Briefing document: How to create a Gantt chart using a spreadsheet

Transcription

Briefing document: How to create a Gantt chart using
a spreadsheet
A Gantt chart is a popular way of using a bar-type chart to show the
schedule for a project. It is named after Henry Gantt who created his
chart in 1910 – although it is said that he took the idea of someone
else who’d produced a chart much earlier! But because his idea was
the first one published, it was named after him.
The chart represents the tasks within a project and shows when they
should begin and end. It can also be used to show relationships
between tasks – dependencies, for example, where one task is
dependent on the completion of another. It is also possible to
represent tasks that can be carried out at the same time, depending
on resources. For example, if you are working in a team, it might be
that someone can be working on the audio whilst someone else works
on the video. The chart provides a very visual way of showing the
progress of a project, and allows you to check at any time what should
be happening.
This briefing document will introduce you to making a project plan for
your website using a simple spreadsheet.
Step 1: Select your software program
Any spreadsheet program can be used for creating a Gantt chart. The
program we’re going to use in the example is MS Excel. Open Excel
and immediately save your spreadsheet into your My Documents area.
Call it ‘Project Plan’.
Step 2: Creating the tasks
The first column in the spreadsheet will list all the tasks you need to
do in your project. For this example we are going to use research
(into existing sites), audience (researching the audience for your
website), design (what the website will look and feel like), images
(what images you will include), audio (creating the audio content),
video (filming and editing the video), content (writing the text),
integration (bringing everything together) and evaluation (user
testing and collecting feedback). Enter the names in the first column.
Your spreadsheet should look like Figure 1 below.
© Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2008
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Figure 1: Listing the tasks
Step 3: Defining the start dates
This is where you have to start planning your project! You need to
decide when each task is going to start. This might depend on your
deadline – that is, the date you need to deliver your final website.
Supposing you have seven weeks to deliver your project, and you’re
going to start on 1st September 2008. The first thing you will need to
do is carry out research into existing websites, and some research into
your audience type. So these two tasks need to be done first.
Realistically we will start with research into websites on 1st September
and research into audience two days later, 3rd September.
To enter the start dates, begin by defining the second column for this
variable (a variable is something that has a changing value – so in this
case it’s the different dates that tasks in the project will start on).
Enter Start Date in the first cell of column B (make it bold by
highlighting it and choosing bold from the toolbar). Right click on the B
at the top of the column, and select format cells. Choose date and
then select which format you would like your date to appear as. I
have chosen the 01.09.08 format, but you can choose a different
format.
Every time I enter a date in this column, it will appear in the same
format, even if I type in 1 September. See figure 2 for the steps in
this process and what you should see when you enter the dates.
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Figure 2: Entering the start dates
1. Select format cells after right clicking
the top of the column (so the whole
column is selected).
2. Select date and choose the
format you would like the date to
appear in. I have selected the
format 01.09.08.
3. Every time I enter a date, even if I
write it as 3 Sep, it will change to the
selected format.
3
Continue to enter realistic dates for when you think you will start the
different tasks in the project. Go back to the priority list generated in
Briefing Document: How to manage a simple project for help
with this. If you find you have underestimated the time taken for a
particular part of the project, you can change the start date in your
spreadsheet later. I have generated dates that I think are realistic.
Figure 3: All the start dates added
I have calculated that I need to
start the design one week after
the project starts.
Images will
need to be sourced quite early
too. Audio will take about a week,
and so will the video. Content
writing starts shortly after the
video begins. Integration is a big
job, and that can’t happen until
everything else is ready. I have
left over a week for integration,
and evaluation starts just six
weeks after the project start date.
That gives me a week for
evaluation as the project needs to
end mid-October.
Step 4: Working out the time line
The next thing to do is work out how long each task will take. You can
also add a column here that shows how much has already been done
and what is left. So supposing it was the 11th September, and we were
on schedule. We could show in our chart what has been completed and
what is still outstanding. The way to do this is to have two columns –
column C will be Completed and column D Remaining. Enter these
two headings in the two columns.
On September 11th, this is how my project is going:
• Research – have done 3 days but need 2 more, so enter 3 under
Completed and 2 under Remaining
• Audience – have done 4 days and it’s all finished, so enter 4
under Completed and 0 under Remaining
4
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Design – have done 3 days and need another week, so enter 3
Images – started yesterday so I’ve only done one day and will
need another 2 days, so enter 1 under Completed and 2 under
Remaining.
Audio – I haven’t started and I think it will need a week, so enter
0 under Completed and 7 under Remaining.
Video – I haven’t started that either, and I think it will need 10
days, so enter 0 under completed and 10 under Remaining
Content – another task not started, so 0 under Completed and
this will take 3 days, so 3 under Remaining
Integration – a big task, but I’m not starting it for a while, so 0
Evaluation – right at the end, so 0 under Completed and 7 under
Remaining.
Enter this data into the spreadsheet. It should look like Figure 4.
Figure 4: The Completed and Remaining data entered
Step 5: Making a chart
Select the cells A10 to D10. The cells will turn blue. Whilst they are
selected, click on the Chart Wizard icon on the toolbar (it looks like a
three-dimensional chart). See figure 5.
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Figure 5: Selecting the cells to use with the Chart Wizard
When the Chart Wizard opens, select Bar and find the stacked bar
option (the box on the right side of the wizard tells you which option
you have selected). See figure 6.
Figure 6: Selecting the stacked bar chart option
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Click, Next, Next and Finish and you should have something that looks
like Figure 7.
Figure 7: The stacked bar chart
This isn’t quite what a real Gantt chart looks like, so we need to carry
out some formatting to make it easier to read and use.
Step 6: Making the stacked bar chart into a Gantt chart
Double click on the blue section of the top bar, and a dialogue box
headed Format Data Series will appear. Click None for Border and
None for Area and click ok. See figure 8.
Figure 8: Formatting the data series
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You should have something that looks like figure 9.
Figure 9: After formatting the start date data series
Next we are going to format the axes. Double click on the vertical axis
(the one that lists all the tasks) and the Format Axis dialogue box will
open. Select the Scale tab along the top. Select the Categories in
Reverse Order checkbox. See figure 10.
Figure 10: Changing the task order
Next step – click on the Font tab along the top and select font size 8
in the right hand box. See figure 11.
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Figure 11: Formatting the font size
Click ok. Your chart will appear with the Research task at the top of
this axis and the Evaluation task at the bottom and the labels will be
smaller – this fits with the order in which the tasks are carried out on a
Gantt chart.
The next step is quite complicated, because we need to find some
General numbers that correspond to the dates of our project time
line. In your spreadsheet, click on the cell that shows the start date of
the first task – 1st September 2008. Select Format and Cells. When
the Format Cells dialogue box opens, select General. A number
appears in the small box on the right. Make a note of it. In this
example, it’s 39692. See figure 12.
Now we need to find the same number for the date the project should
be finished – let’s say the 19th October. To find what this date is, enter
19th October at the bottom of the Start Date column, highlight it, then
select Format, Cells and General. The number in this case is 39740.
Again make a note of it. See figure 13.
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Figure 12: Locating the project start date general number
Figure 13: Locating the project end date general number
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Now we’re going to format the horizontal axis, which is now at the top
of the chart. Double click on it to bring up another Format Axis box.
Select Scale and a series of boxes with numbers in will appear. We’re
going to put some new numbers in the boxes. In the box labelled
Minimum type the general number for the project start date –
39692. In the box labelled Maximum type the general number for
the project end date – 39740. In the Major unit, we’re going to type
in 4 – this means the chart will show us every four days along the
axis. The Minor unit will be 1 – which means 1 day.
Also make sure the Category (X) axis crosses a maximum value
box is checked. See figure 14.
Figure 14: Formatting the horizontal axis
Next, click on the Alignment tab, last one at the top. You will see a
box under Orientation on the left side. Highlight the ‘0’ that is in
there and type in ‘45’. Click ok. The dates at the top of your chart
should now be aligned at an angle of 45o to the axis. See figure 15.
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Figure 15: Realigning the text in the horizontal axis and its
result
We’re nearly there! A couple more formatting tasks and we have
completed our Gantt chart. Click on the horizontal axis at the top and
bring up the Format Axis box again. Select Font from the tabs,
choose font size 8 and make it bold. Click ok. The dates across the
top axis will appear smaller and clearer.
The last step is to sort out the box with the data labels, which is
showing ‘Start Date’. This box is called the legend. Double click on it
to bring up the Format Legend dialogue box. Click on the Placement
tab, and select bottom. See figure 16.
Figure 16: Formatting the legend
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When you click ok, your chart will now have the legend box at the
bottom. Finally, highlight the words ‘Start Date’ and click delete to
remove it.
You can make your Gantt chart larger by dragging it out from the
corners.
To remove it from the spreadsheet program, you can
highlight it, copy it and paste it into a word processing program, such
as MS Word. Make sure change the Page Setup in Word to landscape
to accommodate the chart.
It should look like this:
You have used some advanced formatting functions within MS Excel to
create this chart. Now you can create your own chart for your project
and use it to monitor your progress. If anything changes in the
project schedule – for example, a task being finished faster than you
expected, or something taking longer than expected – just change the
values in the Completed and Remaining columns and the chart will
automatically change. You can then copy and paste the new one into
MS Word if you want to keep a record.
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Briefing document: How to create a Gantt chart using a spreadsheet

Transcription

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