Gantt chart: an excellent tool to manage tasks
Collaboration
Productivity
The Gantt chart was first created in the mid-1890s by Polish engineer Karol Adamiecki, who called it a harmonogram and developed it as a method of graphically presenting interdependent processes in order to improve the visibility of schedules. Fifteen years later, an American engineer, Henry Gantt, created his own version of the chart and popularized it into the chart we know today, which bears his name.
Its popularity increased because of the efficiency it provides throughout an entire project development process. The advantages that stand out the most about its implementation are:
1. Planning: Helps project managers plan the tasks required to complete a project and establish a realistic and achievable schedule.
2. Scheduling: Allows PMs to schedule tasks and resources efficiently,avoiding task scheduling conflicts and maximizing the use of available resources.
3. Follow-up: Allows continuous monitoring of the progress of the project, which allows possible delays or deviations from the original plan to be detected in time.
4. Communication: Excellent tool for communicating the project plan to all stakeholders, including project team members, project sponsors, and clients.
5. Decision Making: Helps project managers make informed decisions, including resource allocation, task rescheduling, and potential risk identification.
How does a Gantt chart work?
As we mentioned, the diagram is generally used for project management, since it allows visualization of how tasks and projects progress over a certain period of time. Its visualization is usually structured by: projects, tasks, month, year and weeks of work. Now, we will show you an example of this chart in Workdeck’s platform:
In the left side of the image, there are the tasks or activities that are part of a project.
Using Workdeck’s Gantt chart, you can see who are the employees assigned to each task, the time scheduled and the time already worked on each task.
At the top, there is a timeline that spans the length of the project. In this case, the project can be viewed by month, but if desired, the project can be analyzed by day or week.
Each task is assigned a time frame and then a bar is built to delimit the start and end of the task. There are many variants of this diagram, and in the case of Workdeck, it was created to make project and task management even easier. Each color has a meaning , milestones and problems can be also marked in order to have a holistic vision of each project.
As we can see, the Gantt chart has the ability to show in a single image the duration of projects and tasks, the relationship between them, objectives to be completed and possible risks.
Workdeck’s Gantt chart is synchronized with the Kanban chart (you can read more about this tool in the article: The Kanban methodology: a tool to optimize work) and with the calendar. In this way, any change or modification made to the platform will always be reflected in the diagram.
Finally, Workdeck also provides the ability to attach files, have conversations and leave comments, all from the Gantt chart so that each user can have full knowledge of the status of projects and tasks.
As we mentioned, there are many variants of the Gantt chart and it is important to use one that fits the needs of the company and allows employees to be more efficient and effective. If you want to try Workdeck’s Gantt chart, feel free to request your free trial of the platform here!
