5 Reasons Using Gantt Charts in Microsoft Office Will Leverage Your Project Management
Gantt charts are widely used in business to visually describe and monitor all types of projects for project management tasks. Gantt Charts in Microsoft Project allow you to see a series of interdependent tasks that need to be performed
in a particular order. Project plans have a specific start date, corresponding to the start of the first task, and a specific end date. Gantt Charts are a brilliantly effective way of taking a large amount of detailed information and data from a project and creating a visual representation of that for everyone to see. Here are five reasons why using Gantt Charts in Microsoft Office will level up your project management game.
Clearing Up Confusion
Gantt charts were originally created to keep users on track, by providing a visual timeline for the start and end of tasks. A visual overview of milestones and key dates, these charts are generally accepted to provide a more digestible, understandable method of maintaining time-based tasks and deliverables no matter what duration of time they are tracked on. The power of visualization with a Gantt Chart can do wonders for the task of project management. With everyone able to clearly see due dates, timelines, project maps, relationships between tasks, even when one task has to end before another can start, Gantt Charts allow everyone to be clear on what is expected of whom.
Provide Bigger Picture Views of the Scope of your Project
In one glance a project manager can show executives and shareholders, who might not want more granular detail, the overall milestones, large objectives, and high-concept outlines of projects. Decision makers and executives often need a high-level view of how different projects are progressing in order to move ahead and make decisions about their organization, since they have many projects to analyze. By shifting the focus off of the details, and into the bigger picture, this allows you to share your project in a more meaningful way towards audiences with different objectives and needs.
Everyone Stays Coordinated
When there is a visual framework for a project that needs to be done, there is a smaller chance of misunderstanding among teams and employees, specifically when it comes to highly complex tasks and detail-oriented work. Using Gantt charts allows all types of stakeholders, employees, team members, or executives to have access to the same information. Gantt Charts are a place to set mutually understood expectations, deadlines, time tracking, due dates, and everyone can conduct their efforts according to the set protocol.
Demarcate Relationships Between Tasks
Gantt Charts can clearly delineate the relationship between two tasks and perhaps rely on the completion of another to meet specific objectives. These interdependencies revolve around understanding the timing of each task which impacts other tasks. By assigning and delineating relationships among disparate tasks, you can assure the optimal work flow and maximized productivity. This feature allows all parties involved with the project to clearly see the flow of the project and where their task fits in, in relationship to others.
Predict the Future (Well, Almost…)
Just because a Gantt Chart focuses on day-to-day tasks and you can really drill down into complex detail on a micro level for day-to-day tasks, doesn’t mean you can’t look out into the future. A Gantt Chart helps decision-makers see the bigger picture and assess high-level takeaways due to the visual nature of the chart and how it delineates the most important key points of the project. This conceptualization allows decision-makers to look further ahead to ensure each given project is working toward the common strategic goals of the organization.
When considering using Gantt Charts for your project management workflow, consider the advantages that a Gantt Chart can not only bring you, as a project manager, but the rest of your team. Most people have an easier time of digesting a large amount of detailed information if presented to them in a visually appealing way that makes logical sense. That is exactly what a Gantt Chart does. With the levels of customization and features available in Microsoft Project, there is no limit to what you can do with a Gantt Chart. Start the Gantt Chart view today in Microsoft Project, and see how smoothly it allows your project to run.
If you have any questions about how to use Gantt Charts in Microsoft Project or want to know how to optimize your Gantt Chart for your specific project, contact Advisicon today! Allow our team of experts to give you the training and information you need to take your project management to the next level.