Henry Gantt would probably recognize today’s Gantt charts: while we might create them with tools like Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project, the basic concepts are still similar enough to when he developed this way of planning (although he wasn’t the first – that honor goes to Polish engineer Karol Adamiecki).
Gantt charts are a way of displaying the work required to deliver the project in visual format: a kind of table that displays both a list and a visual representation of the work. If you’ve been working in a project environment for some time, you’ll know how they look. But do your Gantt charts contain all these elements? Here are five features to ensure your project schedules include.
1. Task Names
The first thing you look for on a Gantt chart is the task description – a short name that summarizes what the work for that line represents. You may record these as product-based descriptions; a statement of the product that results from the work such as ‘Marketing blueprint’ or ‘Foundations’. Alternatively, you can start each task name with a verb that explains what the task is, such as ‘Create Marketing blueprint’ or ‘Pour foundations’.
Either option is fine but it’s helpful to keep the chart naming convention consistent to aid communication.
You should also include tasks that represent milestones. These are tasks with a duration of zero days and are often displayed as a diamond in your project management software.
2. Task Duration
Task duration is covered in two places on the Gantt chart: the dates and the bars.
Your Primavera P6 schedule can display start and finish dates (and several variations on those) in columns on the right side of the screen. There will also be an option to display task length as a single figure, so you don’t have to do mental math to work out how many days the task is going to take. This can be set to include or exclude weekends and holidays so that it represents the right amount of working time.
Additionally, the duration of the work is represented visually by a bar of the right length, on the left side.
The benefit of this is comparing the relative task lengths so you can modify and adjust as necessary. Look out for tasks that are disproportionally long in comparison to the others and see if it would make sense to split those up. Look for extremely short tasks too and see if you need to review the estimates of those.
Tip: Change the zoom level of the Gantt chart to show years, quarters, months, weeks or days so you get an appropriate view.
3. Dependencies
One of the key benefits of using a Gantt chart over other types of scheduling options is that you can easily mark and track dependencies between tasks. The software you use will automatically calculate what happens to the work when dates shift, because the dependencies are programmed into the logic of the schedule (unless you have set your software to not auto-update).
That’s why it’s really important that dependencies are accurately thought through and included in the schedule, as they have a significant impact on the critical path and ultimately your performance baseline.
Dependencies are shown on the Gantt chart as lines between tasks in the bar section. The more tasks you have, the messier this section is likely to get. It can be difficult to follow the lines on the screen, especially if that means scrolling up and down a lot.
For ease of reference, you can also display dependency information in the task pane or a column. That lets you see the exact task references for each dependency, and how they impact the current task.
4. Task hierarchies
Your work breakdown structure (WBS) is a core input to creating the schedule, and it’s important that the work from the WBS is accurately reflected in the schedule. You can create tasks and sub-tasks to mirror the hierarchies in the WBS.
Name the tasks with the same numbering system as used in the WBS to make it easy to trace back the work. You can indent tasks to show that they are sub-tasks of a parent activity. That makes it easier to roll up the work and look at the summary tasks to give you a big picture view of performance at any point.
Think about how you are going to group tasks together using the hierarchy features of your software before you start entering the data, as that will save you time later – there will be fewer tasks to move around if you have a solid plan for creating the schedule.
5. Resource names or roles
Ideally, each task on the Gantt chart should be allocated to a named individual responsible for the work. In some cases, you may have a couple of named individuals and you can apportion the work between them so the resource allocation charts in your software are up-to-date.
You can even import resource assignment information from Excel into Primavera P6. Knowing a few shortcuts can save you a lot of time putting your schedule together!
However, in some cases you will not have a named resource at the time of putting together the plan, or your resource pool will be deliberately built with generic resources. Generic resources are role names, and they create a placeholder in the schedule to illustrate who will be allocated to the task when the exact individual is not known. Examples include:
- Developer
- Designer
- Engineer
- Planner
- Lawyer
- Tester
- Architect
- Customer representative.
If your resource pool includes generic roles like these, it’s likely that the team managers responsible for those teams will allocate an available individual to the project when they are needed.
Resource names can be shown in the columns of the Gantt chart or on the bars themselves, although that can make the visual schedule look cluttered. Tools like Microsoft Project and Primavera P6 will also give you resource views that help the team understand how work is allocated across the project for the purposes of time management and capacity planning.
Gantt charts: we can’t manage large projects without them! And they are also a compliance element for many contracts. Clients require schedules to be produced in a particular way to ensure they can be adequately managed and controlled throughout the project life cycle.
If your team is struggling to create project schedules that tick all the boxes for compliance reviews, we can help. Get in touch to find out more about our scheduling services.