What is a Gantt chart?
A Gantt chart is a widely used project management tool that visually represents tasks over time, helping to map out project plans and monitor progress. Gantt charts are particularly well-suited for projects with fixed deadlines and multiple parallel tasks. Their structure allows teams to efficiently plan, track, and successfully complete their work.
The origins of the Gantt chart trace back to 1890 when Polish engineer Karol Adamiecki developed the Harmonogram, which led to significant performance improvements across various industries. About 20 years later, American engineer Henry Gantt expanded on this concept, creating charts that recorded workers' progress on tasks. These charts allowed supervisors to quickly determine whether production plans were behind schedule, ahead of schedule, or on track. Initially used for planning machine occupancy and job sequencing, the Gantt chart has since become an essential tool for project managers worldwide.
Structure of a Gantt chart
A Gantt chart visually represents the timeline of a project and links it to individual tasks. It comprises two main components:
- Timeline (horizontal axis): this axis displays the entire project duration, divided into days, weeks, or months, depending on the project's complexity and length.
- Task list (vertical axis): this axis lists all project tasks or milestones that need to be completed to finish the project.
Additionally, a Gantt chart includes other essential elements that facilitate clear and effective project planning:
- Dates: these indicate the start and end of the entire project, providing a clear overview of when the project begins and is expected to be completed.
- Tasks: a project consists of multiple sub-tasks, each represented by a bar whose length indicates the task duration. The start and end points of the bar show the beginning and end of the respective task.
- Estimated timeline: this shows the time allocated for each task, ensuring all tasks are completed on time and allowing for monitoring the project's overall timely completion.
- Dependencies: some tasks can only start after others are completed. These dependencies are illustrated in the Gantt chart to maintain control flow and ensure the project progresses efficiently.
There are four types of task dependencies:
1. Finish-to-start: the classic relationship in the critical path, where a task can only start once the previous one is finished.
2. Finish-to-finish: a task can only be completed after another task is finished.
3. Start-to-start: a task can only begin after another task has started.
4. Start-to-finish: a task can only be completed after another task has begun. This relationship is the opposite of finish-to-start and is very rare.
- Progress: the progress of tasks can be visualized by coloring the bars, making it easy to see at a glance how far the project has advanced and which tasks have been completed.
- Current date: a vertical line marking the current date spans the entire chart, providing a clear overview of where the project stands in the timeline and helping monitor progress.
Advantages of Gantt charts
Gantt charts offer several crucial benefits for project management:
Visual clarity
Gantt charts provide a clear, graphical representation of tasks, schedules, and dependencies that are easy to understand at a glance. This visual structure makes it immediately apparent which tasks need to be completed and how they are connected, facilitating understanding and transparency for all team members.
Effective time management
Project managers and teams can keep track of the schedule. It is clear which tasks are pending, how long they will take, and when they need to be completed. This helps continuously monitor progress and ensure the project is completed on time. Delays can be detected early, and corrective actions can be taken.
Targeted communication
Gantt charts improve communication within the team and with external stakeholders. The clear representation of the entire project allows all parties to see and understand the current status and dependencies. This fosters targeted and efficient communication, avoiding misunderstandings and confusion.
Resource planning
The clear representation of task duration and sequence in a Gantt chart makes it easier to plan and allocate resources efficiently, ensuring that personnel, budgets, or materials are available when needed, avoiding overloads.
Planning flexibility
Gantt charts provide planners with the flexibility to adjust the project course as needed. If conditions change or unexpected issues arise, tasks can be reprioritized, rescheduled, or restructured. These adjustments are immediately visible in the chart, keeping the entire team up-to-date and adaptable to new requirements.
Identification of bottlenecks
A key advantage is the early identification of critical tasks and potential bottlenecks. Tasks that could delay the entire project are highlighted, allowing for early action to avoid delays, minimizing the risk of project overruns, and ensuring project success.
Gantt charts in waterfall and agile approaches
Waterfall method and Gantt charts
In the waterfall model of project planning, a linear approach is followed, where stakeholder and customer requirements are gathered at the beginning of the project. Based on this, project managers create a sequential project plan with clearly defined milestones and deadlines. Each section of the project builds on the completion of the previous tasks. This model is particularly suitable for teams focused on established processes, such as in construction or manufacturing, where steps must be meticulously planned in advance.
Gantt charts are a preferred tool in this method as they clearly represent the sequential progress and dependencies between tasks.
Agile method and Gantt charts
In contrast, the agile method emphasizes flexibility and adaptability. Instead of creating a complete timeline with fixed deadlines, agile teams break projects into smaller, manageable iterations called sprints. At the beginning of a sprint, the team focuses on specific project goals for the upcoming weeks. After a sprint is completed, the results are evaluated and used in planning the next sprint.
A Gantt chart can help visualize how changes to a task might affect the overall plan or product roadmap. For agile teams, this is particularly important, as continuous stakeholder feedback is a central component of the methodology.
How to create a Gantt chart?
1. Identifying tasks
The first step in creating a Gantt chart is identifying all tasks or milestones necessary for completing the project. The entire project should be broken down into manageable subtasks to ensure that no essential steps are overlooked and that each task is clearly defined. It’s important to consider even smaller tasks, as they are often crucial for overall progress. Thorough task identification lays the foundation for successful project planning.
2. Determining duration
After identifying tasks, estimate the expected duration for each task. This estimate should be as realistic as possible, based on experience, historical data, or expert judgment. It's advisable to include buffer times to account for unforeseen delays. Accurately determining the duration of each task helps establish the overall project timeline, ensuring that all activities can be completed on schedule.
3. Defining dependencies
A crucial aspect of project planning is determining dependencies between tasks. Some tasks cannot begin until others are completed, while some can run concurrently. It’s important to precisely identify these dependencies and determine the sequence in which tasks must be executed. Defining dependencies clearly structures the project’s control flow, helping avoid bottlenecks and increasing efficiency.
4. Creating the chart
In the next step, the Gantt chart is created. The previously identified tasks are listed on the chart's vertical axis. Each task is represented by a bar, with its length reflecting the task's duration. The bar's position on the timeline shows the start and end dates of the task. Dependencies between tasks are illustrated with arrows or lines. The result is a visual representation of the entire project plan, providing a clear overview of the project's timeline and sequence.
5. Monitoring and adjusting
A Gantt chart is not just a planning tool but also a tool for monitoring project progress. The chart should be regularly updated during the project to track the actual progress of tasks. Adjustments should be made to keep the project on track in case of delays or changes in conditions. This continuous monitoring and adjustment help detect problems early and manage the project flexibly. By updating the Gantt chart, the entire team remains informed and can respond effectively to changes.
Creating Gantt charts with project management tools
Gantt charts were initially created on paper, but with the introduction of computers in the 1980s, they became more complex and sophisticated. Today, specialized project management tools greatly facilitate the creation, updating, and monitoring of these charts.
Tools like Atlassian Jira or Trello offer user-friendly interfaces that allow teams to plan and manage their projects in real time. With these software solutions, tasks can be moved flexibly, dependencies automatically calculated, and progress tracked visually.
Creating a Gantt chart with Atlassian Jira
To meet the needs of modern software development, roadmap tools like Jira offer features such as collapsible task structures and views for resource management. These features help teams maintain a consistent project strategy despite the iterative nature of software development processes. Jira includes two roadmap tools that allow you to create Gantt charts for projects: The Timeline view enables plans for Jira issues assigned to a specific team, while the Plans view offers the same functionality for all teams and organizations.
Project-specific diagrams – Jira Timeline
The screenshot shown here from the "Timeline" view illustrates a project-specific Gantt chart often used at the team level or within individual departments. This chart shows how the team is progressing toward its goals, while a collapsible work breakdown structure helps project managers keep track of key project stories. Jira provides a free project management template that already includes Gantt charts.
High-level organizational chart – Plans
The Timeline view allows for quick and straightforward planning, helping teams efficiently manage dependencies and track progress in real time. These roadmaps, used at the project or team level, are particularly useful for planning large tasks.
For planning, managing, and tracking tasks that need to be coordinated across teams or the entire organization, "Plans" is recommended.
Programs with cross-team workflows offer advanced tools like capacity management and automatic scheduling features, enabling the creation of more complex plans. They also offer flexible view settings, allowing you to customize your Gantt chart to highlight specific aspects of your plan during presentations.
Creating a Gantt chart with Atlassian Trello
Trello, known for its flexible Kanban boards, can be expanded with Power-Ups to integrate Gantt charts and optimize project planning. Here are some of the best options for using Gantt charts in Trello:
Planyway
With the Planyway Power-Up, you can view your project through the team timeline function in various ways, whether by team members or lists. Planyway seamlessly syncs your Trello cards and lists, so all project updates and due dates are immediately reflected in the Planyway interface.
TeamGantt
The TeamGantt Power-Up offers a user-friendly way to create Gantt charts for your projects. With TeamGantt, you can choose which project you want to display in Gantt format and decide whether to combine multiple cards into one chart or combine multiple boards into a single Gantt chart.
Placker
The Projects by Placker Power-Up is a comprehensive project management solution that includes a flexible Gantt chart. It allows you to plan cards and checklists across one or more boards, create dependencies between cards and checklists to visualize the critical path, set baselines, and manage resources. Placker is seamlessly integrated with Trello, so updates on Trello cards are automatically reflected in the Gantt chart and vice versa.
