4 cases to use a Gantt chart
You probably know a Gantt chart as a tool for project management. With its help, you plan sprints, track task progress, and keep an eye on deadlines. Fantastic as it is, right?
It’s time to get more creative with your Gantt chart. It can be handy and versatile in many different cases — imagination is your only limit. Have a look at a few unusual ways to use a Gantt Chart that we built with the help of Table Filter and Charts for Confluence for some inspiration.
If you want to learn how to build a regular Gantt chart, check out our article 5 Tips to Become a Gantt Chart Expert Using Atlassian Confluence.
Plan the timeline
You might think: but the regular Gantt chart is already a timeline! It’s hard to argue with that. But you can plan so much more than just a project timeline.
For example, you can visualize your monthly schedule or plan a whole year with a Gantt chart. Apart from the timeline, you can add a calendar to your Gantt chart.
Start by creating a regular table you would use to build a Gantt chart. Specify tasks you need to complete and corresponding dates. Match tasks with stages or projects. Next, add a calendar section to your table. If you are planning a year ahead, you need a line per month. In the Task column, add the names of the months. Set up the dates.
After you save the page, you’ll see a Gantt chart with a calendar at the bottom.
If you have some planned activities and appointments, create a two-column chart with the data related to these events. Place it inside the macro in the edit mode.
The events will appear on your chart as vertical lines that cross the chart on a particular day.
Visualize dependencies
You can have tasks in a project that can’t start before the other tasks are completed. You don’t have to keep it all in mind. It is much more convenient to have a visualization of all the connections.
Create a table with tasks and their start and end dates. Build a Gantt chart. Go to the edit mode and hover over the chart. Click the cogwheel icon that appears on the right and select the Set Dependencies option. Now you can pull the arrows from one task to the other to mark connections. Save the changes when you are finished.
Track the daily work
Not everyone is working 9–5 nowadays, especially with remote work becoming so popular. Still, sometimes you want to track the time your employees spend working daily. This way you’ll understand how the workload is distributed among the employees. When you know this, you might assign tasks more efficiently.
If you use any tracking tools, you can use a Gantt chart to analyze the data about daily working time. You can see more inconsistencies if you track the time for at least 1–2 months.
Don’t forget to choose the correct date format in the settings to use both date and time.
After you have gathered enough data and chose the settings, build a Gantt chart.
Plan the logistics
A Gantt chart can help you plan the logistics as well. Imagine that you work for a marine shipping company. You have to prepare the schedule for your ships for the upcoming month.
Create a table with start and end dates, but instead of tasks, mark the ship’s location: in a certain dock or at sea. Complete the schedule. To make the visualization even more engaging, pick specific colors for each location. Add the colors in a separate table column. Use color names or HEX codes.
Build a Gantt chart and save the page. To set your own colors, hover over the chart and click the cogwheel icon on the right. Choose the Select colors option. Here, pick the Colors in table columns color scheme and choose the necessary column with data for the task settings. Save the settings, and the chart will change correspondingly.
What else?
We showed you how to use the Table Filter and Charts app to build various Gantt charts in Confluence. If you want to learn how to build a Gantt chart from scratch, check out our video:
Table Filter and Charts has even more features to offer:
Try all of these tools for free, and contact us if you have any questions or ideas. And don’t forget to tell us how you use a Gantt chart in the comments.
