Creating a Gantt Chart on a system might need to be clarified, making you wonder what a Gantt Chart is and how to build it in software. So, in this comprehensive guide, we will show you how to create a Gantt Chart in EdrawMind, a full-featured collaborative mind mapping and brainstorming tool. This software has features that make it the most reliable among beginners and project managers.
Now, you might wonder why EdrawMind is so reliable. Here are the reasons:
- It has a vast library of editable free templates that will help you to create a perfect Gantt Chart even if you are doing it for the first time.
- It has the unique feature of importing and exporting files in your preferred format, so you do not face any complications while importing data into your Gantt Chart.
- You can also invite your collaborators in EdrawMind to exchange your responses while having clarity while making the Gantt Chart of your project.
With these features and its online and offline availability, EdrawMind helps create a Gantt Chart more easily and faster. It can also be used on various systems (laptops, desktops, or tablets) and operating systems (macOS, Windows, Linux, etc.).
In this article
What is Gantt Chart: Definition & History
A Gantt Chart is a horizontal bar chart project management tool that allows you to create a project schedule while mapping the tasks to the timeline in such an order that you can visualize the complete project. A Gantt more easily quickly lists the project timeline.
This problem-solving tool was created by Henry Gantt in the 20th century to make project planning and scheduling better. This tool made project handling and task tracking easier by adding these parameters to the chart:
- Task Name
- Starting date
- Ending date
- Assignees
- Duration of the Task
What Is the Purpose of a Gantt Chart?
Using the Gantt Charts helps the project managers or coordinators with project handling while letting them map out the project and its timeline and visualize it better. Gantt Chart also allows you to keep the updates by tracking small tasks while relating them to their timeline. Well, here are the primary purposes of a Gantt Chart:
- Planning and Scheduling: The Gantt Chart helps to plan and schedule a whole project by dividing the project tasks into small pieces while relating and mapping those tasks to a particular timeline.
- Budgeting: A Gantt Chart helps to monitor a project critically. It also tracks how much money is spent on which particular task and gives an estimated gross budget.
- Visualizing the Project: A Gantt Chart helps visualize the whole project in a horizontal bar chart format, which gives a long-term vision of the project along with its minor details.
Pros and Cons of Gantt Chart
Although the Gantt Chart efficiently saves time and effort to visualize a project, you face limitations when using it. Here are some pros and cons of using the Gantt Chart:
The Gantt Chart helps a team follow the task seamlessly while helping you move forward with a large project.
How do you make a Gantt Chart in EdrawMind?
EdrawMind is mind-mapping software that helps you visualize your project ideas. It also enables you to create a Gantt Chart and manage time seamlessly without any extra effort.
Step 1: First, sign up or log in to your mind mapping tool account. Then, click on the Advanced tab in the Navigation panel.
Step 2: You can now set the Gantt Chart options by going to the advanced tab and selecting the Gantt chart options.
Step 3: To add or delete tasks for a specific topic, click the add task button or add all tasks button to assign functions to all topics. Follow the same step to delete a task.
Step 4: Now, click the Advanced tab and Export Gantt Chart. Name the Gantt chart in the saving window and save the file by clicking the Save option.
Gantt Chart Examples
Template 1: Small Business Payment System
Description: Here is a small business payment system project plan template from EdrawMind. The major components in the image depict paying entry, a third-party logistic system, merchant payment from the desk system, and merchant payment from backstage management. Several tasks are associated with each component, such as product design, R&D, resource allocation, and several application-related tasks. There is a timeline associated with each task, shown by dates and days. The project focuses on integrating payment processing and management systems for small businesses.
below. 
below. 
Template 2: Project Preparation
Description: This template outlines a process diagram describing the pre-implementation phase of an e-invoicing project. There are nine steps in sequence, starting from requirement checking to final adjustments. The steps describe short action plans taken on specific days, such as assessing e-invoice required fields with the checker, beta testing, certification process, etc. Each step has been allotted lasting days and scheduled deadlines. The project flow has been indicated by using arrows, which highlight dependencies and progression from one task to another.
Template 3: Project Milestone
Description: The template illustrates a series of events in a timeline format. Each milestone is broken down into project initiation, venue confirmation, judge confirmation, and post-event evaluation. Each action plan has been explained precisely, and time is allocated in days to each action plan. Project managers and team members can use this chart to view deadlines and finish the tasks promptly.
Template 4: Project Resource Allocation
Description: This template outlines a resource allocation breakdown for a project. The primary and minor components categorize different roles and teams involved in the project. The significant components are the project management team, development team, external consultants and vendors, quality assurance, and design team. The sub-components have team members with roles under every significant team. For example, a project management team has a project manager, a business analyst, a scrum master, and a project coordinator.
Conclusion
In this comprehensive guide, we learned what a Gantt Chart is and how to create it with EdrawMind while gaining an overview of its definition and history. We also had a clear vision of its purpose and how it helps to visualize a project. Ultimately, we learned to create a Gantt Chart using EdrawMind and the examples in the software's editable free templates.
EdrawMind
AppsEdrawMind Online
