Chart Gantt Blog

Gantt Chart Reason#1: Finally you can see what you are doing!
Looking at a column of start and finish dates for tasks, is the primary alternative to using a Gantt Chart.    Each row of your plan requires you to think about the dates, and position those dates in the context of preceding and dependent tasks.  This thought process, attempting to visualize your dates in your head, takes valuable thinking time, and more importantly can only be performed effectively on one or two tasks at once. A Ga...

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Gantt Chart Reason#1: More Control

Using excel gives you more control over the gantt chart creation process.  It provides you with the freedom to control key planning variables as you see fit.  For example if you would like to convert 8 hours, or 7.5 hours into one day, it is straight forward to do with a simple formula.  If you would rather plan in minutes, you can do this too.  Whilst structured planning tools such as MS Project do have a place, experience suggests that for an experience...

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Gantt Chart Reason#1: Put aside distractions and focus on your plan

Planning requires deep concentration.  Try to avoid getting distracted during your planning time.  Perhaps try working from home for a day, or lock yourself in the boardroom with “busy” posted on the door.  The level of concentration and analysis you can put into your plan upfront will pay significant dividends down the track.  Usually the creation of a gantt chart involves the expenditure of cash or resources on a ser...

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Contrary to the beliefs of the main gantt chart software packages, every project and every plan has its own special requirements.

Some project plans may require you to measure and manage effort for billing purposes.  Other plans may need minute based planning.  There are so many different requirements of project planning that it is difficult to build these into a single gantt chart tool.

This is where MS Excel has some very substantial advantages in preparing gantt charts.  The major, and o...

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A gantt chart is a visual representation of time that enables simple and effective project planning.  A particularly useful feature of leading gantt chart solutions is the ability to create dependencies between tasks.  There are 4 types of dependencies that can be created.  Finish to start, Start to Start, Start to Finish and Finish to Finish.  Leading project management software and gantt chart creation templates in excel can incorporate the use of dependencies.

Dependencies are particul...

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The features discussed below are only available in Chart Gantt Ultimate, to be released in August 2010

 We set ourselves the ambitious task of re-creating standard functionality in major project planning software tools.  One of the main challenges in building an excel based gantt chart is the use of WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).  There are a number of issues with the use of WBS in excel.

Whilst we have seen other excel based tools that attempt to offer WBS, they do this via a combination of m...
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We are very excited by the launch of Chart Gantt 2.0.  We set ourselves the ambitious task of adding significant functionality to Chart Gantt without the need for macro's.  The issue with macro driven Excel based Gantt Charts is that they are inherently unpredictable.

By steering clear of Macro's we have created a stable excel platform that just works.  This enables users now to view as much as 3 years of chart in the one screen.  This is a minor breakthrough in the Gantt Chart world, and took...
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Following on from the popularity of the Chartgantt products, we are currently working to extend the functionality of all Chartgantt products. 

We are pushing the limits of excel, but are hoping to enable users to toggle between daily, weekly and monthly gantt chart views on a single sheet.  This means that users will only need to enter their data once, the data on the left will remain, but the gantt chart timeframe and bars will update automatically when switching between views.

This ambitious...
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Management Gantt Charts are significantly more complex and tailored than Planning Gantt Charts.

The incorporation of actual figures into the planning process significantly complicates any planning model, as anyone who has used Microsoft Project to manage a project will attest.

The significant issue with the vast majority of management Gantt Charts is that they are driven by duration rather than effort.  Whilst tools such as MS Project do allow for effort driven management, the underlying premis...
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For anyone who would like to take the time to build their own excel based templates please see the below links and blogs.

In our view, all of these approaches are time consuming and allow for significantly less flexibility than the Chart Gantt solution.  However please explore these options if you are curious and have some time to kill.

1. Building charts Using the Chart Function within MS Excel
This approach whilst it does produce a clumsy result will draw gantt charts.  This approach does not...

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