Five Clear Benefits to Use Gantt Charts in Software Development Projects - mersano/Article GitHub Wiki

Whatever industry you are in, it is highly likely that you deal with projects. Even if you are a freelancer and have no connections with colleagues, departments, and clients, you need to plan and manage your personal tasks. On the contrary, on a large scale, there are always teams that work in close collaboration. This is the case of teamwork where participants have one aim – to successfully fulfil a project.

Projects are everywhere: in marketing and sale, retail and manufacture, consulting and education. Software development, no doubt, is not an exception here. Every day thousands of development teams work on tasks. Those tasks have to be organized in a proper manner. This lets everyone see how projects are developing and who is in charge. So the thing is how to choose a proper tool to plan and manage teamwork.

Gantt charts proved to be an effective way to work with tasks, assignees, resources, costs, and calendars. Of course, the functionality depends on the software you choose. So it is better to find an efficient online Gantt chart tool as well as software development plan template and enjoy project management processes.

Hold on! But what is a Gantt chart?

In case, you happen not to know a thing about a Gantt chart, here is a brief explanation. A Gantt chart is a chart that has two axes. Along a vertical one, you put your tasks. A horizontal line represents a timeline where you put dates. Consequently, all your tasks have start and end dates. This gives a clear visualization of what is going on in a plan.

As a rule, professional Gantt chart software offers far more features than simple scheduling. They include but not limited to tasks progress, team collaboration, resource management, costs management, and many others.

1. Full awareness of tasks and dates

Software development project managers have to deal with tons of tasks every day. Of course, if there is a small chance to memorize every line from your to-do list, that’s fine. But how small is that chance? Let’s be honest, keeping all the tasks, assignees, and timelines is impossible.

A Gantt chart gives a full and clear picture of a project. All the tasks have definite start and end dates. Assignees know what they already completed, what they have now, and what tasks are waiting for them. All this information is right on one screen in front of you. And it is easy to understand!

2. Progress tracking

A Gantt chart is one of the best ways to not only create tasks with timelines but also to track progress. To be aware of project progress is vital as you will know how close you are to your initial plans.

Imagine you manage a project with your team. Can you be sure about each task? Probably, yes but you will need to know how far it is from the start and how much percent left. On a Gantt chart, anyone from your development team will see tasks’ progress in seconds.

3. Proper resource loading

Efficient and robust Gantt chart tools allow working with resources. As a rule, managers can invite or create resources and assign tasks to them. Their costs are also managed in such tools. But if there are too many resources in a project, it is easy to get lost in all the details.

Resource management is efficient when every unit does not have any extra duties. On a Gantt chart, it is easy to allocate and manage resources. For example, you have three tasks for one developer. All these tasks are to be finished in three days. In case this developer has too many assignments for this time period, a Gantt chart tool will show you that. This will allow you to reassign tasks and find someone else to perform the duties.

It works the other way as well. If someone has spare time, a Gantt chart will show you that. Thus, thanks to a tool, you will be able to delegate duties in a proper manner.

4. Communication and collaboration

In general, projects include more than one assignee. If your aim is to successfully complete a project, you as a manager should arrange everything in the right way. Communication is a key point and without it, there will be too many misunderstandings.

The same concerns collaboration. Only in a team where team members communicate and collaborate, a project has all chances on success. Luckily, Gantt chart software provides with a plethora of opportunities for it as everything is clear here.

What kind of collaboration can a Gantt chart give? It can be a comment and an attachment to tasks, export and sharing opportunities, notifications, mentions, etc. Thus, this kind of a chart can become an all-in-one tool for your software development team.

5. Cost management

Advanced Gantt chart software is a system where you can manage even costs. Once you add a new assignee to your project, you set a cost value for him or her. If a tool has an intuitive interface, you will see costs for every team member and resource in a project grid, right in front of you. Also, these advanced tools calculate all the costs in a project.

Thanks to this feature, you are aware of all your spending on resources and on the entire project. So from this perspective, you can reconsider your budget and reduce costs.

These are the basic advantages that Gantt chart software can bring to your software projects. But this is not the full list. Any managers can highlight exactly those features he/she likes most. In any case, Gantt charts are efficient for a variety of activities in project management.