Excel Gantt Chart Project Plan

Training for how to use the Gantt Chart Excel template.
Systems2win.com

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Closed Caption:

The purpose of a Gantt chart is to plan
and control a project
with both detailed measures and this
intuitive graphic timeline.
We find that our clients most commonly
use their Gantt chart template
for Lean Process Improvement and
Six Sigma Quality Improvement projects
but being written in Excel
it's easy to add columns or make other
small changes
to personalize this flexible template
to manage any type of project.
Maybe you want to plan a facilities move or
a new product introduction
or maybe just plan a holiday party.
The design philosophy behind the Systems2win
Excel Gantt Chart is to provide
more than 80% of the benefits
of traditional project management software
for less than 20% of the price.
Although there have been many improvements
to the Gantt Chart over the last few years
this video will illustrate those features
that have not changed.
If you are using an older version
of the Gantt Chart
it's really important to follow
those detailed instructions
to define your project start date
before you even get started.
On the new version
it's pretty much a no-brainer.
The single most important thing to
remember when using a
Systems2win Gantt Chart is:
do NOT insert blank rows.
Instead you want to
copy empty blank rows
that contain the formatting
and formulas that you need.
And you use 'Shift Down and Copy'
to do that
we give you a separate training video
on how to do it
you should be familiar with that by now,
you do it on every Excel spreadsheet
that you use.
And of course that's also the right way
to move rows
The first three columns
are pretty self-explanatory
so let's focus our attention
on the calculations.
In these next columns we start
getting into numbers
and this first one is of terrific interest
to most project managers
because it gives them something
they want but can't get
from even their more expensive
project management software.
Most project management software deals
only with duration
which in the language of lean would be
called Lead Time.
Duration is usually measured in days,
although our template allows you to use
any unit of measure and answers the question:
How many days will it take
before this task or phase
or project is finished?
Let's just pretend for a moment that the
answer is 14 days.
What's missing in most project management
software is the answer to the question:
During those 14 days how many hours of effort
will be required of my people?
How many billable hours
for my expensive consultants?
How many precious hours from
my already overloaded project manager?
How many hours of effort
from each of my team members?
Those are the questions that are answered
by this first column called Effort.
See at the top where it says
Subtotal Effort and Subtotal Duration?
As of this moment we're seeing
the totals for the entire project
but see those little drop-down arrows
on each column heading?
We can use those to filter our data
Let's say that we want to see the effort
for just our project manager - there you go
or we can filter for our top 10,
or for blanks, or for non-blanks
or we can use this custom filter
for more sophisticated filtering
with 'and/or' statements and the
Boolean operators that you see here
like 'equals', 'begins with'
or 'does not contain'
or we can select 'All' and see everything again.
And notice that those subtotals are not just for effort and duration but also for money.
And you can also use this same power for
any user-defined columns that you dream up.
Are you starting to see the advantages
of using Excel?
This feature is called Auto Filter
and again you're not learning to use some
3rd party proprietary software that you will
never see again
you're learning to get more value
from the software you already own - Excel -
and you can use what you learn
with any other worksheet for anything else you do
(or might do) with Excel.
The next two columns
are for start date and end date
Again, it's just Excel
so you can use 'Format Cells > Number'
to choose any date format that you like
and you can even choose to measure time
in hours rather than days
if you're working with projects
of very short duration.
See how some cells have a grey background?
That's because those cells contain formulas.
If you've ever accidentally deleted your formulas
you will appreciate that Systems2win
has provided this special function
to easily identify cells containing formulas.
By the way here's a useful tip.
If you ever accidentally delete
one of our default formulas
you can usually simply copy and paste
the same formula from a similar cell
in another row.
As you can see by the grey cells on the
blank worksheet
the default is to calculate the end date.
So if we enter a start date of 1/1/07
and a duration of 2 days
it auto-calculates our end date.
So let's enter another task with a duration of 1 day
and this time let's make the start date a formula.
Let's say that the start date for this task starts
2 days after the end date for the previous task.
See how the cell background turned grey -
to show us that our start date is now also a formula.
Let's do that again.
Let's enter another task
and this time let's make the start date
equal to the start date of the first task + 7 days.
You have all the power of Excel calculations
to define predecessor relationships like this.
So what if you want to enter the End Date
and calculate only the Start Date
or what if you want to calculate Duration
instead of Start Date or End Date?
Then you simply follow the instructions
on this Help text box on the Sample Help page
and delete the default End Date calculation
so that there is no cyclical formula reference
and then copy 1 of these 2 predefined formula cells
found on your Sample Help page.
In this case we want to copy the Duration
and then paste that formula
in the Duration cell for that row -
and there you go.
Now this row calculates Duration
instead of End Date.
It's that easy.
And remember you can always replay
anything that you don't catch the first time.
Once you start actually using your Gantt Chart
it won't be long before your first
weekend rolls around
and you start pulling your chin about how to take your work calendar into consideration.
For example, maybe you're planning to work
some weekends and not others.
Now one of the big advantages of
full-featured project management software
is that they allow you to define a
sophisticated shop calendar with
all your work days and holidays precisely defined.
We can't do that, and frankly
any seasoned project manager knows that
most project plans
simply aren't that precise anyway.
What we can do is give you a pretty good
approximation
and the DV worksheet contains very clear
instructions
for how to use your
Work Calendar adjustment codes.
So what if we have a milestone date
that has to be absolutely fixed?
That's as easy as just typing in that fixed date
and then scheduling backward or forward around it.
Can you see how this works?
If not, you can always replay this
until it makes sense to you
and you start to see just how powerful this can be.
And like every other Systems2win Excel template
you can add text boxes and call-outs
and lightning bursts and circles
to call attention to things
and make your deliverables far more
communicative, effective, and professional.
Well, as long as you
don't overdo it!
Just like any other Excel worksheet you
can hide and unhide the columns and rows
to show only what you want to show.
And you just resize this column
to resize the chart.
Notice that if we just click File > Print...
it prints all the columns as well as the chart.
But notice this:
if we select the chart before we print
then it prints only the chart.
This is where it can be very nice to choose
the radio button
that shows the labels on the chart.
So there are a lot of advantages
of the Systems2win Gantt Chart
not the least of which is the training video
that you are watching right now
which, combined with the fact that it's
written in Excel
results in a radically reduced learning curve.
And that learning curve gets leverage
with all the other Excel tools
that come bundled with your Gantt chart.
Once your people learn one,
they have learned to use them all.
And the Systems2win Gantt Chart
overcomes the #1 complaint
of users of Microsoft Project
and other expensive Gantt Chart software.
it's inexpensive enough that maybe your
management could spring for a copy
for everyone on your project team.