reaching the desired goal.
Promotes transparency:
Transparency among team members and project managers is very important to make a project successful. There should be mutual trust in the workspace among team members and the project manager to maintain a healthy work environment. A Gantt chart helps in making team members and project managers aware of each other’s responsibilities and duties in a project. It shows each team member’s progress in the project at a single place so that every member is aware of each other’s responsibilities and help those who may be struggling to accomplish their work. This kind of transparency in the workspace further encourages team members for cooperation, honesty, and humility within the team.
