Gantt Box Chart - An Alternative to Gantt Chart - Download Excel Template & Online Tutorial . I chose an ugly name for it and called it Gantt Box Chart. Essentially, a gantt box chart is what you get when a gantt chart and box plot go to a bar, get drunk and decide to make out. It shows the project plan like any other gantt chart, and it shows the distribution of activity end dates, like any other box plot. You can see an example gantt box chart for a fictional software project above. Today, we will learn how to create a similar chart in Excel. Get a steaming cup of coffee or whatever keeps you going and follow these simple steps to make a gantt box chart. Set up your data: Just like any other chart in excel, a gantt box chart too requires well structured data. In our case, we need 5 things. Activity name. Start Date. Best Case End Date. Realistic (or Plan) End Date. Worst Case End Date. Getting all the 3 variations of End dates can be tricky. But if you are managing projects for long, you might already know how to get these dates.
Otherwise, here is one approach, proposed by Joel Spolsky, called as Evidence Based Scheduling that can help you. We will also need 3 additional helper columns where we need to calculate some numbers so that our gantt box chart can be constructed without resorting to magic wands. These are,BC: Number of days between Start Date and Best Case End Date. R: Number of days between Best Case End Date and Realistic Date. W: Number of days between Realistic Date and Worst Case End Date. Create a Stacked Bar Chart. Add a new stacked bar chart. The series to be stacked are,Best case end date. RWUse the “Activity Name” column for category axis labels. Now, our chart should look like: 3. Say your favorite curse word and Reverse the categories. Ok, time for a minor annoyance. Excel has magically showed the first activity of project at bottom. So, we need to reverse the category axis values before any further. Just select the category axis, go to format axis (press CTRL+1) and click the little box that says “order reverse in Categories”. Now, the chart should look like this: 4. Add Error Bars to Best Case Series. Now, add error bars to the best case series of the chart so that it looks like a line is drawn connecting best case date to start date of each activity. Create tasks and milestones. Aside from the start date and duration, every task may have priority, cost New in 2.7, color and fill pattern, text. To do that, follow these steps: Select “best case end date” series. Add Error Bars (from format ribbon)Specify the type of error bar as “Negative only”Select “Custom” for error bar values. Now, point the error bar values to the helper column “BC”Format the error bar in such a way that no cap is shown and it is thick. At this point, our gantt box chart should look like this: 5. Finally, format the chart. Now, our gantt box chart is almost ready. We need not hire a Hollywood grade make- up man to beautify this. We just need a few clicks. Remove legend. Add vertical and horizontal grid lines. Make them subtle. Change text colors to soothing ones. Remove fills from all series in stacked bar chart. Apply borders to 2nd and 3rd series to create a box effect. Format the date axis. Adjust the starting point (unfortunately you have to enter the number equivalent of date, like 1- May- 2. Adjust major unit – I used 1. Set the axis number formatting to d- mmm or mmm or myy or something else that works for you. Add a chart title. That is all. Our Gantt Box Chart is finally ready. Now, go figure why your project is not on track and do something about it. Displaying Completed Activities: The easiest way to show completed activities is to change all 3 end dates to the same date: that of the actual end date. This way, you just see a line when an activity is done and a box when there are variations in end dates. Of course, you can use another helper column to show a vertical line or a symbol of your choice to denote the end point as well. I leave it to you to figure out that portion. As you have probably noticed, the tasks on your Excel Gantt chart are listed in reverse order. And now we are going to fix this. Click on the list of tasks in the. Download the Gantt Box Chart Template: I have prepared an excel template for creating Gantt Box Charts quickly. Go ahead and download the version that you want. Excel 2. 00. 7+ version . Or just share your thoughts on this implementation and any suggestions. Go ahead and share. Templates & Tutorials on Project Management: Project Management Template Set – Get a copy today. I have made a set of 2. These templates have been bought by more than 5. Go ahead and a get a copy of my project management templates. Do you want to master analytics? Here is a smart way to become awesome in Excel & analytics. I have created an online program where you can learn all about analytics, data science, visualizations and reporting from the comfort of your home (or office). Each of the 5. 0 case studies in this program will teach you creative & powerful ways to analyze data and present results. We are now accepting students for our next batch of training. Note: We will be closing enrollments on 1. September (Friday). So hurry up to secure your spot. Share this tip with your friends. Written by Chandoo. Tags: box plots, chart formatting, charting, date axis, downloads, error bars, gantt charts, Learn Excel, project management, spreadsheets, stacked bar, templates, visualizations. Home: Chandoo. org Main Page? Doubt: Ask an Excel Question. How to make Gantt chart in Excel, step- by- step guidance and templates. If you were asked to name three key components of Microsoft Excel, what would they be? Most likely, spreadsheets to input data, formulas to perform calculations and charts to create graphical representations of various data types. I believe, every Excel user knows what a chart is and how to create it. However, one graph type remains opaque to many - the Gantt chart. This short tutorial will explain the key features of the Gantt diagram, show how to make a simple Gantt chart in Excel, where to download advanced Gantt chart templates and how to use the online Project Management Gantt Chart creator. What is a Gantt chart? The Gantt chart bears a name of Henry Gantt, American mechanical engineer and management consultant who invented this chart as early as in 1. A Gantt diagram in Excel represents projects or tasks in the form of cascading horizontal bar charts. A Gantt chart illustrates the breakdown structure of the project by showing the start and finish dates as well as various relationships between project activities, and in this way helps you track the tasks against their scheduled time or predefined milestones. How to make Gantt chart in Excel 2. Regrettably, Microsoft Excel does not have a built- in Gantt chart template as an option. However, you can quickly create a Gantt chart in Excel by using the bar graph functionality and a bit of formatting. Please follow the below steps closely and you will make a simple Gantt chart in under 3 minutes. We will be using Excel 2. Gantt chart example, but you can simulate Gantt diagrams in Excel 2. Excel 2. 01. 3 exactly in the same way. Create a project table. You start by entering your project's data in an Excel spreadsheet. List each task is a separate row and structure your project plan by including the Start date, End date and Duration, i. Only the Start date and Duration columns are really necessary for creating an Excel Gantt chart. However, if you enter the End Dates too, you can use a simple formula to calculate Duration, as you can see in the screenshot below. Make a standard Excel Bar chart based on Start date. You begin making your Gantt chart in Excel by setting up a usual Stacked Bar chart. Select a range of your Start Dates with the column header, it's B1: B1. Be sure to select only the cells with data, and not the entire column. Switch to the Insert tab > Charts group and click Bar. Under the 2- D Bar section, click Stacked Bar. As a result, you will have the following Stacked bar added to your worksheet: Note. Some other Gantt Chart tutorials you can find on the web recommend creating an empty bar chart first and then populating it with data as explained in the next step. But I think the above approach is better because Microsoft Excel will add one data series to the chart automatically, and in this way save you some time. Step 3. Add Duration data to the chart. Now you need to add one more series to your Excel Gantt chart- to- be. Right- click anywhere within the chart area and choose Select Data from the context menu. The Select Data Source window will open. As you can see in the screenshot below. Select your project Duration data by clicking on the first Duration cell (D2 in our case) and dragging the mouse down to the last duration (D1. Make sure you have not mistakenly highlighted the header or any empty cell. Click the range selection icon again to exit this small window. This will bring you back to the previous Edit Series window with Series name and Series values filled in, where you click OK. Now you are back at the Select Data Source window with both Start Date and Duration added under Legend Entries (Series). Simply click OK for the Duration data to be added to your Excel chart. The resulting bar chart should look similar to this: Step 4. Add task descriptions to the Gantt chart. Now you need to replace the days on the left side of the chart with the list of tasks. Right- click anywhere within the chart plot area (the area with blue and orange bars) and click Select Data to bring up the Select Data Source window again. Make sure the Start Date is selected on the left pane and click the Edit button on the right pane, under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels. A small Axis Label window opens and you select your tasks in the same fashion as you selected Durations in the previous step - click the range selection icon , then click on the first task in your table and drag the mouse down to the last task. Remember, the column header should not be included. When done, exit the window by clicking on the range selection icon again. Click OK twice to close the open windows. Remove the chart labels block by right- clicking it and selecting Delete from the context menu. At this point your Gantt chart should have task descriptions on the left side and look something like this: Step 5. Transform the bar graph into the Excel Gantt chart. What you have now is still a stacked bar chart. You have to add the proper formatting to make it look more like a Gantt chart. Our goal is to remove the blue bars so that only the orange parts representing the project's tasks will be visible. In technical terms, we won't really delete the blue bars, but rather make them transparent and therefore invisible. Click on any blue bar in your Gantt chart to select them all, right- click and choose Format Data Series from the context menu. The Format Data Series window will show up and you do the following. Switch to the Fill tab and select No Fill. Go to the Border Color tab and select No Line. Note. You do not need to close the dialog because you will use it again in the next step. As you have probably noticed, the tasks on your Excel Gantt chart are listed in reverse order. And now we are going to fix this. This will display the Format Axis dialog for you. Select the Categories in reverse order option under Axis Options and then click the Close button to save all the changes. The results of the changes you have just made are: Your tasks are arranged in a proper order on a Gantt chart. Date markers are moved from the bottom to the top of the graph. Your Excel chart is starting to look like a normal Gantt chart, isn't it? For example, my Gantt diagram looks like this now: Step 6. Improve the design of your Excel Gantt chart. Though your Excel Gantt chart is beginning to take shape, you can add a few more finishing touches to make it really stylish. Remove the empty space on the left side of the Gantt chart. As you remember, originally the starting date blue bars resided at the start of your Excel Gantt diagram. Now you can remove that blank white space to bring your tasks a little closer to the left vertical axis. Adjust the number of dates on your Gantt chart. In the same Format Axis window that you used in the previous step, change Major unit and Minor unit to Fixed too, and then add the numbers you want for the date intervals. Typically, the shorter your project's timeframe is, the smaller numbers you use. For example, if you want to show every other date, enter 2 in the Major unit. You can see my settings in the screenshot below: Tip. You can play with different settings until you get the result that works best for you. Don't be afraid to do something wrong because you can always revert to the default settings by switching back to Auto in Excel 2. Reset in Excel 2. Remove excess white space between the bars. Compacting the task bars will make your Gantt graph look even better. Click any of the orange bars to get them all selected, right click and select Format Data Series. In the Format Data Series dialog, set Separated to 1. Gap Width to 0% (or close to 0%). And here is the result of our efforts - a simple but nice- looking Excel Gantt chart: Remember, though your Excel chart simulates a Gantt diagram very closely, it still keeps the main features of a standard Excel chart: Tips: Download this Gantt chart example. Excel Gantt chart templates. As you see, it's not a big problem to build a simple Gantt chart in Excel. But what if you want a more sophisticated Gantt diagram with percent- complete shading for each task and a vertical Milestone or Checkpoint line? Of course, if you are one of those rare and mysterious creatures whom we respectively call . Below you will find a quick overview of several project management Gantt chart templates for different versions of Microsoft Excel. Gantt chart template for Excel 2. Microsoft. This Excel Gantt chart template, called Gantt Project Planner, is purposed to track your project by different activities such as Plan Start and Actual Start, Plan Duration and Actual Duration as well as Percent Complete. In Excel 2. 01. 3, this template is available directly on the File > New tab. If you cannot find it there, you can download it from Microsoft's web- site - . As well as the previous Gantt chart template, this one is fast and easy- to- use. They offer 3. 0 days free trial, so you can sign with your Google account here and start making your first Excel Gantt diagram online straight away. The process is very straightforward, you enter your project details in the left- hand table, and as you type a Gantt Chart is being built in the right- hand part of the screen. Gantt chart template for Excel, Google Sheets and Open. Office Calc. Gantt chart template from vertex. Gantt chart template that works with Excel 2. Open. Office Calc and Google Sheets. You work with this template in the same fashion as you do with any normal Excel spreadsheet. Simply enter the start date and duration for each task and define % in the Complete column. To change the range of dates displayed in the Gantt chart area, slide the scroll bar. And finally, one more Gant chart Excel template for your consideration. Project Manager Gantt Chart template. Project Manager Gantt Chart from professionalexcel. Gantt chart template for Excel that can help track your tasks against their allocated time. You can choose either the standard weekly view or daily for short term projects.
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