Gantt chart download program. Gantt charts: visualize data. Free project manager GanttProject description

This type of bar chart is named after Henry L. Gant, who developed it. This event took place in 1910.

The horizontal bars in the Gantt chart are arranged along the time axis. Each strip symbolizes a certain stage of work within the framework of one project.

The ends of the segment are the points of beginning and completion of work on the task, the length is the duration of the execution.

The vertical axis in such a diagram is the list of required tasks.

Before you start building a Gantt chart, you need to create a data table, on the basis of which the chart itself will be compiled. It can be copied from a file or entered manually in a new Excel sheet.

In the first column you need to enter the name of a specific stage of the project. The second one must be assigned to the date (time) of the start of the stage.

The next column will contain the duration of the step. The fifth (optional) will be with the amount of delay between stages.

A negative value will mean overlapping stages in time. And the latter should be assigned to the date (time) of the completion of the stage.

After organizing the data table, you can start creating the Gantt chart directly.

To create a blank for the future chart, you need to select the first two columns.

In the "Insert" tab of the top menu, you need the "Charts" section. In it, you need to hover over the item "Ruled".

In the drop-down options window, select "Stacked Bar". With other options, creating a Gantt chart is not possible.

On click, a form with a primary diagram will appear, which will be a blank for the finished diagram.

In the blank, you need to remove the legend, what it reflects in the process will not be useful at all. You can then delete or change the name of the chart.

You can do this by double clicking on it.

The next step is the creation of segments of the bands, which will be the very diagram.

To do this, you need to copy the contents of the "Duration" column.

And paste it into the chart blank. It is these segments that will become the Gantt chart. Now you need to hide the unnecessary blue segments of the stripes.

To do this, you must first select them all by clicking once with the left button on any line. When all the lines are selected, you need to right-click on any of them.

In the context menu, you need to click on the "Fill" item and select "No fill" in the drop-down form.

Unnecessary segments are hidden, you can start customizing the appearance of the chart.

Gantt Chart Design

Here you can see that the order of the items in the vertical axis does not correspond to how they are located in the table. They need to be inverted.

To change this, you need the axis dropdown menu. It is called by right-clicking on one of the points of the vertical axis.

It needs the “Format Axis…” item, which opens the axis settings window.

In this window, you need to check only one checkbox "Reverse order of categories", which will bring the position of the items into the proper form.

After selecting it, you need to click the "Close" button, which is at the bottom of the window. Now you can put in order the upper axis.

The vertical axis menu is invoked in the same way as the horizontal axis settings. More changes will have to be made in the settings window.

In the first tab, "Axis Options", you need to set the following options:

1. Move the "Minimum value" checkbox to the "Fixed" position, and enter the date (time) of the start of the first stage of the project in the field.
2. Move the flag "Price of the main divisions" to the "Fixed" position, and enter the minimum division value in the field.
3. Move the flag "Price of additional divisions" to the "Fixed" position, and enter the minimum value of divisions in the field. The detail of the graph display depends on this item.

In the "Alignment" tab there is an item "Text Direction". For the convenience of displaying dates on the upper axis, the item "Rotate text by 270 0" is suitable.

After that, it remains only to click the "Close" button.

On this, in general, the diagram is ready, for greater clarity of the joints of the stages, you can expand the bands themselves.

To do this, you need to select them with one left click, then right-click to call the drop-down menu. The required settings window is opened by the "Data series format" item.

The item "Side gap" is responsible for the distance between the rows. The slider, all the way to the left, will mean that there are no gaps.

By moving it from side to side, you can adjust the optimal thickness of the lines.

Upon completion of these simple manipulations, the Project Gantt Chart is completed. From it you can immediately export to Word or save it in a separate book.

Create a Project Gantt Chart in Excel

How to create a project Gantt Chart in Microsoft Excel using a clever stacked bar chart.

GanttProject - cross-platform software, designed for project planning, and managing tasks and resources using Gantt charts as the main planning tool. In addition to Gantt charts, the program allows you to build PERT charts. Since almost all software of this series is to some extent an alternative to a paid product from Microsoft (Ms Project), it is important that Gantt Project Planner, created in Java, supports import-export of documents Microsoft Project. At the same time, the alternative program is distributed free of charge under the rights of the General Public License Agreement GPL.

Specifications and requirements

This project planning software can be installed on operating systems Linux systems, Windows, Mac OSX. Compatibility with other (third party) projects ensures the use of the MPXJ library. However, Gantt Project only supports one of the 5 formats available in the library - MPX (Microsoft Project Exchange). Files are imported and exported in .txt and .xml formats. Reports are saved in .html and .pdf formats, and images are saved in .png, .jpeg or .csv formats of your choice, which makes it possible to subsequently use spreadsheet programs.

Since the program is designed primarily for single-user use, the bonus is the ability to upload and save the project file to FTP, which allows you to open the same document for several users. However, simultaneous editing can create meaningful problems that are expected to be resolved manually.

The program interface has been translated into 20 languages, including Russian.

In addition, an instruction (user manual) has been issued so that all participants involved in the project can freely use the software, including those who speak only Russian. Standardization in approach to interface style simplifies the process of mastering the program for beginners.

Functionality of the program

The project planned in the program is presented in the form of a tree of tasks, for each of which the user assigns an executor. Each task is given a specific amount of time. In order for the scheduled processes to form a single logically integral project, dependencies and links are established between the tasks, for example, in the format: “Do not start task Y until task X is completed”.

To display information with reference to the calendar, two types of charts are used -

Gantt and PERT.

• The Gantt chart here is a type of horizontal chart (rectangular bars) that illustrates the plan, work schedule, and structure of project tasks. On the left, the task is entered, and on top there is a calendar ruler that measures the duration of the process. The vertical line that measures the progress of tasks is drawn by the current date. In addition to time dependence, diagrams reflect the relationship between tasks.
• The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (or PERT) network diagram is also a diagram that shows the dependencies between tasks within a project.

The developers have announced work on the implementation of the Critical Path Method (CPM) mapping, but this work has not yet been completed.

The stages of the project for clarity and ease of orientation, if necessary, are highlighted in different colors. In addition to the deadlines for the implementation of tasks and dates, in addition to the diagrams, you can display:

• task name,
• information about the project coordinator,
• information about assigned resources.

The "People" tab makes it possible to display employee employment statistics. Moreover, the program implements the highlighting of the status of this artist by the type of current employment in the options:

• "busy" ("overwhelmed with work"),
• "free" (for assignment to work),
• "does not improve"
• "on holiday".

User fields can be created directly in the tasks to which these users are involved. The whole process of project activation is carried out by creating an empty task with its subsequent display on the chart. Since each task has certain properties, they must be entered (edited) in the properties window with the allocation of certain human resources for solving the task.

An employee account involves filling in the fields with the name, function (role), phone number, email, and the period of the planned vacation. Functions (or roles) can be defined in software settings in any quantity. By default, only 2 roles are offered: "coordinator" and "person with an indefinite role." In general, this utility contains the minimum functionality required for maintaining relatively simple projects.

GanttProject is a cross-platform project planning, task and resource management software using Gantt charts as the main planning tool. In addition to Gantt charts, the program allows you to build PERT charts. Since almost all software of this series is to some extent an alternative to a paid product from Microsoft (Ms Project), it is important that Gantt Project Planner, created in Java, supports the import-export of Microsoft Project documents. At the same time, the alternative program is distributed free of charge under the rights of the General Public License Agreement GPL.

Specifications and requirements

This software can be installed on operating systems Linux, Windows, MacOSX. Compatibility with other (third party) projects ensures the use of the MPXJ library. However, Gantt Project only supports one of the 5 formats available in the library - MPX (Microsoft Project Exchange). Files are imported and exported in .txt and .xml formats. Reports are saved in .html and .pdf formats, and images are saved in .png, .jpeg or .csv formats of your choice, which makes it possible to subsequently use spreadsheet programs.

Since the program is designed primarily for single-user use, the bonus is the ability to upload and save the project file to FTP, which allows you to open the same document for several users. However, simultaneous editing can create meaningful problems that are expected to be resolved manually.

The program interface has been translated into 20 languages, including Russian.

In addition, an instruction (user manual) has been issued so that all participants involved in the project can freely use the software, including those who speak only Russian. Standardization in approach to interface style simplifies the process of mastering the program for beginners.

Functionality of the program

The project planned in the program is presented in the form of a tree of tasks, for each of which the user assigns an executor. Each task is given a specific amount of time. In order for the scheduled processes to form a single logically integral project, dependencies and links are established between the tasks, for example, in the format: “Do not start task Y until task X is completed”.

To display information with reference to the calendar, two types of charts are used -

Gantt and PERT.

• The Gantt chart here is a type of horizontal chart (rectangular bars) that illustrates the plan, work schedule, and structure of project tasks. On the left, the task is entered, and on top there is a calendar ruler that measures the duration of the process. The vertical line that measures the progress of tasks is drawn by the current date. In addition to time dependence, diagrams reflect the relationship between tasks.
• The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (or PERT) network diagram is also a diagram that shows the dependencies between tasks within a project.

The developers have announced work on the implementation of the Critical Path Method (CPM) mapping, but this work has not yet been completed.

The stages of the project for clarity and ease of orientation, if necessary, are highlighted in different colors. In addition to the deadlines for the implementation of tasks and dates, in addition to the diagrams, you can display:

• task name,
• information about
• information about assigned resources.

The "People" tab makes it possible to display employee employment statistics. Moreover, the program implements the highlighting of the status of this artist by the type of current employment in the options:

• "busy" ("overwhelmed with work"),
• "free" (for assignment to work),
• "does not improve"
• "on holiday".

User fields can be created directly in the tasks to which these users are involved. The whole process of project activation is carried out by creating an empty task with its subsequent display on the chart. Since each task has certain properties, they must be entered (edited) in the properties window with the allocation of certain human resources for solving the task.

An employee account involves filling in the fields with the name, function (role), phone number, email, and the period of the planned vacation. Functions (or roles) can be set in program settings in any number. By default, only 2 roles are offered: "coordinator" and "person with an indefinite role." In general, this utility contains the minimum functionality required for maintaining relatively simple projects.

GanttProject- program for project management, which is a free alternative to Microsoft Project. The interface of GanttProject is very simple and, what is very important, it is very similar to appearance windows of MS Project, so experienced users will not be difficult to get comfortable with it. GanttProject is written in Java and is open source, which means it can run on almost any operating system, including Windows, Linux and MacOS. This makes it suitable for companies looking to migrate from paid Microsoft software to free software.

Main features of GanttProject

Of course free program by definition, it is not capable of including all the functionality that a commercial product carries. However, GanttProject has enough features to manage even the largest projects. The main tool of the system - Gantt charts help you quickly outline the main stages of the project and see how the tasks are interconnected. It is possible to impose automatically checked restrictions on task relationships, for example, note that the specified task always starts only after the completion of a certain previous one. Can be built PERT charts projects.

In GanttProject, you can assign specific people to tasks, indicating how much time they have to complete the task. Separate resource schedule allows you to track the degree of loading of specialists, evenly distributing tasks between them.

You can optionally export projects from GanttProject to Microsoft Project format or to a CSV file. To insert a snapshot of project plans into presentations, you can use the Export Projects to PNG images feature. It is possible to save individual diagrams, images, generate HTML or PDF reports. To quickly distribute projects among colleagues, the program has built-in support for the WebDAV protocol.

In addition to exporting project diagrams, GanttProject can import Microsoft Project files into its format. This allows you to switch to it even if the enterprise has already developed a library of projects in this format.

For newcomers to the world project management the free GanttProject is a great starter tool that allows you to master many aspects of this difficult business without spending a lot of money on expensive software products, such as Microsoft Project or ORACLE Primavera.