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please contact Arthur to enquire about the prize

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WOW!!! NEW INFORMATION!!! NEVER TAUGHT BEFORE!!! MORE CASH PRIZES!!! (not a scam)

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WOW!!! NEW INFORMATION!!! NEVER TAUGHT BEFORE!!! MORE CASH PRIZES!!! (not a scam)

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What are the benefits of creating a skill matrix?

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What are the benefits of creating a skill matrix?

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I don't know but you'll find out below......

Identifying the right people
Identify missing competencies
Identify the gap between employees, teams, and departments
Track employee development
Help HR to find the right candidate
Track your key staff members

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What is a Gantt chart? A Gantt chart is a project management tool that illustrates work completed over a period of time in relation to the time planned for the work. It typically includes two sections: the left side outlines a list of tasks, while the right side has a timeline with schedule bars that visualize work.

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Do we even need these skills matrices....

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Do we even need these skills matrices....

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Skills matrices are essential tools for any company that is driven by data, particularly for the HR department and project management team leaders.

Matrices are ideal for keeping track of your staff’s skills, qualifications, certifications, and competencies throughout the whole organization. When used correctly, they work really well in practice and improve efficiencies within teams, as well as increasing your bottom line.

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A method of completing complex, multi-step projects; get things done faster and more efficiently

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A method of completing complex, multi-step projects; get things done faster and more efficiently

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Breaks down work into categories and sub-categories

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Breaks down work into categories and sub-categories

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First step - assess the project scope by talking with team members and stakeholders involved

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First step - assess the project scope by talking with team members and stakeholders involved

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What is a Gantt Chart? [DEFINITION + EXAMPLE]

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By Diana Ramos | March 4, 2019 (updated April 12, 2023)

In this article, you'll find a comprehensive guide to creating the most effective Gantt chart for your projects across a variety of industries. We've included step-by-step instructions and videos on how to create your own customized Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel, versions 2000 and above.

What Is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that represents all the tasks in a project. It's a project management tool used to plan project schedules, improve resource allocation, and remain up to date with project progress.

A Gantt chart has two main axis options. The vertical axis shows the list of tasks, and the horizontal axis represents the project timeline.

The chart itself features horizontal bars. Each bar represents a task, with the length of the bar showing when the task should start and end. As a result, project managers can use the chart to accurately predict the entire project timeline.

The Gantt chart became popular in the early 20th century. Henry Gantt, a mechanical engineer, began using the model to record the progress of each task in the manufacturing process. As a result, supervisors could see if production schedules were on time. If they weren't, they could make changes to get things back on track.

Today, Gantt charts aren't limited to the manufacturing industry. From software development to construction, Gantt charts can help a variety of teams manage their project schedules.

For more information on what a Gantt chart is, who uses a Gantt chart, the features of a Gantt chart, and the benefits of leveraging a Gantt chart in your project, visit our guide to Gantt charts.

How to Make a Gantt Chart Online in Excel 2007 and Above

When it comes to creating a Gantt chart in Excel, you can either use a predesigned template or create your own from scratch.

To manually create a Gantt chart in Excel, follow these steps, which apply to both PCs and Macs.

1. Start by creating a data range in Excel that lists your project tasks, and their start and finish dates.

2. Select the data range that you want to make a Gantt chart for.

3. On the top navigation bar, select Insert on the menu ribbon.

4. In the Charts group, select the 2D Bar group, and click on the Stacked Bar option. The Stacked Bar is the closest option to a Gantt chart in Excel.

5. Format the stacked bar chart to appear more like a Gantt chart. To do so, click the first data series, or the Start Date part of the bar.

6. Click on the Format tab. Select Shape, then No Fill.

7. Reverse the task order so that the Gantt chart starts with the first task. Hold the Control key and select the Vertical Axis or the Task Axis.

8. Select Format Axis. Under the Axis Position part of the window, check the box for Categories in Reverse Order.

9. Add a chart title by double clicking on the text box titled Chart Title at the top of the chart.

10. Format the axis title and color by double clicking on either axis. A popup window will open on the right side of the screen for you to edit the colors and lines of the axis.

11. Further customize the chart by adding gridlines, labels, and bar colors with the formatting tools in Excel.

12. To add elements to your chart (like axis title, date labels, gridlines, and legends), click the chart area on the Chart Design tab at the top of the navigation bar. Select Add Chart Element, located on the far left side of the page.

13. To quickly change the layout of your Gantt chart, navigate back to the Chart Design tab and click on the Quick Layout button.

14. To change the colors within your chart, navigate back to the Chart Design tab, and click the Change Colors button.

At this point, you should have a Gantt chart that accurately depicts the start and end dates of your project tasks. As a result, you'll also have a visual representation of your project.

You can use these steps to create Gantt charts for projects of all types and sizes based on your business needs.

The Pros and Cons of Creating a Gantt Chart in Excel

If you're thinking about creating a Gantt chart in Excel but you're not sure if it's right for your project, we've outlined some of the pros and cons of creating a Gantt chart in Excel below.

Benefits of Using Excel

The benefits of creating a Gantt chart in Excel include the ability to store all project information on one screen and the ease of use. Let's look at these benefits in more detail:

Store all project information in one screen: With an Excel spreadsheet, all your project information is in one location. You can simply open the spreadsheet, and voilà - you'll see all your project tasks, deadlines, and milestones.

Excel is easy to use: When it comes to manually creating a Gantt chart, Excel is a fairly easy-to-use program. Simply add your date range to the spreadsheet, highlight the information, and choose the Chart Wizard button to add it all to a Gantt chart. Then, you can customize the chart to suit your project.

Downsides of Using Excel

Although Excel is a straightforward program for manually creating a Gantt chart, there are some drawbacks, namely that it is difficult to keep up to date, doesn't allow you to assign tasks, and is difficult to collaborate in.

It's tricky to keep it up to date: Excel isn't a cloud-based platform, which means that project information doesn't update in real time, across devices. To update your team, you'll have to manually send them the most up-to-date version of your static spreadsheet. This makes it harder for project teams to remain on the same page, and can present version control issues.

You're unable to assign tasks: In older versions of Excel, project teams can't assign tasks to other users. This makes it hard for team members to know what they need to do and what their team members are working on. With an online platform, however, you can assign tasks.

It's hard to collaborate with your project team: Excel can make it difficult for project teams to collaborate while the project is live. As mentioned, Excel Gantt charts aren't accessible online, meaning that project teams can't instantly access the project in real time.

Online Gantt Chart Software: An Alternative to Excel

If you want to improve collaboration and provide real-time access to project progress, using online Gantt chart software is a step in the right direction. Online Gantt chart software allows you to create, share, and manage your Gantt chart virtually.

Online solutions provide an accessible location for your entire project team to get real-time access to project progress. Depending on the platform you choose, you can assign tasks to team members, add comments to the chart, and send messages to other users to streamline collaboration.

For detailed insight on To find out what to look for when choosing the a Gantt chart software, visit take a look at our article on quick and easy Gantt chart software, tools, and apps. And, i If you're looking for additional Gantt chart Excel templates for a variety of use cases, download our free Gantt chart Excel templates.

Why Is Online Gantt Chart Software Helpful for Project Teams?

The benefits of using Gantt chart software include the abilities to easily make changes, access the most up-to-date version, identify the critical path, and track progress in real time.

Let's take a look at these benefits in greater detail:

Easily make changes in real time: With an online Gantt chart, it's easy to make changes to your project schedule in real time. For example, you can typically drag and drop tasks to make changes to the start and end dates - what's more, changing the dates of your project tasks will often also automatically update the rest of the project. For instance, if a task deadline moves forward by a week, the rest of the project (and any dependent tasks) will also be updated.

Always access the most up-to-date version: An online Gantt chart will instantly reflect any changes made to it. This means that anyone who views the chart knows that they're looking at the most current version, which cuts down on version control issues and reduces the likelihood of team members working from outdated information.

Identify the critical path: The critical path is the longest sequence of dependent tasks that must take place for the project to finish on time. With an online Gantt chart, it's easy to spot, highlight, and track your critical tasks. You can see how your critical path is performing in real time and prioritize critical tasks if things aren't going to plan.

Create Your Real-Time Gantt Chart in Smartsheet

Creating a Gantt chart in Smartsheet is an easy way to ensure that your real-time project status and schedule are easy to read and accessible to stakeholders from anywhere. We'll walk you through how to create an effective Gantt chart from a template in Smartsheet in the steps below.

1. Find a template that suits your needs in the Smartsheet Solution Center using the search bar at the top of the page. The Smartsheet Solution Center is home to more than 175 different templates, many of which include Gantt charts and other project management tools. In this walkthrough, we'll use the Project with Gantt & Dependencies template. This template comes preformatted with sample data to get you started, but it is easy to add your own.

2. Log into your Smartsheet account and add the template to your Sheets folder. Then, click on the name of the template to open it.

3. First, customize the tasks within the Task Name column by clicking within the cell and entering your project tasks and phases.

4. Then, choose start and end dates for each task, and assign each one to the team member responsible for it.

5. Next, add project dependencies by entering the row number of dependent tasks in the Predecessors column. This will create arrows between dependent tasks on your Gantt chart.

6. You can also flag at-risk tasks, and enter the % Complete of each task as the project progresses.

With this data filled in, Smartsheet will automatically create a Gantt chart on the right side of the template.

7. Smartsheet also allows you to adjust project information within the Gantt chart directly. To adjust the start or end date of a task, hover your mouse over the left or right side of the task bar until the two way arrow icon appears. Then, click and drag the edge of the task bar to the desired date.

To move a task to a different date but keep the original task duration intact, click within the center of the task bar and drag it from its existing range to the new date range.

Using either of these options will update the start and end date columns for each task on the left side of the template automatically.

You can also change the colors of individual tasks by right clicking the bar and choosing a new color in the Color Settings menu.

8. Once you've filled in your project task list and customized the Gantt chart colors, attach additional project documents as needed to the relevant rows, or add context and reminders in the Notes column. You can also upload a proof to review multimedia elements, or automate reminders for your team as deadlines appear or when new information is added.

Hover your mouse over a row to reveal four icons on the left-hand side. Use these icons to Attach a file to this row, Add a comment, Add a proof, or Set a reminder.

9. When your Gantt chart is complete, save it and share it with your team. Any changes you make over the course of the project will be automatically reflected to anyone with access to the sheet, ensuring that they always have the most up to date project information.

Improve Project Visibility with Real-Time Gantt Charts in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team - and adapt as those needs change.

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there's no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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How to Create a Gantt Chart in Excel | Smartsheet

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By Diana Ramos | March 4, 2019 (updated April 12, 2023) In this article, you'll find a comprehensive guide to creating the most effective Gantt chart for your projects across a variety of industries. We've included step-by-step instructions and videos on how to create your own customized Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel, versions 2000 and above.

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Whether you're a project management rookie or veteran, you've probably heard of a gantt chart. While gantt charts might seem intimidating, they're not as mystifying as you might think.

In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about the gantt chart-from its definition and parts to how to create one quickly and easily. Find out how gantt charts work and why so many project teams use them in project management.

Watch this video for a quick breakdown of the basics.

What is a gantt chart?: Definition & overview

A gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart used in project management to visually represent a project plan over time. Gantt charts typically show you the timeline and status-as well as who's responsible-for each task in the project.

Here's a quick look at the details a gantt chart enables you to capture at a glance:

How a project breaks down into tasks

When each task will begin and end

How long each task will take

Who's assigned to each task

How tasks relate to and depend on each other

When important meetings, approvals, or deadlines need to happen

How work is progressing in a project

The full project schedule from start to finish

In other words, a gantt chart is a super-simple way to communicate what it will take to deliver a project on time and budget. That means it's a whole lot easier to keep your project team and stakeholders on the same page from the get-go.

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Let's break down the basic parts of a gantt chart so you understand how they function in a project plan.

Task list: Runs vertically down the left of the gantt chart to describe project work and may be organized into groups and subgroups

Timeline: Runs horizontally across the top of the gantt chart and shows months, weeks, days, and years

Dateline: A vertical line that highlights the current date on the gantt chart

Bars: Horizontal markers on the right side of the gantt chart that represent tasks and show progress, duration, and start and end dates

Milestones: Yellow diamonds that call out major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables

Dependencies: Light gray lines that connect tasks that need to happen in a certain order

Progress: Shows how far along work is and may be indicated by percent complete and/or bar shading

Resource assigned: Indicates the person or team responsible for completing a task

What is a gantt chart used for in project management?

In project management, gantt charts are used for planning and scheduling projects. A gantt chart is incredibly useful because it allows you to simplify complex projects into an easy-to-follow plan and track the status of tasks as work progresses.

Gantt charts also help you keep track of project deadlines, milestones, and hours worked so you can spot and address delays or overages before they wreak havoc on your project.

Who uses gantt charts?

Gantt charts are used by project managers, business owners, team leaders, and executives in many different industries across various departments. Here are just a few types of companies and teams that use gantt charts to plan, schedule, and execute their projects:

Step 2: Add tasks to your project

Adding tasks to your gantt chart is the first step in creating your project timeline. To create tasks, click on the Add Task link (+Task), and type the name of your first task.

Hit enter to add another task. Repeat this process until you have all (or most) of your tasks added to the task list.

Best practices for creating an effective gantt chart

If you want to build a gantt chart everyone can use and navigate, there are a few simple rules you should keep in mind. Follow these simple tips and best practices to make a good gantt chart that's easy to update and manage.

Do get granular with tasks.

The more detail you can spell out when it comes to tasks, the better you'll be able to track progress and steps leading up to a deliverable. Refer back to your work breakdown structure, and list the steps you used to create that.

Do organize tasks into groups or phases.

Creating groups of tasks will make your plan easier to scan and understand. It'll also allow your team and stakeholders to see what tasks are part of a deliverable or a phase.
Here's a quick look at how subgroups work in TeamGantt.

Do add important details and documents to tasks.

Sometimes your team and clients may forget what they committed to. Or maybe they don't fully understand the intent of a task or group.

Use the notes section of your plan (most gantt chart software should provide this) to spell things out. While you're at it, be sure to upload key files directly to the task so everything's ready and waiting for work to begin.

In the project sample below, we added notes about the scope of the task and uploaded a copy of the creative brief for more detail.

Do label tasks by responsible party.

This tip comes in handy for any project, but it's especially useful for client projects. Identifying which team or company is responsible for each task makes your gantt chart super-easy to scan.

When creating a task, you can assign labels you've set up on the People tab or simply put the company name (or an acronym) in front of the task. Here's how we tagged tasks in the following gantt chart example:

PT = Product Team

GM = Gantt Museum

Of course, you'll also want to take that a step further and assign each task to the person responsible. This will help you with resource allocation and accountability.

Don't skip dependencies.

If you're not going to move forward on the project without an approval-or one task must be done before another-now's your chance to note it.

Not every planning tool offers dependency functionality, and it can be a huge help. As your plan shifts, the flow of the work will stay intact.

Don't assign work without checking team availability.

If you're lucky enough to use a product that shows you overall team availability, use it! Knowing how booked your team is and what projects they're part of will play a huge role in delivering work on time and maintaining team morale.

Having an overall view of your team's availability and conflicting work will help you adjust your plan to either meet the needs of existing project work or shift the milestones you've put in your plan.
Here's how to view team availability directly from your gantt chart in TeamGantt.

Don't overlook holidays and time off.

Now is your chance to block time off in your plan. This is important now because as soon as your timeline shifts (you know it will, don't fight it), you'll open yourself up to making an error and dropping a deadline on a date that should be blocked. If you note them in your plan, that won't happen.

Don't forget to ask for feedback.

If you deliver a plan that has a mistake, misinterprets a task, or even misses a date, it can create confusion and delays. So grab a teammate and ask them to review your gantt chart before you post it for review.

Of course, you'll also want to be ready to get some feedback on your plan. Formalizing a plan means you're taking a set of ideas and expanding on them. That also means you might interpret something differently than a teammate. That's okay!

Don't set it and forget it.

A gantt chart is a living, breathing document that should keep up with project changes-not a fixed plan that's set in stone. Invite your team to collaborate on work and track progress in real time so your gantt chart's always up-to-date.

Collaborate with your team and stakeholders

Successful projects run on communication and collaboration. When project files and updates are scattered across different email threads and other platforms, it's hard to get a good sense of what needs to get done and how close you are to the finish line.

With an online gantt chart, you can streamline communication through a single channel that centers around your project plan.

Here's how to use a gantt chart to boost collaboration with your team and stakeholders.

Share your gantt chart with external stakeholders

Need to share project updates with contractors, clients, or other stakeholders? In TeamGantt, you have several options for sharing your gantt chart with external users:

Invite someone as a guest to your project: Inviting someone as a guest enables them to see and comment on tasks in a single project without making edits to the gantt chart itself.

Send a view-only link to your gantt chart: This option is great if you want to enable a client or stakeholder to monitor project progress without inviting them to become a user on your account.

‍Export your gantt chart as a PDF: This option enables you to filter a gantt chart down to only the information you want to share so clients and stakeholders can get a quick snapshot of the project.

Integrate your gantt chart with other collaboration apps

If your team uses multiple apps to collaborate on projects, why not integrate them with your gantt chart so everything connects back to the plan? Here are a few popular integrations you can use to keep your people and projects in sync:

Trello: See your cards in a project timeline, create dependencies between cards, and view workloads-all without ever leaving Trello.

Slack: Create tasks from chats, check your daily task list, and get notified about new comments and assignments right from Slack.

Dropbox: Share important documents more easily by uploading Dropbox files directly to your tasks and projects.

Zapier: Automate work and streamline collaboration by connecting TeamGantt to your other favorite apps.

‍TeamGantt API: Got a developer on hand? Build custom integrations with your TeamGantt data using our public API!

Manage resources and team workloads

It's hard to finish any project on time and budget when your team is overloaded and overwhelmed. A gantt chart plots everyone's work on a visual timeline so you can see how tasks stack up across your projects.

In TeamGantt, you can check and adjust workloads right from your gantt chart to avoid overbooking your team as you schedule new tasks.

Take a closer look at how to use gantt charts for project resource management.

Estimate project time and effort

Assigning hourly estimates to tasks in your gantt chart makes it easier to assess project scope, balance team workloads, and monitor project budget once work gets underway.

TeamGantt's Advanced plan comes with hourly estimation and time tracking. You can use these features to track and compare estimated vs. actual hours directly from your gantt chart. With that kind of visibility, you can keep a close eye on potential overages and get ahead of issues before they throw your whole project off course.

Estimating hours at the task level also gives you a more granular view of availability when assigning and scheduling work for your team. That way you can feel more confident your team can get the work done without missing deadlines.
Learn more about hourly estimation in TeamGantt.

Track progress against deadlines and estimates

One of the best things about using a gantt chart is the ability to see where a project stands at any given moment. After all, clients, bosses and other project stakeholders expect you to stick to your promises (aka: budgets and deadlines).

That's why it's important to monitor tasks to ensure you're on track to deliver work on time and budget. If things start to go sideways, you can adjust the gantt chart to get things back on track and reset expectations along the way.

Here's how to track progress and spot issues early in TeamGantt.

Hourly estimate vs. actual progress

TeamGantt's Advanced plan enables you to compare hourly estimates with actual progress so you can easily spot tasks that are taking longer than expected. Simply look for the thin striped line in the middle of each taskbar on your gantt chart, and pay attention to its color and length.

These indicators signal task trouble:

The striped line is red: This task (or group) is over-budget. More hours have been tracked than were originally estimated for the task.

‍The striped line is longer than the progress indicated for a task: The hours tracked are outpacing actual progress. That means this task (or group) is at risk for going over budget or missing a deadline.

Baselines

Remember how I said no matter how much planning you do, it's likely something will come up that requires you to move your timeline? It's handy to know how much you've had to move things over the course of a project. Enter: baselines.

What is a baseline in a gantt chart?
A baseline is a "snapshot" of your project in time. When you create a baseline set, you're grabbing a picture of your whole project so you have something to compare to when things inevitably shift for one reason or another.

Baselines are extremely important because they give you the "real" picture of shifts that have occurred. It's easy to think things are looking pretty good, when in reality you're 3 weeks behind and $10,000 over budget. Things can creep slowly, and without a set of baselines to compare to, it can be easy to get behind and not even fully realize it.
Learn how baselines work in TeamGantt.

Using multiple baseline sets in your gantt chart
A single baseline is great, but a single point doesn't show trends. Stringing multiple baseline sets together will give you a much clearer picture of when and why your project slipped. Was it due to consistently dragging manufacturing estimates? Or was it that the client was consistently slow in approving designs and signing contracts? Baselines can tell you exactly what you need to know so you can improve your estimating practices.

Baselines aren't just for showing you the negatives of your project. They're equally useful for seeing where things have gone better than expected. Just like you have to shift things around when tasks are delayed, you may have to make adjustments when things run ahead of schedule.

As you get better at tracking your project's slippage, you'll get better at making realistic estimates on timelines. Once you've mastered that skill, you'll have customers lining up because they know that when you plan a project, they have a timeline they can count on.

How does a gantt chart compare to other alternatives?

Project managers use a variety of tools-from gantt charts and kanban boards to spreadsheets and task lists-to keep up with project details, deadlines, and to-dos.

So what separates gantt charts from the rest of the pack when it comes to time-sensitive or complex projects? Spreadsheets, kanban boards, and task lists fall short when it comes to important project management tasks, like building a timeline, outlining dependencies, and managing workloads.

Without these 3 gantt chart features, you'll have a tough time communicating the plan to your team, clients, and stakeholders. Here are just a few examples of questions a gantt chart can help you answer:

Can we take on more work?

How will we get from point A to point B?

What needs to happen first?

Can we meet a requested deadline?

Who has the bandwidth to tackle these tasks?

Are we on track to finish on time?

How are we performing?

The good news is, you can use a gantt chart without foregoing other alternatives. Your team may prefer kanban boards for managing daily tasks or using a spreadsheet to create a RACI chart, and that's okay.

With TeamGantt, you've got choices. View and manage projects as a gantt chart, task list, calendar, or kanban board, and upload important spreadsheets to the project documents. No matter how you look at things, everything ties back to your plan.

Let's take a closer look at how a gantt chart can help you manage projects better.

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Gantt chart pros and cons

What's to love about gantt charts? And what should you be aware of before diving in? Here's a quick snapshot of the pros and cons so you can decide if a gantt chart is right for your projects.

What are the pros of using a gantt chart?

A gantt chart is like a front-row seat to the project action. All the tiny details you never noticed from the nosebleed section suddenly come to life in full color right before your very eyes. It's nearly impossible to miss a game-changing move!

Let's explore some of the biggest gantt chart pros in project management.

Visualize your entire project

A project plan is one thing. How it plays out is another. A gantt chart gives you a start-to-finish view of your entire project timeline so you can see how tasks are progressing in real time. That means you can provide up-to-the-minute status reports to managers and stakeholders in a flash.

See how tasks are connected

Let's face it: Things change. Lucky for you, modern gantt charts make it easy to shift tasks around without breaking your stride. With dependencies -a star feature of any gantt chart-you can keep tasks connected even when your timeline gives you the ol' switcheroo.

Keep everyone on the same page and on time

Clear communication is a must-have in any project. Without it, you risk project delays and cost overruns. Web-based gantt charts, like TeamGantt, ensure no one's left in the dark. That's because all your project info and discussion threads live in one central hub that everyone can access, making team collaboration a breeze.

Know who's busy and who isn't

If you want to make smart business decisions, you've got to have a good grasp on your resources. With gantt charts, resource management is no longer a guessing game. You can see who's got bandwidth to take on new tasks at a glance.

See a full list of gantt chart benefits.

Do gantt charts have limitations?

Some folks think gantt charts are too complicated to build, read, and update. While traditional desktop apps have their limitations, most of the cons people associate with gantt charts don't apply to the online gantt chart software you'll find today.

That's because modern gantt charts ushered in a whole new era of project management. Now gantt charts offer clean and simple design with drag and drop scheduling so you can build and adjust project plans in an instant. And because everything happens online, it's easy to share plans, collaborate on work, update tasks, and track progress in real time.

Let's look at how modern gantt charts compare to traditional desktop apps.

Modern gantt charts vs. desktop apps

Gantt charts come in many forms-from good old-fashioned paper to desktop apps and even web-based software.

Bringing gantt charts online transforms them from a static document that quickly becomes obsolete to a living, collaborative representation of a project's current state. Team members can update their progress in real time, and stakeholders can check in on project status without having to go through you. Plus, it's easy to stay in sync and push projects across the finish line more quickly.

See how TeamGantt's modern gantt chart tool compares to 2 popular desktop apps:

Advanced features to look for in a modern gantt chart

A good modern gantt chart should be a part of a complete project management solution. Look for these advanced gantt chart software features to ensure your team and projects stay on track:

Team collaboration

Multiple project views, including kanban boards, task lists, and calendar views

Reporting

Time tracking and hourly estimation

Workload management

Mobile access

Integrations

TeamGantt has all of this! Try it for free.

Continue learning about gantt charts

Now that you know how to make a gantt chart, you're ready to move on to the next step! Keep reading to learn how to use your gantt chart to manage your team's time and availability more easily.

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Managing Resources with Your Gantt Chart

Step 3: Schedule your tasks

Now that you've got a full list of work to be done, it's time to schedule all those tasks. TeamGantt makes scheduling tasks super-simple because you can drag and drop each task on your timeline.

To place the taskbar on your gantt chart, simply click on the timeline below the date you'd like to schedule your task. Then drag either side of the taskbar to shorten or extend the task's duration.

Step 4: Add important project milestones

Adding milestones to your gantt chart makes it easy to track project deadlines, approvals, meetings, and other key deliverables or events. In TeamGantt, a milestone appears as a yellow diamond on your gantt chart.

To add a milestone to your gantt chart, simply click on the Milestone link, give your new milestone a name, and drag the milestone icon across the gantt chart to schedule it on the timeline.

Repeat this process until you have all your milestones added to the list.

Step 5: Add dependencies to the tasks that need them

Now that your tasks and milestones are entered and scheduled, hover over a task, and click the gray dot that appears.

Click and drag the dependency line to the task you want to link it to.

Step 6: Invite people to your project and assign tasks to those responsible

Click the Invite People button at the upper right corner of your project to go to your project's People page. From there, click the blue Invite People link, located just below the list of people who are already part of your project.

If the user already exists in your account:
Simply select the checkbox next to the person you want to add to your project, then click the blue Add to Project button that appears. This person will automatically receive an invitation to log into TeamGantt and access the project.

If the user does not exist in your account yet:
Click the Add New Person link. Then enter the person's name and email address, select their company-level permission, and click the Add User to Company button. (Note: Guest users and Basic users are automatically added with View Only project permission, while Advanced users are added with Edit Chart project permission.)

Feel free to add your own custom notification message, then click Add to Project to finalize the invite. This person will automatically receive an invitation to get set up in TeamGantt and access the project.
Learn more about inviting people to your project in TeamGantt.

Step 7: Apply task colors to enhance visualization on your gantt chart

Color is a great way to make your gantt chart easy to understand at a quick glance.

Hover over a taskbar, and click on the colored square. Choose a new color, and you're all done!

When should you use a gantt chart?

A gantt chart comes in handy when your project requires more planning than a basic to-do list. Here are a few sure signs you're going to need a gantt chart to get the job done:

Your project has a hard deadline.

Multiple people or teams are involved in the project and need to be coordinated.

A boss, client, or team member wants to see a visual timeline of the project from beginning to end.

Your project involves even just a little complexity, such as tasks that need to be done in a specific order.

Team members work on multiple projects at a time, and you need to manage their workloads.

You have a good idea of roughly how long each task should or can take.

If ANY of the conditions above apply to your project, use a gantt chart!

Gantt chart examples

Now let's look at 7 examples of gantt charts you could use for different project types. Use these ideas as an easy starting point for making a gantt chart for your projects.

Software project gantt chart

Taking a hybrid approach to an upcoming software project? This software development plan shows you how to use a gantt chart for an Agile project. Tasks have been organized into groups based on sprints, with milestones for sprint planning and deployment.
Try this template for free!
Design project gantt chart

This sample gantt chart is perfect for planning a website build or redesign. It breaks activities down into basic phases from discovery, content, and design to development, launch, and maintenance. Feel free to keep your website development plan simple or build it out to cover all your project bases.
Try this template for free!
Media production gantt chart

Want to get one step closer to lights, camera, action? We designed this video production schedule to help you hit your release dates right on time. In this gantt chart example, tasks are organized and color-coded by the 3 phases of a media project: pre-production, production, and post-production.
Try this template for free!
Marketing gantt charts

Writing your first marketing plan can feel daunting. This digital marketing plan makes it easy to outline key strategies for meeting your objectives. Use this gantt chart to track goal progress and keep your team and stakeholders informed. In this example, we grouped quarterly initiatives by project type.
Try this template for free!
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Need to plan an integrated digital marketing campaign? The gantt chart sample below shows you how to build a tactical plan across all your digital media. It's got tasks for foundational planning, content, and design work, plus subgroups for different marketing channels so you can outline a strategy for each one.
Try this template for free!
Event planning gantt chart

This event plan checklist breaks your event plan down into all the granular details. You can group tasks by planning phase and even vendor. In this example, we've used milestones to track important meetings, decisions, and deadlines and added dependencies between tasks that must get done before the next one can start.
Try this template for free!
Construction gantt chart

Construction project managers rely on gantt charts to manage moving parts across large projects. In this sample construction schedule, each phase of the construction process has been broken down into its own group of tasks. Important contract sign-off and inspections are represented by milestones.
Try this template for free!

How to make a gantt chart

Now that you've got the gantt chart basics down, you're ready to roll up your sleeves and create a gantt chart of your own! Let's walk through the process of how to build a gantt chart for your next project.

In this section, we'll go over:

What you need to create a gantt chart

You can't build a gantt chart without knowing some basic project information. That's why it's important to answer a few simple questions first.

These questions can help you gather all the right details so you can sketch out a project plan before you sit down to create your gantt chart. Get a more detailed look at how to write a good project plan.

What to consider when making a gantt chart

What are the major deliverables?

How will we get to those deliverables and the deadline?

What are the milestones we need to hit?

Are there dependencies that could impact the timeline?

Who is on the project team, and what role will they play in those deliverables?

How to build a basic gantt chart in minutes

There are lots of different ways to make a gantt chart. Some people use traditional desktop apps to create a gantt chart, while others use collaborative project management software.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how it's done in TeamGantt. If you'd rather use a spreadsheet to build your gantt chart, we've got guides for that too.

Just be sure to choose a gantt chart builder that gives you the features you need.

Follow the steps and examples below to learn how to build a gantt chart in TeamGantt in minutes. Sign up for a free account to follow along and create a gantt chart of your own.

Step 1: Set up your project details

Before you start mapping out tasks on a timeline, you need to gather a few basic project details.

To create a new gantt chart in TeamGantt, click the New Project button in the upper right corner of the My Projects screen.

Give your project a name and start date, and select the days of the week you want to include in your project.

Who invented the gantt chart?

The first project management chart was invented by Karol Adamiecki in 1896. So why isn't it called an Adamiecki chart? Good question!

Although Adamiecki created his precursor to the gantt chart-called the harmonogram-in the late 19th century, he didn't publish it until 1931. It got limited exposure at the time because it was only published in Polish.

Meanwhile, Henry Gantt published his own project management system in the 1910s to a much wider audience.

Here's a quick history of gantt charts:

1896: Karol Adamiecki creates the first project management chart: the Harmonogram, a precursor to the modern gantt chart.

1931: Adamiecki publishes the harmonogram (but in Polish with limited exposure).

1910-1915: Henry Gantt publishes his own project management system, the gantt chart.

Today: Gantt charts are the preferred tool for managing projects of all sizes and types.

Basic components of a gantt chart

Gantt charts may seem complicated at first. But once you learn how to read them, you'll be able to tell exactly where your projects are and what needs to happen to guide them to success.

Reading a gantt chart really comes down to understanding how the different elements come together to make a gantt chart work. Here's a simple gantt chart example with explanations of the core components:

Once you've completed these basics, click Create New Project to move on to adding tasks.

Plan your next project in minutes

When you're a project manager, every minute counts. So why waste time building out a bunch of complicated spreadsheets just to keep tabs on a project?

At TeamGantt, you don't have to. Our free online gantt chart software enables you to stay focused on the tasks that move the needle. Whip up a project plan in minutes, and watch your team cross the finish line faster. It really is that simple.

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Whether you're a project management rookie or veteran, you've probably heard of a gantt chart. While gantt charts might seem intimidating, they're not as mystifying as you might think.

In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about the gantt chart-from its definition and parts to how to create one quickly and easily. Find out how gantt charts work and why so many project teams use them in project management.

Watch this video for a quick breakdown of the basics.

What is a gantt chart?: Definition & overview

A gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart used in project management to visually represent a project plan over time. Gantt charts typically show you the timeline and status-as well as who's responsible-for each task in the project.

Here's a quick look at the details a gantt chart enables you to capture at a glance:

How a project breaks down into tasks

When each task will begin and end

How long each task will take

Who's assigned to each task

How tasks relate to and depend on each other

When important meetings, approvals, or deadlines need to happen

How work is progressing in a project

The full project schedule from start to finish

In other words, a gantt chart is a super-simple way to communicate what it will take to deliver a project on time and budget. That means it's a whole lot easier to keep your project team and stakeholders on the same page from the get-go.

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Let's break down the basic parts of a gantt chart so you understand how they function in a project plan.

Task list: Runs vertically down the left of the gantt chart to describe project work and may be organized into groups and subgroups

Timeline: Runs horizontally across the top of the gantt chart and shows months, weeks, days, and years

Dateline: A vertical line that highlights the current date on the gantt chart

Bars: Horizontal markers on the right side of the gantt chart that represent tasks and show progress, duration, and start and end dates

Milestones: Yellow diamonds that call out major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables

Dependencies: Light gray lines that connect tasks that need to happen in a certain order

Progress: Shows how far along work is and may be indicated by percent complete and/or bar shading

Resource assigned: Indicates the person or team responsible for completing a task

What is a gantt chart used for in project management?

In project management, gantt charts are used for planning and scheduling projects. A gantt chart is incredibly useful because it allows you to simplify complex projects into an easy-to-follow plan and track the status of tasks as work progresses.

Gantt charts also help you keep track of project deadlines, milestones, and hours worked so you can spot and address delays or overages before they wreak havoc on your project.

Who uses gantt charts?

Gantt charts are used by project managers, business owners, team leaders, and executives in many different industries across various departments. Here are just a few types of companies and teams that use gantt charts to plan, schedule, and execute their projects:

Step 2: Add tasks to your project

Adding tasks to your gantt chart is the first step in creating your project timeline. To create tasks, click on the Add Task link (+Task), and type the name of your first task.

Hit enter to add another task. Repeat this process until you have all (or most) of your tasks added to the task list.

Best practices for creating an effective gantt chart

If you want to build a gantt chart everyone can use and navigate, there are a few simple rules you should keep in mind. Follow these simple tips and best practices to make a good gantt chart that's easy to update and manage.

Do get granular with tasks.

The more detail you can spell out when it comes to tasks, the better you'll be able to track progress and steps leading up to a deliverable. Refer back to your work breakdown structure, and list the steps you used to create that.

Do organize tasks into groups or phases.

Creating groups of tasks will make your plan easier to scan and understand. It'll also allow your team and stakeholders to see what tasks are part of a deliverable or a phase.
Here's a quick look at how subgroups work in TeamGantt.

Do add important details and documents to tasks.

Sometimes your team and clients may forget what they committed to. Or maybe they don't fully understand the intent of a task or group.

Use the notes section of your plan (most gantt chart software should provide this) to spell things out. While you're at it, be sure to upload key files directly to the task so everything's ready and waiting for work to begin.

In the project sample below, we added notes about the scope of the task and uploaded a copy of the creative brief for more detail.

Do label tasks by responsible party.

This tip comes in handy for any project, but it's especially useful for client projects. Identifying which team or company is responsible for each task makes your gantt chart super-easy to scan.

When creating a task, you can assign labels you've set up on the People tab or simply put the company name (or an acronym) in front of the task. Here's how we tagged tasks in the following gantt chart example:

PT = Product Team

GM = Gantt Museum

Of course, you'll also want to take that a step further and assign each task to the person responsible. This will help you with resource allocation and accountability.

Don't skip dependencies.

If you're not going to move forward on the project without an approval-or one task must be done before another-now's your chance to note it.

Not every planning tool offers dependency functionality, and it can be a huge help. As your plan shifts, the flow of the work will stay intact.

Don't assign work without checking team availability.

If you're lucky enough to use a product that shows you overall team availability, use it! Knowing how booked your team is and what projects they're part of will play a huge role in delivering work on time and maintaining team morale.

Having an overall view of your team's availability and conflicting work will help you adjust your plan to either meet the needs of existing project work or shift the milestones you've put in your plan.
Here's how to view team availability directly from your gantt chart in TeamGantt.

Don't overlook holidays and time off.

Now is your chance to block time off in your plan. This is important now because as soon as your timeline shifts (you know it will, don't fight it), you'll open yourself up to making an error and dropping a deadline on a date that should be blocked. If you note them in your plan, that won't happen.

Don't forget to ask for feedback.

If you deliver a plan that has a mistake, misinterprets a task, or even misses a date, it can create confusion and delays. So grab a teammate and ask them to review your gantt chart before you post it for review.

Of course, you'll also want to be ready to get some feedback on your plan. Formalizing a plan means you're taking a set of ideas and expanding on them. That also means you might interpret something differently than a teammate. That's okay!

Don't set it and forget it.

A gantt chart is a living, breathing document that should keep up with project changes-not a fixed plan that's set in stone. Invite your team to collaborate on work and track progress in real time so your gantt chart's always up-to-date.

Collaborate with your team and stakeholders

Successful projects run on communication and collaboration. When project files and updates are scattered across different email threads and other platforms, it's hard to get a good sense of what needs to get done and how close you are to the finish line.

With an online gantt chart, you can streamline communication through a single channel that centers around your project plan.

Here's how to use a gantt chart to boost collaboration with your team and stakeholders.

Share your gantt chart with external stakeholders

Need to share project updates with contractors, clients, or other stakeholders? In TeamGantt, you have several options for sharing your gantt chart with external users:

Invite someone as a guest to your project: Inviting someone as a guest enables them to see and comment on tasks in a single project without making edits to the gantt chart itself.

Send a view-only link to your gantt chart: This option is great if you want to enable a client or stakeholder to monitor project progress without inviting them to become a user on your account.

‍Export your gantt chart as a PDF: This option enables you to filter a gantt chart down to only the information you want to share so clients and stakeholders can get a quick snapshot of the project.

Integrate your gantt chart with other collaboration apps

If your team uses multiple apps to collaborate on projects, why not integrate them with your gantt chart so everything connects back to the plan? Here are a few popular integrations you can use to keep your people and projects in sync:

Trello: See your cards in a project timeline, create dependencies between cards, and view workloads-all without ever leaving Trello.

Slack: Create tasks from chats, check your daily task list, and get notified about new comments and assignments right from Slack.

Dropbox: Share important documents more easily by uploading Dropbox files directly to your tasks and projects.

Zapier: Automate work and streamline collaboration by connecting TeamGantt to your other favorite apps.

‍TeamGantt API: Got a developer on hand? Build custom integrations with your TeamGantt data using our public API!

Manage resources and team workloads

It's hard to finish any project on time and budget when your team is overloaded and overwhelmed. A gantt chart plots everyone's work on a visual timeline so you can see how tasks stack up across your projects.

In TeamGantt, you can check and adjust workloads right from your gantt chart to avoid overbooking your team as you schedule new tasks.

Take a closer look at how to use gantt charts for project resource management.

Estimate project time and effort

Assigning hourly estimates to tasks in your gantt chart makes it easier to assess project scope, balance team workloads, and monitor project budget once work gets underway.

TeamGantt's Advanced plan comes with hourly estimation and time tracking. You can use these features to track and compare estimated vs. actual hours directly from your gantt chart. With that kind of visibility, you can keep a close eye on potential overages and get ahead of issues before they throw your whole project off course.

Estimating hours at the task level also gives you a more granular view of availability when assigning and scheduling work for your team. That way you can feel more confident your team can get the work done without missing deadlines.
Learn more about hourly estimation in TeamGantt.

Track progress against deadlines and estimates

One of the best things about using a gantt chart is the ability to see where a project stands at any given moment. After all, clients, bosses and other project stakeholders expect you to stick to your promises (aka: budgets and deadlines).

That's why it's important to monitor tasks to ensure you're on track to deliver work on time and budget. If things start to go sideways, you can adjust the gantt chart to get things back on track and reset expectations along the way.

Here's how to track progress and spot issues early in TeamGantt.

Hourly estimate vs. actual progress

TeamGantt's Advanced plan enables you to compare hourly estimates with actual progress so you can easily spot tasks that are taking longer than expected. Simply look for the thin striped line in the middle of each taskbar on your gantt chart, and pay attention to its color and length.

These indicators signal task trouble:

The striped line is red: This task (or group) is over-budget. More hours have been tracked than were originally estimated for the task.

‍The striped line is longer than the progress indicated for a task: The hours tracked are outpacing actual progress. That means this task (or group) is at risk for going over budget or missing a deadline.

Baselines

Remember how I said no matter how much planning you do, it's likely something will come up that requires you to move your timeline? It's handy to know how much you've had to move things over the course of a project. Enter: baselines.

What is a baseline in a gantt chart?
A baseline is a "snapshot" of your project in time. When you create a baseline set, you're grabbing a picture of your whole project so you have something to compare to when things inevitably shift for one reason or another.

Baselines are extremely important because they give you the "real" picture of shifts that have occurred. It's easy to think things are looking pretty good, when in reality you're 3 weeks behind and $10,000 over budget. Things can creep slowly, and without a set of baselines to compare to, it can be easy to get behind and not even fully realize it.
Learn how baselines work in TeamGantt.

Using multiple baseline sets in your gantt chart
A single baseline is great, but a single point doesn't show trends. Stringing multiple baseline sets together will give you a much clearer picture of when and why your project slipped. Was it due to consistently dragging manufacturing estimates? Or was it that the client was consistently slow in approving designs and signing contracts? Baselines can tell you exactly what you need to know so you can improve your estimating practices.

Baselines aren't just for showing you the negatives of your project. They're equally useful for seeing where things have gone better than expected. Just like you have to shift things around when tasks are delayed, you may have to make adjustments when things run ahead of schedule.

As you get better at tracking your project's slippage, you'll get better at making realistic estimates on timelines. Once you've mastered that skill, you'll have customers lining up because they know that when you plan a project, they have a timeline they can count on.

How does a gantt chart compare to other alternatives?

Project managers use a variety of tools-from gantt charts and kanban boards to spreadsheets and task lists-to keep up with project details, deadlines, and to-dos.

So what separates gantt charts from the rest of the pack when it comes to time-sensitive or complex projects? Spreadsheets, kanban boards, and task lists fall short when it comes to important project management tasks, like building a timeline, outlining dependencies, and managing workloads.

Without these 3 gantt chart features, you'll have a tough time communicating the plan to your team, clients, and stakeholders. Here are just a few examples of questions a gantt chart can help you answer:

Can we take on more work?

How will we get from point A to point B?

What needs to happen first?

Can we meet a requested deadline?

Who has the bandwidth to tackle these tasks?

Are we on track to finish on time?

How are we performing?

The good news is, you can use a gantt chart without foregoing other alternatives. Your team may prefer kanban boards for managing daily tasks or using a spreadsheet to create a RACI chart, and that's okay.

With TeamGantt, you've got choices. View and manage projects as a gantt chart, task list, calendar, or kanban board, and upload important spreadsheets to the project documents. No matter how you look at things, everything ties back to your plan.

Let's take a closer look at how a gantt chart can help you manage projects better.

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Gantt chart pros and cons

What's to love about gantt charts? And what should you be aware of before diving in? Here's a quick snapshot of the pros and cons so you can decide if a gantt chart is right for your projects.

What are the pros of using a gantt chart?

A gantt chart is like a front-row seat to the project action. All the tiny details you never noticed from the nosebleed section suddenly come to life in full color right before your very eyes. It's nearly impossible to miss a game-changing move!

Let's explore some of the biggest gantt chart pros in project management.

Visualize your entire project

A project plan is one thing. How it plays out is another. A gantt chart gives you a start-to-finish view of your entire project timeline so you can see how tasks are progressing in real time. That means you can provide up-to-the-minute status reports to managers and stakeholders in a flash.

See how tasks are connected

Let's face it: Things change. Lucky for you, modern gantt charts make it easy to shift tasks around without breaking your stride. With dependencies -a star feature of any gantt chart-you can keep tasks connected even when your timeline gives you the ol' switcheroo.

Keep everyone on the same page and on time

Clear communication is a must-have in any project. Without it, you risk project delays and cost overruns. Web-based gantt charts, like TeamGantt, ensure no one's left in the dark. That's because all your project info and discussion threads live in one central hub that everyone can access, making team collaboration a breeze.

Know who's busy and who isn't

If you want to make smart business decisions, you've got to have a good grasp on your resources. With gantt charts, resource management is no longer a guessing game. You can see who's got bandwidth to take on new tasks at a glance.

See a full list of gantt chart benefits.

Do gantt charts have limitations?

Some folks think gantt charts are too complicated to build, read, and update. While traditional desktop apps have their limitations, most of the cons people associate with gantt charts don't apply to the online gantt chart software you'll find today.

That's because modern gantt charts ushered in a whole new era of project management. Now gantt charts offer clean and simple design with drag and drop scheduling so you can build and adjust project plans in an instant. And because everything happens online, it's easy to share plans, collaborate on work, update tasks, and track progress in real time.

Let's look at how modern gantt charts compare to traditional desktop apps.

Modern gantt charts vs. desktop apps

Gantt charts come in many forms-from good old-fashioned paper to desktop apps and even web-based software.

Bringing gantt charts online transforms them from a static document that quickly becomes obsolete to a living, collaborative representation of a project's current state. Team members can update their progress in real time, and stakeholders can check in on project status without having to go through you. Plus, it's easy to stay in sync and push projects across the finish line more quickly.

See how TeamGantt's modern gantt chart tool compares to 2 popular desktop apps:

Advanced features to look for in a modern gantt chart

A good modern gantt chart should be a part of a complete project management solution. Look for these advanced gantt chart software features to ensure your team and projects stay on track:

Team collaboration

Multiple project views, including kanban boards, task lists, and calendar views

Reporting

Time tracking and hourly estimation

Workload management

Mobile access

Integrations

TeamGantt has all of this! Try it for free.

Continue learning about gantt charts

Now that you know how to make a gantt chart, you're ready to move on to the next step! Keep reading to learn how to use your gantt chart to manage your team's time and availability more easily.

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Managing Resources with Your Gantt Chart

Step 3: Schedule your tasks

Now that you've got a full list of work to be done, it's time to schedule all those tasks. TeamGantt makes scheduling tasks super-simple because you can drag and drop each task on your timeline.

To place the taskbar on your gantt chart, simply click on the timeline below the date you'd like to schedule your task. Then drag either side of the taskbar to shorten or extend the task's duration.

Step 4: Add important project milestones

Adding milestones to your gantt chart makes it easy to track project deadlines, approvals, meetings, and other key deliverables or events. In TeamGantt, a milestone appears as a yellow diamond on your gantt chart.

To add a milestone to your gantt chart, simply click on the Milestone link, give your new milestone a name, and drag the milestone icon across the gantt chart to schedule it on the timeline.

Repeat this process until you have all your milestones added to the list.

Step 5: Add dependencies to the tasks that need them

Now that your tasks and milestones are entered and scheduled, hover over a task, and click the gray dot that appears.

Click and drag the dependency line to the task you want to link it to.

Step 6: Invite people to your project and assign tasks to those responsible

Click the Invite People button at the upper right corner of your project to go to your project's People page. From there, click the blue Invite People link, located just below the list of people who are already part of your project.

If the user already exists in your account:
Simply select the checkbox next to the person you want to add to your project, then click the blue Add to Project button that appears. This person will automatically receive an invitation to log into TeamGantt and access the project.

If the user does not exist in your account yet:
Click the Add New Person link. Then enter the person's name and email address, select their company-level permission, and click the Add User to Company button. (Note: Guest users and Basic users are automatically added with View Only project permission, while Advanced users are added with Edit Chart project permission.)

Feel free to add your own custom notification message, then click Add to Project to finalize the invite. This person will automatically receive an invitation to get set up in TeamGantt and access the project.
Learn more about inviting people to your project in TeamGantt.

Step 7: Apply task colors to enhance visualization on your gantt chart

Color is a great way to make your gantt chart easy to understand at a quick glance.

Hover over a taskbar, and click on the colored square. Choose a new color, and you're all done!

When should you use a gantt chart?

A gantt chart comes in handy when your project requires more planning than a basic to-do list. Here are a few sure signs you're going to need a gantt chart to get the job done:

Your project has a hard deadline.

Multiple people or teams are involved in the project and need to be coordinated.

A boss, client, or team member wants to see a visual timeline of the project from beginning to end.

Your project involves even just a little complexity, such as tasks that need to be done in a specific order.

Team members work on multiple projects at a time, and you need to manage their workloads.

You have a good idea of roughly how long each task should or can take.

If ANY of the conditions above apply to your project, use a gantt chart!

Gantt chart examples

Now let's look at 7 examples of gantt charts you could use for different project types. Use these ideas as an easy starting point for making a gantt chart for your projects.

Software project gantt chart

Taking a hybrid approach to an upcoming software project? This software development plan shows you how to use a gantt chart for an Agile project. Tasks have been organized into groups based on sprints, with milestones for sprint planning and deployment.
Try this template for free!
Design project gantt chart

This sample gantt chart is perfect for planning a website build or redesign. It breaks activities down into basic phases from discovery, content, and design to development, launch, and maintenance. Feel free to keep your website development plan simple or build it out to cover all your project bases.
Try this template for free!
Media production gantt chart

Want to get one step closer to lights, camera, action? We designed this video production schedule to help you hit your release dates right on time. In this gantt chart example, tasks are organized and color-coded by the 3 phases of a media project: pre-production, production, and post-production.
Try this template for free!
Marketing gantt charts

Writing your first marketing plan can feel daunting. This digital marketing plan makes it easy to outline key strategies for meeting your objectives. Use this gantt chart to track goal progress and keep your team and stakeholders informed. In this example, we grouped quarterly initiatives by project type.
Try this template for free!
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Need to plan an integrated digital marketing campaign? The gantt chart sample below shows you how to build a tactical plan across all your digital media. It's got tasks for foundational planning, content, and design work, plus subgroups for different marketing channels so you can outline a strategy for each one.
Try this template for free!
Event planning gantt chart

This event plan checklist breaks your event plan down into all the granular details. You can group tasks by planning phase and even vendor. In this example, we've used milestones to track important meetings, decisions, and deadlines and added dependencies between tasks that must get done before the next one can start.
Try this template for free!
Construction gantt chart

Construction project managers rely on gantt charts to manage moving parts across large projects. In this sample construction schedule, each phase of the construction process has been broken down into its own group of tasks. Important contract sign-off and inspections are represented by milestones.
Try this template for free!

How to make a gantt chart

Now that you've got the gantt chart basics down, you're ready to roll up your sleeves and create a gantt chart of your own! Let's walk through the process of how to build a gantt chart for your next project.

In this section, we'll go over:

What you need to create a gantt chart

You can't build a gantt chart without knowing some basic project information. That's why it's important to answer a few simple questions first.

These questions can help you gather all the right details so you can sketch out a project plan before you sit down to create your gantt chart. Get a more detailed look at how to write a good project plan.

What to consider when making a gantt chart

What are the major deliverables?

How will we get to those deliverables and the deadline?

What are the milestones we need to hit?

Are there dependencies that could impact the timeline?

Who is on the project team, and what role will they play in those deliverables?

How to build a basic gantt chart in minutes

There are lots of different ways to make a gantt chart. Some people use traditional desktop apps to create a gantt chart, while others use collaborative project management software.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how it's done in TeamGantt. If you'd rather use a spreadsheet to build your gantt chart, we've got guides for that too.

Just be sure to choose a gantt chart builder that gives you the features you need.

Follow the steps and examples below to learn how to build a gantt chart in TeamGantt in minutes. Sign up for a free account to follow along and create a gantt chart of your own.

Step 1: Set up your project details

Before you start mapping out tasks on a timeline, you need to gather a few basic project details.

To create a new gantt chart in TeamGantt, click the New Project button in the upper right corner of the My Projects screen.

Give your project a name and start date, and select the days of the week you want to include in your project.

Who invented the gantt chart?

The first project management chart was invented by Karol Adamiecki in 1896. So why isn't it called an Adamiecki chart? Good question!

Although Adamiecki created his precursor to the gantt chart-called the harmonogram-in the late 19th century, he didn't publish it until 1931. It got limited exposure at the time because it was only published in Polish.

Meanwhile, Henry Gantt published his own project management system in the 1910s to a much wider audience.

Here's a quick history of gantt charts:

1896: Karol Adamiecki creates the first project management chart: the Harmonogram, a precursor to the modern gantt chart.

1931: Adamiecki publishes the harmonogram (but in Polish with limited exposure).

1910-1915: Henry Gantt publishes his own project management system, the gantt chart.

Today: Gantt charts are the preferred tool for managing projects of all sizes and types.

Basic components of a gantt chart

Gantt charts may seem complicated at first. But once you learn how to read them, you'll be able to tell exactly where your projects are and what needs to happen to guide them to success.

Reading a gantt chart really comes down to understanding how the different elements come together to make a gantt chart work. Here's a simple gantt chart example with explanations of the core components:

Once you've completed these basics, click Create New Project to move on to adding tasks.

Plan your next project in minutes

When you're a project manager, every minute counts. So why waste time building out a bunch of complicated spreadsheets just to keep tabs on a project?

At TeamGantt, you don't have to. Our free online gantt chart software enables you to stay focused on the tasks that move the needle. Whip up a project plan in minutes, and watch your team cross the finish line faster. It really is that simple.

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What Is a Gantt Chart? 7 Examples for Project Management

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A gantt chart visually represents a project plan over time. See what elements to include and examples of how to create and use a gantt chart in project management.

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WHY YOU SHOULD USE A FLOW CHART( THIS WAS STATED AND STUDITED BY THE UNIVERSITY ITS SELF)

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WHY YOU SHOULD USE A FLOW CHART( THIS WAS STATED AND STUDITED BY THE UNIVERSITY ITS SELF)

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When designing and planning a process, flowcharts can help you identify its essential steps and simultaneously offer the bigger picture of the process. It organises the tasks in chronological order and identify them by type, e.g. process, decision, data, etc.

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Prioritise input and deliverables in order of completion

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Prioritise input and deliverables in order of completion

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Assign each task to a project team member - share responsibilities across the team equally

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Assign each task to a project team member - share responsibilities across the team equally

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Each level represents a new and increasingly detailed definition of work needed to complete the project

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Each level represents a new and increasingly detailed definition of work needed to complete the project