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What are the Benefits of using the Gantt Chart in Project Management?

It’s never easy managing a project. In fact, it is very challenging and the project manager is the important driver for the project’s success. Project Manager will require all the resources possible and that includes tools and techniques in achieving the positive outcome for the project. There are a lot many tools employed by the project manager and this blog will deal with one of the significant and specialty tools called Gantt Chart.

What is the Gantt Chart in Project Management?

Wikipedia  describes the Gantt Chart as a “ type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule and shows the dependency relationships between activities and current schedule status.”

Gantt Chart, in simpler terms, is a Data visualization tool that depicts in a graphical format by mapping the tasks and activities of a project against time. All the activities performed in a project are outlined in the chart in an organized order displaying critical information.

The information presented on the Gantt Chart specifies the tasks of the project, the resources assigned to the task, duration of the task, and also the activities that might overlap. Gantt Chart helps the Project Manager to plan, schedule, track, and manage all the tasks effectively.

What is the History of Gantt Chart

Joseph Priestly in his “Charts of Biography” introduced the idea of bar charts in 1765. William Playfair in 1786 pioneered the Gantt Chart in his Commercial and Political Atlas. Karol Adamiecki, a Polish engineer built something close to Gantt Chart in his construction project in the year 1896. Then came an American Engineer named Henry Gantt introduced his version somewhere between 1910 to 1925 that rose to prominence and became popular in the form of mass adoption in a very short span of time. Gantt Charts were used in wartime during 1917-18 for the tracking of arms and ammunitions. Wallace Clark’s book named “The Gantt Chart – A Working Tool of Management“ released in the year 1923 mentioned Gantt Chart, which by then became an official term.  With the passage of time, the adoption of the Gantt Chart kept growing in a wide range of domains and fields.

What is Gantt Chart Elements?

A typical Gantt chart is made up of several elements. The various elements in a Gantt Chart  are detailed below:

Tasklist: depicted on the extreme left of the Gantt chart, the task list that runs down vertically describes the project work. The tasks can be grouped together and it is possible to create sub-groups.

Timeline: depicted as the horizontal bar that runs on top of the Gantt Chart. In order to keep track, the time is displayed in terms of months, weeks, days, and years

Dateline: depicted as a vertical line on the Gantt chart. that highlights the current date

Bars: depicted on the right side of the Gantt Chart. as horizontal markers, the bars display the tasks, duration, progress,  tasks’ start dates and end dates for project completion.

Milestones: depicted as yellow diamonds, Milestones show up between the Bars denote an important achievement in a project especially dates,  goals, events and deliverables.

Dependencies: depicted as the light gray lines linking tasks, Dependencies specify the relationships between tasks and the execution of tasks in a specific order.

Progress: depicted as a percentage of completion in the form of shading in the bar indicating the progress made in the project work.

The resource assigned: depicted the resource (team member) or the team assigned to complete the task.

Benefits of Gantt Chart in Project Management

1. Get to know your projects

Gantt charts acts as a great visualization and prioritization tool as it provides the total overview of the project and presents critical information like resources deployed in the project, the tasks and its orders, the duration,  the start and end dates, the dependencies, and progress made in the project at any given point in time. Hence, it’s a great tool for project managers to equip themselves with the information to plan, coordinate and manage the project.

2. Enhance communication and team organization

Communication is critical to the success of a project. A study observed in the public domain revealed that 86% of employees cited the communication gap and issues are the worst reasons for the failure of the project. With regard to ti communication Gantt Chart as very effective as it provides clarity in communication. Project managers use the Gantt Chart to find out ‘who is working on what tasks’, secure information and provide inputs in getting the tasks completed. The communication with the team members is enhanced as the same tool can be used for both communication and tracking, resulting in a better relationship as a team.

3. Eliminate resource overload

There could instances when resources could be tasked with more than the permissible bandwidth. It does happen in a project wherein resources could be overloaded or stretched out. Effective use of resources is facilitated by Gantt Chart that aligns with the project timeline. Resources can be delegated tasks without saddling with too much work, which helps the project manager in proper and effective utilization of resources.

4. Assess the progress of projects

Gantt chart helps in scheduling and also tracks the project’s tasks. This assists the project manager in keeping under check the progress made in the project and also enables in shifting strategy to introduce necessary changes in case of slippage of schedule or if the project is lagging behind in timeline. Gantt Chart can be used by the project members to update the percentage of work completed, which is useful to the project manager in making the whole team stay on one page and also ensure the project is making progress rightly as planned.

5. Monitor task dependencies and overlapping activities

The dependencies can at times slow down or even derail as some tasks are dependent to start only upon the closure of another task. Dependencies make project development difficult and complex to manage.  Gantt Chart presents the dependencies of the tasks and helps in scheduling in such a manner that the overlapping can be totally eliminated. This ensures that there is no adverse impact execution of the tasks and the overall progress of the project.

6. Experience more clarity
 

It's easy to get lost in the maze of numbers or stuck in the project details to lose sight of where the project is heading. Gantt Chart provides clarity by enabling to see instantly the progress made in the tasks and also of the team members involved in the project. It builds a better understanding of how the project is shaping out and brings more clarity about the project’s outcome.

7. Practice better time management

Time is an integral and critical component of project management. The biggest benefit of using a Gantt Chart is scheduling. The Gantt Chart plays a significant role by helping the team members recognize the severity of their tasks and realize the impact in case of delay. Gantt Chart presents the big picture of the overall progress to plan better on the allocation of time on every task and get it done within the scheduled timeline.

8. Create a sense of accountability

Gantt charts highlight the milestones achieved, big wins scored, deadlines met and the deliverables, slippage in schedule, failures which allow the project manager and team members to keep a track of the progress made. It creates a sense of accountability is created in the workplace with the help of the Gantt Chart, thus enabling the project manager and team members to work out solutions in closing the gaps and work towards exceeding the expectations of the stakeholders.

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