Your next project’s success is dependent on efficient collaboration between team members.
The keys to that collaboration are transparency, clear communication, and the right software.
None of this should be a surprise to you.
If your team is among the 71% of businesses that use project management software to manage programs and projects, you know that every feature plays an important role.
For many businesses, chief among those features is the Gantt chart. Despite being invented more than 100 years ago, Gantt charts (or modern versions of them) are still essential for project management today.
Gantt charts are like an automatically-updating, informative infographic about your project. They showcase your entire workflow, including tasks, assignees, and deadlines, all in one place.
In this article, we’ll delve into how Gantt chart apps work along with a detailed guide on how you can use monday.com to create the perfect Gantt charts for any project.
What is a Gantt chart?
A Gantt chart is a bar chart that depicts your project’s tasks over time. Each bar in the Gantt chart represents a task, while the dates are laid out horizontally.
Gantt charts are widely used in Waterfall project management, where tasks are grouped into phases and each phase is completed one after the other.
Here’s what a Gantt chart looks like in monday.com:
Depending on the online Gantt chart app you use, you can customize your task with colors, descriptions, and checklists.
A simple Gantt chart provides clarity on deadlines, milestones, and project progress. Everyone on your team knows what they have to work on, when, and how it impacts the overall project.
To further help with project planning, advanced Gantt chart software allows you to quickly reschedule tasks, ideally by using a drag-and-drop feature.
Software like monday.com helps you gain an even better understanding by allowing you to group tasks based on who they are assigned to or which stage of the project they are involved in. You can also view tasks by days, weeks, months, and years.
Creating task dependencies and marking milestones is also effortless on monday.com’s Gantt view.
Why you should use a Gantt chart software
The 3 key benefits of using Gantt chart software are…
1. Avoid work overload
Burnout is a leading cause of workplace dissatisfaction. According to Gallup, 23% of employees reported feeling burned out at work regularly. The second most significant reason for this burnout was an unmanageable workload.
Gantt chart software provides an overview of how many tasks are assigned to each team member. This overview helps project managers avoid work overload, since they can see whose plate is too full.
2. Improve communication
If an uninformed team member misses their deadlines or doesn’t follow project instructions, it impacts the entire project. This is why clear communication is so important.
Surveys show that most employees (89%) believe effective communication is vital, but most respondents (8 out of 10) rated their own business’ communication as either average or poor.
While this is concerning for managers, Gantt chart software can improve communication, since every team has a bird’s eye view of their project.
3. Promote transparency
Employees often struggle to understand project progress, with 47% saying they find it difficult to get an exact overview of where projects are in the workflow.
Without understanding where a project stands and how their work impacts it, employees are likely to be unmotivated and see themselves as just another cog in the machine.
To avoid this, managers can use an online Gantt chart tool so every user can see how much ground they’ve covered and how much work is left to be done. Employees can even volunteer to help out with other tasks once they’ve completed theirs.
A transparent overview also greatly improves task management.
How to use monday.com’s Gantt charts for efficient project management
You can create dynamic Gantt charts on monday.com by following these 7 simple steps:
#1. Get the basics done
The first step of project management is to define the basics. Some key factors of a project plan are:
- Defining which project management method to use.
- The tools you want to use.
- Taking stock of your budget and resources.
- Define important dates (start date, end date, milestones, etc.)
- The best team members for the job.
Consider any other factor that impacts the project.
This might seem overwhelming to some users, but fret not! Our blog is here to help you out.
Answering these questions gives project managers a clear idea of their project timeline, goals, and how their team can achieve them.
Consequently, this will decide your workflow, and you can move on to building your project board.
#2. Create your project board
Your project board is what you and your team use to monitor and collaboratively complete assignments.
On monday.com, we aim to help teams hit the ground running.
PMs don’t need to waste hours setting up their boards. They can simply choose from our 100+ pre-defined templates and customize them to suit their project.
We have project templates suitable for every niche, from marketing and IT to design and construction.
Even if you want to start from scratch, our UI is super easy to understand and implement. One video tutorial, and you’ll be adding groups and tasks in no time.
Every element of the project board, be it groups, tasks, or colors, can be customized easily and endlessly.
#3. Add the right columns
To create effective Gantt charts on monday.com, your project board must have 2 columns:
- Timeline column: this column is where you set the start and end dates of a task.
- Dependency column: if your project has tasks that are dependent on each other, then use this column to link them. This column can also help PMs define a critical path for their project.
Two other basic columns for your project board are the People and Status columns. The People column shows who is assigned to which tasks, while the Status column indicates task progress. These aren’t mandatory but add clarity to your Gantt charts.
#4. Add the Gantt View
Once your project board is built, you can focus on project management using the Gantt View.
To visualize your project as an interactive Gantt chart, simply click on “All Views,” then choose “Add View,” and select “Gantt.”
Your project board will automatically be shown in the form of a Gantt chart, with project groups and tasks being shown in the left column.
Any changes you make in this view will automatically be reflected on monday.com 8 other project board views. So, you don’t need to worry about adding/changing task information repeatedly.
You can pin the Gantt chart view for easy access or even set it as the default view.
monday.com offers 9 project views, including a Kanban board, Timeline, and Charts, on the same platform so PMs don’t have to juggle a standalone than using online Gantt chart software with other tools.
#5. Dependencies
You can choose whether you want your Gantt chart to show dependencies or not. Just click on the “Settings” button on the top right and then check/uncheck the “Show Dependencies” box.
Even if you don’t use the Waterfall method, there are bound to be some tasks that cannot start before a previous one is completed.
Using monday.com’s automation, you can change the dates of a primary task, and the dates for all dependent tasks will be updated automatically.
#6. Make the View work for you
Ultimately, monday.com is a work hub that wants to help you create the best project management app suited for your team.
With this in mind, we’ve made every aspect of the Gantt chart easy to personalize. You can define and change your project schedule, add task details, assign members, change task colors, and more.
Users can reschedule individual or selected tasks by dragging and dropping them or by clicking on a task and changing task duration.
PMs can sort their Gantt charts by different parameters for easier task management. You can group tasks by who they’re assigned to, priority, task status, creation date, or any other column on your project board.
Filters also ensure you see what is important to you so that you can focus your energy on the right project tasks.
Need to alter an individual task? Find that task quickly by using the Search function. We also offer a whole load of advanced board filters. You can read more about those here.
#7. Share your view
Boost collaboration and keep your team engaged by sharing your Gantt chart with everyone on the team.
This overview is also a great way to keep stakeholders informed.
All you have to do is click on the “All Views” tab at the top of your screen, hover over the “Gantt” until the 3 dots appear, click on them, and choose “Share.” This option will develop a link that can be shared or embedded.
You can also decide the information you want to display by hiding columns or using the board filters.
Shared views can be disabled at any time.
And there you have it! Your perfect Gantt chart for project management.
All of the above features help users handle multiple projects seamlessly and not to brag, but we share a whole load of other features that we couldn’t squeeze in this one article. You can get access to them using one of our 4 paid plans — all of which have a free 2-week trial period.
Wrapping Up
monday.com trumps its competitors with our endless feature list and how easy it is to use them. Using our platform, every team can create dynamic Gantt charts and handle unlimited projects.
We’re a comprehensive Work OS, not just a basic Gantt chart maker. You can take your project management to a whole new level with our powerful software.You can get started with our platform by using our project management plan template.
