Gantt charts may seem simple, but they are an important tool in a project manager’s toolbox and provide valuable information about what resources are working on, how a project is progressing, before and after, and everything in between.
However, it is very important to your project management process and you want to create a complete Gantt chart that will help you and your team to the fullest.
Writing this post on how to create a Gantt chart, working through the steps in How to Create a Gantt Chart and showing what nTask can provide is the role a Gantt chart plays in the lifecycle of a project. .
So, without further ado, here’s a guide on how to create a Gantt chart and everything you and your team need to know to get started.
What is a Gantt Chart?
From the benefits of using Gantt charts to the differences between Gantt and PERT charts, the blog has all the stuff about Gantt charts, but before we start on how to create a Gantt chart, let’s refresh what a Gantt chart really is. .
Gantt charts are defined in different ways depending on who asks them. However, in its most basic form, a Gantt chart is most commonly displayed as a bar chart that displays the scope of a project’s work against a timeline.
Let’s break this down.
A Gantt chart is a visual representation of the tasks, milestones, and deliverables that make up a project over time or project schedule. Thus, a Gantt chart shows a clear relationship between tasks and time in a project.
Time is plotted on the x-axis of a Gantt chart and tasks, tasks, deliverables, milestones, etc. are plotted on the y-axis.
So, what exactly does the Gantt chart emphasize?
Gantt charts help project managers and teams get a visual overview of the next elements of a project.
- scheduled work on the project
- Duration of tasks, including start and end dates for each task
- Project milestones that represent key events in the project lifecycle
- Dependencies between tasks or when tasks overlap
- project roadmap
- Project progress overview
Gantt charts have historically been created by hand, but there have been many challenges, such as not automatically updating project changes, such as project progress.
With the invention of project management tools, the Gantt charts game has changed significantly and now there are many different project management tools that provide Gantt charts for you and your team with different features and capabilities.
Why are nTask’s Gantt charts different?
![checklist_gant](https://www.ntaskmanager.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/checklist_gantt.png)
Interactive Gantt charts with many features
There are many project management tools available today for teams that provide most of the Gantt charting features, so what makes nTask’s Gantt charts different?
nTask is a project management tool, an all-in-one yet versatile platform that provides users with the ability to easily manage projects, teams and clients.
This software provides all the features your team needs to streamline the entire project management lifecycle from project inception to project close.
nTask’s Gantt charts also differ from their competitors in their adaptability and dynamic nature.
In addition to the basic visual aids provided by the default Gantt charts, nTask’s Gantt charts provide a more comprehensive view of your entire project. By looking at the clock in the taskbar, you can see which resource is working on each task, as well as other task details such as priority and checklist items.
In addition to task details, nTask’s Gantt charts are color coded. You can see how your project is progressing in a simple view based on the status you give to each task. You can create a custom state or use the built-in state provided.
With nTask, ‘not started’ is orange, ‘in progress’ is blue, ‘under review’ is yellow, ‘done’ is green, and ‘cancelled’ is red.
In addition to viewing the progress of your project through the color bar, you can also track your progress through the progress meter.
nTask’s Gantt chart shows how each task is progressing with a progress meter and how the overall project is progressing as a percentage of completed projects at the top of the chart.
Another thing that sets it apart from the rest of the information presented in nTask’s Gantt chart is the simplicity of creating task dependencies.
You can create a variety of job dependencies, including:
- start
- end at the end
- from start to finish
- and from beginning to end
If you are looking to combine team effort and collaboration, nTask’s Gantt charts are great. Built-in communication capabilities and meeting management tools make it easy for teams to discuss projects and make changes in real time as needed.
If you change the due date or duration of a task, or edit your billable hours, the Gantt chart will automatically update those changes.
In addition to details about tasks and project progress, nTask’s Gantt charts highlight the project’s budget and costs incurred so far.
Gantt charts show project costs recorded in sync with the timesheet feature and creation of billable and non-billable time.
nTask’s Gantt charts make it easy for you and your team to analyze and adapt. Gantt charts are comprehensive and can highlight planned timelines for how a project is actually going. You can also view important routes and milestones.
How to create a Gantt chart with nTask?
![gantt_chart_hero](https://www.ntaskmanager.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/gantt_chart_hero-2-700x315.png)
Gantt chart in nTask
so the question is How to make a gantt chart With nTask?
The answer is that you don’t.
The great thing about nTask’s Gantt charts is that you don’t need to do any creation work, it’s done automatically.
All you and your team have to do is plan the project and create tasks that are automatically converted to Gantt charts and updated with changes.
Let’s see how.
The first step in creating a Gantt chart for nTask is to create a project. nTask gives you the ability to create an unlimited number of workspaces, projects and tasks.
After creating a project, you need to create a task and enter the relevant details to display the Gantt chart and see a visual representation of the project and task.
You must set a start date and an end date for each task to be displayed in the Gantt chart. You have the option to add a planned date or fill in the actual date the task started and ended.
In addition to a task’s start and end dates, you can also add task details, assign tasks to team members, set task priorities, and more. However, simply create a task and set a date, and the task will appear in the Gantt chart.
These actions are displayed as bars in the Gantt chart.
When the team starts working on a task and updates the status bar on the Gantt chart, it changes color to match the task status.
You can easily change the task date by dragging and dropping the bar according to the new date or by expanding the bar to increase the task duration.
The checklist item you create for each task and the progress of that to-do list item are displayed as a percentage on each bar, along with a progress meter at the top of the Gantt chart.
You can also create milestones that will be displayed as diamond icons on the Gantt chart.
For task dependencies, simply chain tasks from start to start, start to end, end to end, or end to start, depending on the dependency type.
For more information on how to use nTask to create Gantt charts, you can contact our sales team for a detailed demo where our sales reps will walk you through the application and show you how to use the platform for your team.
Alternatively, you can check the support article on our website. here.
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Interactive Gantt Charts with nTask
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In conclusion
Now do you know how to create a Gantt chart?
Easily create Gantt charts for your next project using nTask’s comprehensive Gantt charting capabilities and streamline the entire project management process with an intuitive and easy-to-use platform.
nTask’s Gantt charts eliminate unnecessary hassle and give you and your team the freedom to focus on the task at hand.
This tool not only simplifies the process of creating Gantt charts, but also provides Gantt charts that are interactive, dynamic, and overall better than creating Gantt charts in Excel, PowerPoint, or through pen and paper.
This is how to make a Gantt chart the right way.