Welcome to Mind Tools' Video Learning Series. Have you ever had to manage a complex project? If so, you’ll know just how tricky it can be juggling all the different tasks and deadlines involved. It can be particularly challenging when you've got a number of tasks that are dependent on each other, or that must be completed in a certain order. Gantt charts are a useful way of presenting this information visually, so that you know what tasks need to be completed, by when, and in what order. They can also help you work out practical aspects of a project, such as the minimum time it should take to complete a task, and which tasks need to be completed before others can start. So, let’s take a look at how you can create your own Gantt Chart... In our example, we’re creating a Gantt Chart for a project to create and deliver a new marketing newsletter. We start by listing all the tasks that need to get completed within the project. For each task, we note down its earliest start date, and how long we expect it to take.
Task A is to plan out a new design. We think this will take around two weeks to complete. Task B – user research and testing - will take around two weeks. But it can only begin once we’ve completed Task A. This means Task B is dependent on Task A, so those two activities can’t overlap. Once Task B is done, we can move on to Tasks C and D - gaining final signoff for our new design from editorial and marketing. These two tasks will take about a week to complete, but they can be done at the same time. Once they’ve been completed, we can move on to Task E - sending the newsletters out - and Task F - gathering feedback from customers. These are also dependent on each other, so need to be done one after the other. However, the last task on our list – Task G - is to write up a newsletter process document. This can be done at any time during our project timeframe. Once you’ve listed out all your tasks and timeframes, use a spreadsheet to start plotting out your project visually.
Make a column for each day or week that you think your project will last. Then plot out all your activities on horizontal bars, where their length represents how long you expect each one to take. Where one task can’t be started until another is finished, show this by starting the second task only when the first is completed. So, in our example, this would apply to Tasks B, C, D, E and F. But Task G can be completed any time, and will take around two weeks to finish. Also think about the people and resources you have available. If a task is dependent on another person, consider their priorities. They may already be working on several other projects, so be sure to take into consideration their availability. At this point, your chart may still look a bit confusing. Consider color-coding each task. You could do this according to responsibility. For instance, you could put your own tasks in orange. You’ll also need a user experience designer to test your newsletter, so highlight this activity in blue.
And you’ll need different people from your editorial and marketing departments to sign off, so they could be highlighted in red and purple. Finally, you’ll need a data specialist to help you gather feedback, so this task could be highlighted in green. Once you finish your Gantt chart, you’ll be able to see exactly how long your project should take to complete. You’ll also know exactly who is responsible for what and at what stage of the project they’ll be needed. You don’t have to manually create your Gantt Chart either. There are plenty of apps out there that can help you do this, such as Microsoft Project, Asana and InstaGantt. To learn more about how to create and use Gantt Charts, read the article that accompanies this video. © 2022 Mind Tools by Emerald Works Ltd.