Gantt charts are a sort of bar chart that’s utilized in venture scheduling. The first design for a Gantt chart was made by Henry Gantt a while between 1920-1915. In the 100+ years of its existence, the Gantt chart has moved from paper to digital instruments, akin to a Gantt chart in Excel.
If you’re not utilizing a Gantt chart to schedule your duties and see your complete venture on a visible timeline, then you definitely’re at a drawback. While sophisticated to create and edit on paper, a Gantt chart in Excel is less complicated to use. Let’s go into why to use a Gantt chart in Excel, how to make one and the place to obtain a free Gantt chart template in Excel.
Why Should You Make a Gantt Chart In Excel?
A Gantt chart is a necessary software in venture administration, particularly for initiatives that use conventional methodologies, akin to waterfall. That’s as a result of the Gantt chart for Excel particulars the construction of a venture that strikes ahead linearly, section by section.
The Gantt chart for Excel organizes duties, together with their begin dates and finish dates. This length is then mirrored on the timeline as a bar. You may even observe the progress of these duties by shading that bar in accordance to what share of the duty has been accomplished.
As famous, a Gantt chart for Excel is 2 paperwork. On the left-hand aspect is a normal-looking spreadsheet. Here, you possibly can checklist your duties, due dates and assets wanted together with the prices associated to that line merchandise. The Gantt chart for Excel spreadsheet can seize a giant quantity of precious venture info.
The timeline aspect of the Gantt chart for Excel can pinpoint milestones. These are normally diamond-shaped icons that point out essential venture dates, akin to the top of 1 section and the start of one other or a deliverable, and so forth. You may even point out duties which are depending on one other activity to ensure that them to begin or end.
As helpful as a Gantt chart for Excel could be, there are limitations. Even a digital Gantt chart requires manually updating information, which takes time away from the venture. There has been one other evolution as Gantt charts on paper moved to Gantt charts for Excel and, now, Gantt charts as a part of a bigger venture administration software program resolution.
ProjectSupervisor is award-winning venture administration software program with highly effective Gantt charts that transcend the constraints of Gantt charts for Excel and join to all our different options seamlessly. You can do all the pieces on our Gantt charts that you are able to do on a Gantt chart for Excel and hyperlink all 4 sorts of activity dependencies to keep away from delays, filter for the important path to determine important duties and set a baseline, which permits you to monitor the deliberate progress towards your precise progress in actual time to assist you to hold the venture on observe. Get began with ProjectSupervisor at this time without cost.
How to Make a Gantt Chart In Excel
Making a Gantt chart in Excel is a time-consuming and labor-intensive course of as a result of Microsoft Excel doesn’t have built-in options for making Gantt charts like ProjectSupervisor. However, you possibly can nonetheless manually create Excel Gantt charts in case you’re a sophisticated Excel person, as complicated Excel formulation and formatting is required to form a spreadsheet into a Gantt chart from scratch. Here’s a fast overview of what this course of appears to be like like.
1. Make a Project Table
Make a desk with 4 columns as proven within the picture to checklist your venture duties. Then, add a system to calculate the length of every activity by subtracting the top date from the beginning date. This is the length worth.
2. Make a Stacked Bar Chart
Make a normal stacked bar chart with information out of your venture desk. The very first thing you’ll want to do is to choose the “Start (Date)” column after which click on on insert and choose the stacked bar chart from the graph menu, as proven within the picture under.
3. Add Data to Your Excel Gantt Chart
Right-click the stacked bar chart after which click on on “select data” from the dropdown checklist.
Then click on “Add” underneath “Legend Entries (Series)” and use the information choice software to seize values from the “Duration (Days)” column. Select solely the “Duration (Days)” cell to set it because the “Series name.”
Then choose the remainder of the column because the “Series Values.”
4. Edit the Horizontal Axis of Your Excel Gantt Chart
Right-click your stacked bar chart once more and click on on “Select Data,” however this time, click on on “Edit,” underneath “Horizontal (class) Axis Labels.
Next, choose all values from the “Task Name” column.
After you’ve taken these steps, your stacked bar chart ought to appear like this.
5. Format Your Excel Gantt Chart
To flip this stacked bar chart into a Gantt chart timeline, you’ll want to format this stacked bar chart to present the duty bars like a Gantt chart. To achieve this, comply with these two steps:
Right-click the blue bars, go to format information sequence after which take away the fill colour.
Now right-click the duty names, go to the format axis after which examine the “categories in reverse order” checkbox.
And that’s the way you make a Gantt chart in Excel. However, in case you’d like to save a while, you should use our Gantt chart template for making an Excel Gantt chart in minutes.
Gantt Chart Excel Template
Yes, constructing a Gantt chart for Excel from scratch is a lot of labor. But it’s value it. Still, there are workarounds. For instance, ProjectSupervisor has a free Gantt chart template for Excel which you could obtain and use proper now. Our free Gantt chart for Excel is formatted so you possibly can simply add your duties and begin and finish dates and so they’ll mechanically populate the timeline to the correct. Download your free Gantt chart template for Excel now and save your self the effort and time of constructing one from scratch.
Advantages of Excel Gantt Charts
We’ve already talked about among the benefits of utilizing a Gantt chart for Excel, however there are numerous extra. The most evident benefit is that a venture supervisor can see all the pieces that’s happening within the venture, but in addition it improves communication with stakeholders and the venture staff. Managers know who’s engaged on what, when it’s due and whether or not it’s on observe.
A Gantt chart for Excel additionally helps with avoiding useful resource overload. You can plan your assets effectively and be sure to have what you want if you want it. Using activity dependencies makes it simpler to keep away from overlapping actions, which may trigger bottlenecks that affect your schedule. This additionally improves time administration, which is essential for maintaining to your venture schedule.
You may construct higher communication along with your staff and that’ll lead to improved productiveness. The work is clear on a Gantt chart for Excel, which helps groups collaborate. And, in case you’re engaged on multiple venture at a time, you possibly can view all these initiatives on a Gantt chart for Excel to higher share assets and get probably the most worth out of the portfolio or program.
Disadvantages of Excel Gantt Charts
All that doesn’t imply Gantt charts for Excel are with out their issues. As you possibly can see from the how-to tutorial above, constructing a Gantt chart in Excel could be tough. There’s a lot you’ve to manually add and the extra complicated the venture, the extra arduous the duty of making a Gantt chart in Excel. That doesn’t even converse to having to edit the Gantt chart in Excel, which is nearly like ranging from scratch.
You can attempt to add formulation to construct the bar chart a part of the Gantt chart, however Excel isn’t actually constructed for this kind of work. It’ll contain coding past a easy system to populate the bar chart from the spreadsheet. While you may get templates that do that, they nonetheless require manually inputting the information. Suddenly, the price when it comes to time is trumping no matter financial savings you may counsel you’re getting from not investing in venture administration software program.
The benefits of utilizing a Gantt chart are undisputable, nonetheless, a Gantt chart for Excel places the brakes on the effectivity of the software to the purpose many will draw back from utilizing it. That’d be a mistake. Gantt charts don’t have to dwell in Excel spreadsheets. When a part of a venture administration software program they’re simple to create, edit and share with the staff.
Free Project Management Templates for Excel
Of course, everybody loves free templates. If you’re not prepared to improve to venture administration software program, ProjectSupervisor has dozens of free venture administration templates for Excel and Word which you could obtain proper now. We have free templates for each section of your venture. Here are a few that work effectively with the Gantt chart for Excel.
Project Budget Template
To assist make extra correct estimates when budgeting a venture, use our free venture funds template for Excel. Our free funds template for Excel lists all of your duties, the accompanying labor and materials prices and even has columns to observe your precise prices towards your funds.
Project Plan Template
Before you possibly can fill in your Gantt chart for Excel you’ve to have created a thorough venture plan. Use our free venture plan template for Word to write all the pieces out of your venture scope, milestones and duties to funds, threat and alter administration.
Project Dashboard Template
A Gantt chart for Excel can assist you intend and even observe your work to an extent. But if you want an instantaneous high-level overview use our free dashboard template for Excel. It converts uncooked information into charts exhibiting prices, workload and rather more.
ProjectSupervisor Is Better Than Making a Gantt Chart In Excel
Once you get uninterested in manually updating your templates, that are at all times behind the venture you’re monitoring, then you definitely’ll need to improve to venture administration software program. ProjectSupervisor is award-winning venture administration software program that delivers real-time information to make extra insightful choices. Our Gantt charts depart Gantt charts for Excel within the mud, mechanically updating with dwell information so that you’re seeing the precise venture’s progress and efficiency, not a snapshot of yesterday’s information.
Work on Multiple Project Planning Tools
But the Gantt chart is just one of many a number of venture views you get with our software program. Gantt charts are nice for managers, however groups normally don’t want all that information. They need to concentrate on their duties, which is precisely what they’ll do with strong activity lists. Or they’ll handle their backlog and collaborate with kanban boards that visualize workflow and provides managers visibility into the method to allow them to spot bottlenecks early and reallocate assets rapidly to hold manufacturing transferring ahead. The calendar view is nice for stakeholders who need to be sure that milestones are being met. All views replace concurrently so everyone seems to be at all times on the identical web page.
Track With Real-time Project Dashboards
You can use the free dashboard template for Excel, however why waste all that point setting it up and manually inputting the information? Our real-time dashboard works mechanically and captures dwell information, which is then displayed in easy-to-read graphs and charts that present venture metrics akin to time, value and extra. Other venture administration instruments have dashboards, however identical to an Excel spreadsheet, you’ll have to spend a lot of time configuring them. Ours is prepared to offer you a high-level overview of the venture everytime you need. Just toggle over and it’s prepared.
Our software program additionally has threat administration options to determine venture dangers when planning after which observe and resolve points as they come up within the venture. Resource administration instruments make it simple to set the provision of your staff to streamline assignments after which monitor their work to steadiness workload and hold them productive. There’s automated workflow and activity approvals and a lot greater than a Gant chart for Excel can’t even dream of.
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ProjectSupervisor is on-line venture administration software program that connects groups whether or not they’re within the subsequent workplace, on the job web site or wherever in between. We foster collaboration by making it simple to share information, remark on the activity degree and rather more. Join groups from Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software program to ship profitable initiatives. Get began with ProjectSupervisor at this time without cost.
