What Is a Gantt chart?
A Gantt chart is a commonly used graphical depiction of a project schedule.
It's a type of bar chart showing the start and finish dates of a project's
elements such as resources, planning and dependencies.
Henry Gantt (1861-1919), an American mechanical engineer, designed the
Gantt chart.
A Gantt chart is a visualization that helps in scheduling, managing, and
monitoring specific tasks and resources in a project.
It consists of a list of tasks and bars depicting each task's progress.
It's the most widely used chart in project management.
Gantt charts are used in heavy industries for projects like building dams,
bridges, and highways, as well as software development and building out of
other goods and services.
Understanding Gantt Charts
The Gantt chart is the most widely used chart in project management.
These charts are useful in planning a project and defining the sequence of
tasks that require completion.
In most instances, the chart is displayed as a horizontal bar chart.
Horizontal bars of different lengths represent the project timeline, which can
include task sequences, duration, and the start and end dates for each task.
The horizontal bar also shows how much of a task requires completion.
A Gantt chart helps in scheduling, managing, and monitoring specific tasks
and resources in a project.
The chart shows the project timeline, which includes scheduled and
completed work over a period.
The Gantt chart help project managers in communicating project status or
plans and also helps ensure the project remains on track.
What are the components of a Gantt Chart?
A Gantt chart can vary in complexity and depth, but will always have three
key components:
o Activities or tasks that are to be done, running along the y-axis;
o Milestones or progress stages indicated along the x-axis (either on
the top or bottom of the chart); and
o Progress bars, denoted as horizontal bars, denoting how far along
each task is at any given point.
Example of Gantt chart
What Is a Project Status Report?
A project status report is a document that describes the progress of a project
within a specific time period and compares it against the project plan.
Project managers use status reports to keep stakeholders informed of
progress and monitor costs, risks, time and work.
Project status reports allow project managers and stakeholders to visualize project
data through charts and graphs.
Project status reports are taken repeatedly, throughout every phase of the project’s
execution, as a means to maintain your schedule and keep everyone on the same
page.
The status report for a project will generally include the following:
The work that’s been completed
The plan for what will follow
The summary of the project budget and schedule
A list of action items
Any issues and risks, and what’s being done about them
The true value of a project status report lies beyond its use as a communication
channel.
It also provides a documented history of the project.
This gives you historical data, so the next time you’re planning a similar project, you
can avoid any missteps or bottlenecks.
Because project status reports cover so many topics, historically, they were time-
consuming to create.
How to Write a Project Status Report
Writing a project status report is an essential project management task.
Whether you generate one weekly, monthly or quarterly, the steps are essentially
the same.
Here’s how to write a project status report:
1. Determine the objective
2. Target your audience (Clients, team members, sponsors, etc)
3. Choose the format and type
4. Collect your data
5. Structure the report
6. Make sure it’s clear
7. Edit draft
Elements of a Project Status Report
The different elements of a project status report organize the different parts into a
same project.
The objective of a status report, is to keep stakeholders informed and expose areas
of the project that need greater organizational support.
To better communicate these things, include the following in your project status
report.
General Project Info
What is the project name?
Who is the project manager?
What are the number of resources?
All this information is essential, if obvious, to track the paperwork.
Don’t assume your stakeholder is familiar with all this information. It’s especially
useful for when you’re doing historical research for future projects. Roll it into
your status report template, if you have one.
General Status Info
Here you want to include what date the report was generated, who the author is and
so on.
Milestone Review
The milestone review lets you note where you are in terms of meeting those
milestones (against where you planned to be at this point) in the project’s life cycle.
Project Summary
Include a short summary of the forecasted completion date and costs of the project.
This allows project managers to control the project’s execution and measure
success.
Be sure to include the activities that are facing issues and how those problems might
impact the project’s quality, resources, timeline and costs.
Explain what you’re planning to do to resolve these issues and what the results will
be once you have fixed the problem.
Issues and Risks
Risks are all the internal and external factors that are a threat to your project.
They become issues once they affect your project’s budget, timeline or scope.
List the issues that have arisen over the course of the project to date.
Project Metrics
It’s important to back your report up with hard numbers to prove the statements
you’re making.
You should have established the metrics for status reporting during the project’s
planning phase.
It’s impossible to know if your project is succeeding without measuring its
effectiveness.
These metrics are a way to show you’re on track and evaluate what, if anything,
needs attention.
