A Gantt chart is a special type of bar chart , in which different bars along a timeline show when an activity will take place and how long it will last. In project management, this chart, named after the American mechanical engineer Henry Gantt, is used to organize the phases and processes of a project. With the Gantt chart, project managers have an overview of all pending tasks , as well as who is responsible for each one, when each task should start, and how much time project staff have to finish it..
Spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets offer you the ability to create your own Gantt charts with relatively little effort. There are two benefits to building Gantt charts with Google Sheets: on the one hand, it is free, and on the other, it is easy to share the charts with everyone on a project team . Google Sheets, also called Google Sheets in Spanish, is a cloud-based tool that is part of the G Suite package, with which several employees can work simultaneously and in real time .
If you work with several members of a team on a project, it is essential to use collaborative tools with which everyone can access the updated version of the documents at any time. In the following sections, we explain how to create and draw up your own Gantt charts with Google Sheets step by step..
You can create a Gantt chart with Google Sheets easily and in a few minutes. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Create a table for the project. In addition to a column that contains the description of the task , you should also include a column for its start date and another for its finish date . To determine the charges, you can also add a column with the name of the employees responsible for the task.
2. Copy the row with the table titles and paste it where you want the Gantt chart to appear. Instead of? End Date ?, replace the heading of that column with? Duration ? Do the same with? Start date? and replace it with the title? Day ? Then copy the task descriptions below this row, as shown in the following image..
3. In the table that you have copied, in the cell to the right of the first task, enter the formula to calculate when the task should start, that is, the difference between the start date of said task and the start date of the first task. In our example, the formula would be? = INT (B3) -INT ($ B $ 3) ?, Because the start date of the first task in the project is in cell B3. Depending on where you have written the table, the cell number may be different.
4. Click the little blue square in the lower right corner of the cell where you just calculated the difference between the task start date and the first task start date, and drag it to the cell of the last task. This way, you'll copy the formula from that cell to all the cells below it, and Google Sheets will automatically calculate the values in each cell:
5. In the cell for the duration of the first task, you must enter the formula to calculate how long this task will last. To do this, we take the value of the task end date minus the start date of the first task, and subtract it from the value of the task start date minus the start date of the first task in the project. In our example, it would look like this: = (INT (C3) -INT ($ B $ 3)) - (INT (B3) -INT $ B $ 3 .
6. Press and hold the small blue square in the cell where you just entered the formula and drag it to the cell for the last task. In this way, you will copy the formula for the duration in each cell, and the program will calculate and display the corresponding values automatically:
7. Select the data that has just been calculated in the entire table and open the option? Insert ? of the ribbon. In the list, select the option? Graph ?:
8. On the right side, you will see the graphics editor. If it does not appear automatically, select the option? Stacked bar chart ? in the drop-down list? Chart type? to create the Gantt chart. Next, click on one of the blue bars: the graph editor settings menu will open, with which you can customize all the bars representing the "Start date". Open the color settings for these bars and confirm that they have no color :
You can now customize the Gantt chart you have created and configure it to your liking in many other ways. For example, you can give it another title, modify the time scale of the axes or change the colors.
If you prefer to use Microsoft Office, no problem: there are also many options to create Gantt charts in Excel and easily represent the phases and processes of projects.