Gantt Chart Guide for Successful Project Management

Solar projects, like any other project, entail a huge investment and hence, proper management skills are required for efficient working and completion. Project managers handle different sizes of projects, some of which may require large numbers of human resources and a combination of activities to make them successful. Managing many tasks and a large workforce at the same time can impact negatively on the manager and affect the overall outcome of the project. 

Gantt charts assist project managers in handling project logistics in a centralized way to track project success in milestones and make a report on time.

Understanding Gantt Charts

Different projects require different management approaches, inputs, and timelines. Gantt Chart in project management helps project managers in setting up plans, schedules, and timelines of various project needs. 

They simplify assignments for large and small projects by showing the milestones, chores and completion time, inter-dependence, schedules, team leaders, and achievements for each phase of the project. 

They show the interrelationship between activities and their interdependence as well as showing milestones and deadlines. 

In summary, this is what Gantt Charts do:

• They show the full project in a visual way
• They track progress per phase
• They show Milestones and completion deadlines
• They show how each activity is related to the other and how they depend on each other

How did Gantt Chart Begin?

Gantt chart history dates back to over 100 years when Joseph Prestly drew bars to simplify people’s biography in 1765 and two decades later, William Playfair invented a graphical representation that included bars, lines, and pie charts. Finally, in 1896, Karol Admieski came up with a theory of using visual solutions in dealing with production challenges in factories. 

The name Gantt was derived from engineer Henry Gantt who invented the Gantt common control manufacturing chart, which played a central role in organizing orders in goods production plants. 

From that time, originations have been using Gantt charts as a planning tool. Today, the charts have evolved into expert organizational software tools like Microsoft project planning tool, Safran, and Oracle. 

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How to they wok

Gantt Chart is user-friendly and easy to understand and helps the manager cooperate with his team in a smooth way by bringing the team onboard. You can involve the whole team to input their tasks and progress in the chart or input the tasks in advance by importing from another software or copy-pasting so that by the time your team reports on duty, their tasks are already input in the software. 

The project task progression is well captured in the Gantt chart and can be modified at any time to improve project efficiency and resource management. This is how it works. 

Assign tasks

Assign responsibilities to your team. The name of the person assigned each task appears on the top of the taskbar to the right side. On the left side, the tasks are displayed and show the start and completion date. 

Modify the chart

Modify your chart to fit your teams by assigning different colors for each team member so that you can easily notice what each member was assigned. You can also use colors to track each phase of the project and the team involved in each phase. 

Add files, observations, and remark

You can add visuals, remarks, video, advice, and more notifying a group or Indi duals on what to do, if they are doing it well, their next step, and so on. You can also link files for easier accessibility by team members. 

Create Online Alerts

You are able to circulate custom alerts to your team and vice versa so that each assigned task gets timely updates either on Gantt or in other communication software. 

Update new developments

Any new developments pertaining to the project can be posted in the Gantt chart including the current ongoing work, currently finished tasks, changes in team tasks, delays in certain departments, and so on. 

Role of Gantt Chart in Business Management

Organizing projects and monitoring

The prime role of Gantt charts is assisting teams in a project organize and monitor progress in terms of milestones, chores, inter-dependence, and budget monitoring. 

Administration of tasks

It is easy to administrate tasks assigned to members and track their progress, check on assigned items, among others.

Team cooperation

The chart assists team members to cooperate on their assignments by bringing them in a single sheet. It lets the team take leading roles in the project by sharing common project knowledge while the manager follow-up closely without frequent reminders of the project goals. 

Resource administration

With Gantt Charts, managers will not only assign different roles to members. It will also help in managing other resources including row material, financial, and others. 

Conclusion

There are various types of Gantt Charts that play important roles in project administration. Some Gantt Charts are used for construction projects, project plans, proposals, and consultants. Their benefits outweigh their cons because when professionally used, project outcomes get accelerated and perfected. 

Author Bio:
James Dorian is a technical copywriter. He is a tech geek who specializes in modern apps that will make your work more productive. James reads tons of online blogs on technology, business, and ways to become a real pro in our modern world of innovations.