One of the most common and effective methods of displaying activities (tasks or events) plotted against time is a Gantt chart, which is frequently used in project management. On the left side of the chart is a list of the activities, and at the top is a suitable time scale. A bar is used to symbolize each activity, and the location and length of the bar correspond to the activity’s beginning, middle, and finish dates. The following elements are crucial to any effective Gantt chart:
- The task list, which can be divided into groups and subgroups, runs vertically along the left side of the Gantt chart to define project activity.
- Timeline: Displays months, weeks, days, and years horizontally across the top of the Gantt chart.
- Dateline: On a Gantt chart, a vertical line displays the current date.
- Bars: On the right side of the Gantt chart, horizontal markers indicate tasks and display status, length, and start and finish dates.
- Milestones: Yellow diamonds that identify significant occasions, dates, choices, and outputs
- Dependencies are thin grey lines connecting activities that must occur in a specific order.
- The percentage of work that has been completed or the color of the bars can be used to show how far along the project is.
- The resource assigned: Identifies the individual or group in charge of accomplishing a task.
Creation of Gantt Chart using Stacked Bar Chart
With one of the built-in graph types in Excel is the stacked bar chart, which allows you to quickly and efficiently display a project’s progress in the form of a Gantt chart. To begin, confirm that you have the data you intend to show on the chart. This may comprise project tasks and their respective completion times. Here, we’ll utilize tasks, the number of days remaining for each work’s completion, and the number of days since each task began.
Step 1: First enter all the data in an excel sheet.
Step 2: Select all the data.
Step 3: Go to the ‘Insert’ option.
Step 4: Go to the below-mentioned option.
Step 5: Choose the ‘Stacked Bar’.
Step 6: You will get your stacked bar chart.
Step 7: Now you will click on the chart and you will observe the options that are mentioned below, in which you have to choose the option format plot area.
Step 8: Here you will observe a table in the right side corner.
Step 9: Go to option ‘chart options’ where you will see multiple options.
Step 10: Now you will choose the option Horizontal (Value) Axis.
Step 11: Now you will have the options in the below image.
Step 12: Select the given below option and then click on the value in reverse order.
Step 13: Now again you click on the ‘Axis options‘, Here you will observe multiple options in which you have to select Series “started”.
Step 14: Here you will see this panel now, in which you have to select the options fill and line.
Step 15: Now choose on No fill option.
Step 16: You will get your resultant chart.
We now have a stacked bar chart that serves as a fundamental Gantt chart, and you may make further changes if you like. Using the sidebar or Chart Design tab, you may update the legend, add a title, alter colors, and select a new font, among other things.