Using Gantt Charts for Project Management – Benefits and Best Tools In 2024

Project management is a comprehensive, exhaustive responsibility. You have to be on your toes all the time, juggling between different things, trying to ace everything there is to stay on top of the project. Gantt charts bring calm and peace to this otherwise chaotic routine.

Gantt charts are your safe haven when it comes to project management. The presence of a Gantt chart reduces clutter and streamlines the workflow making it easier for you to manage a project. It also offers visibility into deadlines, milestones, and resource allocation.

Gantt charts for project management are your way to go if you want to increase your team’s productivity and efficiency. For years we have relied on Excel to manage our daily tasks, make our monthly reports, etc., but the advancements in recent times have put the efficiency of Excel into question. Let’s see why?

Excel Is Outdated in Project Management!

Excel is our go-to tool when it comes to organization and management of work, but it often falls short of our requirements. There are multiple reasons as to why Excel is not an ideal tool for project management:

• Updating and managing an Excel sheet is time-consuming
• Susceptible to errors and incorrect information if managed by multiple members of a team
• Lack of visibility makes it difficult to track the progress of a project
• It is difficult to navigate your way through an Excel sheet especially if you are a newbie
• No collaboration or communication features
• Lack of task management features

Gantt Chart for Project Management

Gantt charts for project management are a graphical representation of your project. They offer you visibility into the project deliverables, tasks, and deadlines.

With a Gantt chart in sight, you can easily identify task assignees, analyze the progress of your project and evaluate how much of the project is remaining. These charts are the ideal tool for management, not only for a PM but also for team members and stakeholders.

You can effectively reduce your burden with the use of a Gantt chart.

Using Gantt Charts for Project Management

Gantt charts seem intimidating to newbies and are often perceived as complex in structure and difficult to understand. However, Gantt charts are simple and easy tools that make project management a piece of cake for you.

Whether you’re making a Gantt chart manually or using software, here’s how you can go about it:

• Create a list of all the tasks that need to be done for the efficient completion of a project. Determine the number of tasks in total, their scope, and deadlines.
• Identify the interdependencies between tasks. For example, you cannot schedule deliveries unless you have the products in stock. So, these two tasks are interlinked, the completion of one is dependent on the completion of the other.
• Organize all the tasks in your list in order, from start till the end.
• Now, you can focus on other details of the chart e.g., assigning tasks to resources, allocating finances, add start and end dates, etc.
• Now that you have created a Gantt chart, you have to keep reviewing and updating it as you move ahead. Analyze your performance every few days, determine setbacks, loopholes, or gaps in the process, eliminate risks and issues, and improve your workflow to make sure the project is completed smoothly.
• If you are working manually, you will have to input every little detail yourself, however, if you are using a Gantt chart software then your work will be reduced to half.

An Ideal Gantt Chart

An ideal Gantt chart for project management has the following characteristics:

• Has a start date
• Includes title and/or description of each task
• Highlights resources allocated to each task
• Specifies start and end date for each task
• Outlines the length of a project
• Depicts the relationship between different tasks
• Has an end date

Why Should You Use Gantt Charts for Project Management?

We have already answered the how and what of Gantt charts, moving on to whys. Why should you use Gantt charts for managing your projects? Well, Gantt charts are your gateway to simplifying project management.

Here are a few of advantages of using Gantt charts for project management, give them a read and maybe you’ll get convinced of their usability:

1. Offers Visibility into The Project

One of the reasons we absolutely love Gantt charts is the fact that they provide a clear and detailed overview of the whole project at a glance. No juggling between different documents or running from one end to another to gather the details of a project, with Gantt charts you have visibility into everything that goes on in a project, without much effort on your part.

2. Break Your Project Down into Smaller Chunks

“Divide and conquer” – Julius Caesar

That’s our motto in Gantt charts. Rather than diving into your project straight away and working on the big piece altogether, you can divide the piece into smaller pieces and make work management a lot easier and simpler for yourself.

3. Track Your Progress

Keeping an eye on your performance and the performance of your team can help you determine the gaps in the work. You can then, improve your work and better your performance. Gantt charts allow you to track your progress over time. They also help you determine how far you are in a project and how long will it take before you accomplish the stipulated goals.

4. Offers Transparency

With the Gantt chart in sight, team members can view the task dependencies, deadlines, etc. the visibility of project progress is not only beneficial to the PM but also acts as a catalyst for improving the performance of employees. It allows them to see the big picture of the project and their contribution to achieving the goals.

5. Risks And Issues

One of the best things about a Gantt chart is that it allows you to identify risks and issues that may hinder your progress. You can easily identify and track any constraints or conflicts in the workflow and immediately resolve the issue to make sure the process flows smoothly.

Gantt Chart Software to The Rescue!

We mentioned earlier that Gantt charts can be scary for beginners, but we have a simple and efficient solution that can make using a Gantt chart a walk in the park for everyone out there – Gantt chart software.

Gantt chart software are simple and easy tools using which you can create your own Gantt chart without much effort. With automation features, these software has simplified the process for you. Be it creating task dependencies, adding deadlines for tasks, or determining the critical path of the project, Gantt chart software has got it all covered for you.

In addition to creating Gantt charts, these tools also allow you to effectively communicate and collaborate with your team members. You can share the chart with everyone in your team and the stakeholders and keep everyone in the loop.

You can also customize your Gantt charts for project management to turn them into workflow specific to your organization only.

nTask Is Always the Answer

You might think that we are biased, well, we can’t help it. With the hordes of advanced features, mobile apps, user-friendly interface, and inexpensive pricing, we can’t help but fawn over nTask.

If you are having a hard time deciding the right tool for your organization, you can hand over the reins to nTask. With its efficient features, nTask will make sure that you do not regret the decision. It will effectively fulfill all your project requirements and make project management a breeze for you.

As of now, nTask has garnered over 250,000 users from all around the world. It is ranked number 4^th and 8^th by Infinity and Paymo as the best Gantt chart software. It is rated 4 out of 5 on GetApp, 4.0 on Capterra, and 4.5 on G2.

Here are a few things about nTask’s Gantt charts that fascinate us the most:

• Helps you plan your project. You can add tasks, assign resources, set start and end dates, and much more.
• You can use the drag-and-drop feature to schedule your projects, set milestones, create task dependencies, create subtasks, and set planned and actual dates.
• Helps you track the progress of your project.
• Real-time notifications, alerts, and reminders keep you updated and informed no matter when or where you are.
• Budget management helps you keep an eye on your finances, and billables and non-billables.
• You can set custom statuses and prioritize your tasks accordingly.
• In addition, nTask allows you to set task dependencies, identify the critical path of your project, assign issues and risks, etc.
• Document management is also another noticeable feature that can help you keep your documents and files organized and sorted.
• 100s of integrations with other apps unify the workspace

With all these features, no wonder nTask is one of the best Gantt chart software in the town.

Conclusion

Want to speed up your work progress, improve productivity and enhance your efficiency? Gantt charts are the way to go.

And if you want to make the process simpler and easier, get a good Gantt chart software- such as nTask!

And that’s all from our side!

See you next time. Adios amigos!