The Gantt chart is one of the most used tools to simplify project monitoring. Its visual simplicity allows everyone to visualize all the tasks to be completed and the associated deadlines in an instant. It is one of the “must have” of the project management.
The origin of the name of this chart comes from its creator: Henry Gantt. He developed his tool at the beginning of the 20th century with one objective in mind: optimizing the organization of work in the workshop. While the Gantt chart is much more effective at organizing small projects at the beginning, it will be perfected by Morgan Walker and James Kellley and their Critical Path Method (CPM) and will become capable of improving the execution of much larger projects.
The Gantt chart is now considered to be one of the best tools for organizing and planning the tasks needed to execute projects.
The principle is simple:
The Gantt chart therefore provides a global visibility of all tasks and the deadlines associated with them. The longer the rectangle that represents the task, the more time we will have dedicated to the execution of this task.
Tasks can be connected to each other: in this case, we know that one cannot start, until the first one is finished. The Gantt chart is therefore one of the ways to avoid running into a bottleneck and falling behind schedule.
Thanks to its visual simplicity, the Gantt chart allows everyone, whether they know the project well or not at all, to understand at a glance the various activities to be carried out to complete the project, as well as their organization over time.
There are many benefits to using a Gantt chart, here are a few:
Several methodologies exist, here is one in 5 steps!
Bring together all the stakeholders in your project and ask them to list all the tasks they must perform: you will get all the tasks that must be done to complete your project. Do not hesitate to assign each of your tasks to its sub-tasks, which can themselves be subdivided into actions (in the form of “bullet points” for example). The objective is not to forget anything: the more comprehensive your diagram is, the more likely you are to meet your deadlines. Then place all of these tasks, subtasks, and actions (if required) on the left side of the chart.
You must then assign each of your resources (budgetary, human, etc.) to your tasks, sub-tasks. For example, you need to determine how much work each of your teams will do on the various tasks you have listed. And you can also go into a little more detail, by assigning the workload of each of your employees to sub-tasks or even actions.
Once you have listed all your tasks and allocated all of your resources, you will need to organize them chronologically. The objective here is to find the ideal order of completion of your various tasks. For each of them, therefore, decide on a start and end date. Take the time to properly assess the time required to complete each of these tasks.
The idea here is to avoid getting stuck because the completion of one task was a condition for the start of the execution of another. And precisely, by linking two tasks together, you can visualize at any time that one is dependent on the other.
Consider differentiating between several different types of connections:
Note that a task may have several previous mandatory tasks. In this case, all of these tasks must be completed in order to start the next one. Conversely, a task can have several subsequent tasks. In this case, the end of this task conditions the start of the others.
Les project milestones correspond to the key stages of your project. By defining them and by anticipating important deadlines, you increase your visibility on the execution of your project. By integrating them into your Gantt chart, you will be able to visualize the different phases and main stages of your project at a glance.
The Gantt chart gives you a global view of all the tasks you need to complete as well as the dates by which you must have completed them. The kanban It will allow you to go into more detail about the implementation of your project.
The Kanban method therefore offers various advantages complementary to the Gantt chart: you can monitor the progress of each task, involve your employees and use it as a support for your meetings. Combining these two tools can therefore be an asset for your project!
After Gantt, (re) discover The project milestone : a technique for sequencing your projects intelligently.
