A Gantt chart, what is it and how do you apply it?

What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt Chart, also known as Gantt Diagram, Gantt planning, or bar chart, is a useful tool for planning long-term projects. It is a horizontal bar chart used to illustrate a timeline of a project, program, or work, and then track its progress. It is a visual way to create overview and structure within a project. You can use a Gantt Chart to give everyone an idea of how tasks are allocated and which resources are assigned to them. This way, you have a clear picture of the project's status.

What are the benefits of a Gantt Chart?

• Clarity: A Gantt Chart provides all tasks and timelines in one clear overview over a often broad period. You are more efficient in utilizing the time of various team members and project workers. With clarity, tasks can be smartly distributed and picked up.
• Better communication: Teams use Gantt Charts to replace meetings and status updates. Team members constantly have a clear overview of the progress of all tasks, without the need for regular meetings.
• Insights into performance: Thanks to the clear project overview, team members gain more insight into their performance and can better align their own work habits with the project schedule. Conversely, they will be more aware of the interrelationships between tasks and gain more insight into the impact of delays. This promotes good collaboration and helps you distribute tasks efficiently.
• Efficient time management: Gantt planning helps you create realistic schedules. The different bars indicate when a particular task should start and be completed. This way, you can also ensure that other projects that consume resources and time are not compromised.
• Flexibility: Projects are often subject to change. By having an overview of unexpected shifts in scope or time, you can more easily adjust tasks and resources accordingly.

Components of a Gantt chart

When creating a Gantt Chart, Regardless of how detailed you get, a Gantt Chart typically consists of

• The project's due date
• All tasks within the project
• The start and end date for each task An estimate of how long the task will take
• The person responsible for each task
• Grouping or categorizing tasks

How to use a Gantt Chart in vPlan?

1. Add tasks with start and end dates

All tasks taking place in the project must be entered in vPlan with start and end dates. By filling in the start and end dates, tasks are displayed as bars on the timeline.

1. Clearly indicate dependencies between tasks

In a project, not all tasks can usually start at the same time. To ensure smooth project execution, you can visualize the dependencies between tasks on the timeline. Give a status to all your tasks, and for each status, assign a different color to the bar. This creates a visually appealing and clear overview.

1. Adjust work as plans change

You will find that certain tasks sometimes take longer than planned, and others shorter than planned. In the timeline, you can easily adjust this by changing the start and end dates or by shifting the bars.

Why use vPlan for your Gantt Chart?

Insight into capacity: Always have insight into your available resources. Within vPlan, you can add available resources, machines, or employees to your Gantt Chart.

All your pending work at hand:

With the backlog within vPlan, it is possible to plan cards on the timeline. Simple and quick with drag and drop.

Different perspectives

You can view the timeline from different perspectives:

• Phases
• Resources
• Collection of cards (orders and projects)

Flexible coloms

With vPlan, you can determine which columns you want to see within your Gantt Chart.

Optimal  display

You can collapse empty white space within your Gantt Chart in vPlan, creating an even better overview.