A Gantt chart is mainly an amazing tool for project management. This was s established in the beginning by Henry Gantt in the early 1900s. That is why the Gantt chart name was nominated by Henry Gantt. He was the first person who uses these charts for project management.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!This Gantt Chart Excel Template highlights the beginning and finishing time of the project and its related tasks. Sometimes the tasks are decided into sub-tasks to manage them easily. The phenomenon used d for this is work breakdown structure.
The Gantt chart template in excel is an ideal tool for professional strategies, project administration and many more categories of projects.
In this article, you will learn what a Gantt chart is. What are the important elements of a Gantt chart? Advantages of creating Gantt charts in Excel.
Subsequently, without any further delay let us get begun.
What is Gantt Chart?
A Gantt chart is a visual representation of a project’s timeline. It helps project managers, stakeholders, and team members understand:
- A project’s roadmap,
- Important milestones along the way,
- Work dependencies,
- Required resources,
- And the risks involved.
Like most charts, a Gantt chart has two axes. The horizontal axis represents the project’s timeline. On the other hand, the vertical axis lists the activities or tasks to complete to finish the project.
Important of Gantt Chart Template
A Gantt chart represents and pinpoints the important timelines of the project. This is an exceptional development tool that can help you plan and run your project smoothly.
With this professional tool, you will not miss any deadlines as it particularly focuses on timelines. Thus, Gant charts allow s you to stay on track, imagine and analyze the project schedules and proposal.
This also allows you to communicate with your business team. As we all know communication is the main key to success when it comes to teamwork in a project.
It supports project executives, shareholders, and team participants to comprehend and see:
- The complete project plan,
- Important objectives and targets all along the way,
- The work needs and requirements,
- Necessary funds and assets,
- The risks and hazards implicated.
Just like any other chart the Gantt charts also have an axis in them. The project timeline and plan are represented and shown by the horizontal axis. And the other axis shows the activities involved in the task. It also represents the time needed to complete the project with success.
Components of Gantt Chart Excel
As of now, we have come to know that these charts are essential for any project to run smoothly. A Gantt chart has the following important components:
- The first stage is to list the tasks in vertical axis types. It indicates the progress of the project as the project proceeds
- On the other hand, the timelines and deadlines are documented and run on the horizontal axis. The timelines are divided into days, weeks, and eventually months.
- The Bars on the Gantt chart embody a task. For The Reason, you can picture each task in accordance with a beginning date and ending date.
- Next comes the milestones which represent the essential appointments and times by which the tasks should be completed. This part makes the plan more convenient, adaptable, and free from risks and hazards.
- Lastly, there are resources that indicate which resources are needed and which members of the team are allocated to utilize which resources.
Preparing A Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a very helpful tool for project management in projects of many sizes. Project precise and comprehensive information is documented in the work breakdown structure area. This will help to track your project deadlines and time scheme on a bar chart.
This gives you a practical and feasible imagining of your progress in your project from beginning to end. Hence, a Gantt chart is a formidable and impressive project management tool that demonstrates the important dates of project elements.
This tool also shows the project status and needs between project components. Making a Gantt chart in Excel is, particularly an early stage.
Here are some of the basic stages of how you can make one using excel:
Add Project Data to Excel
Firstly, you need to start by adding a planned timeline of the project in text format.
This area must include the needed and most important knowledge about the project like tasks to accomplish a project, beginning and ending dates for every assignment, and the length of each one of the tasks.
You must add fresh columns to add information about tasks. Each task includes information like name, a start time, length, and in the end finishing time.
Insert a Stacked Bar Chart
As we know that does not have an inbuilt Gantt chart. So, you must create one utilizing a stacked bar chart.
To do this, first, choose your task material. Click Add or insert the Column or Bar Chart.
Format the Chart to make a Gantt Chart
Now you have the stacked bar ready, but it does not look like a Gantt chart? The next step is making it look like a Gantt chart. The tasks on the vertical axis are in reverse order.
Now you need to add Duration data to the chart. At this point, the start date varies and is placed on the horizontal axis which is exceedingly wide.
Fix the Task Order and Durations Range
To fix the initial issue, which is the task order you must right-click on the vertical axis.
Next, you click Format Axis, and an Axis dialog will open. From here you can do the changes you want to the axis. Now comes the duration range fix.
Unluckily, it is a tough thing to do. Excel operates periods as figures. So, first, we must transform the project dates into a number that Excel recognizes. Then in the next step, we can make changes.
Gantt Chart Template in Excel
There are several unique software, tools and other different variety of applications available which can be utilized to establish a Gantt chart.
Among them, there are some specific ones for project management like Microsoft Project. Microsoft Excel might be applied to create a Gantt chart. Although Excel needs to make the charts from scratch, this still is the best choice. The reason is it is easy to use straightforward and user-friendly and you do not need any training to use it.
Advantages of using Excel Gantt Chart
Following are some of the most important and main advantages of using a Gantt chart.
- This tool is easy, to begin with. No specific tools or any lengthy training is needed. It is easy to start and very smooth to proceed.
- You do not need to buy or sign up for a new tool. Most people have Microsoft Excel on their computers. All you need to do is open it and get going.
- This tool can easily be attached and immerged with the other office and planning-related tools. Since it is very easy and handy to manage. So, the Gantt charts formed in Excel can be simply implanted and inserted into a report and manuscripts. This is fantastic for speeches, lectures, and articles.
- This tool is easily customized. You can alter it according to your need. As all the projects and tasks related to them are not the same. Every project has a different size, and frequency, and surely has different needs. Consequently, Excel makes it easy to modify charts.
FAQS About Gantt Chart
Is there a Gantt chart template in Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel does not have this chart template by default, although you can get this tool from here and use it in excel format.
How do I create a Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel?
If you want to make a Gantt chart in excel then there are a few things that you need to fill in that include project data, project task details, project milestones, etc.