Everything you need to know about the Gantt Chart vs. timeline
Being working as a project manager, you need to manage many things while working with other certain and sudden tasks, for that reason it will be necessary to know the differences between Gantt and Timeline, two ways to display your tasks information easily.
It is an obvious thing that needs to documented plan by using software on your system to keep track of the completion of the tasks and record the efficiency of your team's work that you can do by gaining information of grip over Gantt Chart vs. timeline management tools.
Everything you need to know about the Gantt Chart vs. timeline
When you think about Gantt chart vs timeline as a project manager, they both sound different, but they are the same in function and somehow in a structure, just like comparing the pie graph or bar graph. Gantt chart and timeline graph are the same as they briefly explain your project in every aspect from starting date to end date and keep you intimated about the progress of your project.
In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about Gantt Chart vs timeline graphs, their purpose, functioning, and the way and time to use them properly to attain your project's success if you are working as a project manager.
It may happen that when you are choosing a timeline graph, but it is not suiting you as it should, you can switch into the Gantt chart to avoid the problems further. To compete for such problems and limitations of the one graphic tool, you should understand the certain distinctive features of both graphs in Gantt Chart vs. time comparison and decide better which will suit you.
To learn a clear concept of everything about Gantt vs. timeline graphic tools of project management tools, you need to know the Gantt chart and timeline. Gantt chart is one of the most popular and adopted tools of the project management skill that you can use to visualize a project you are dealing with. The creator of the Gantt chart, Henry Gantt, defines many principles of the Gantt chart after introducing it, which were:
This tool is best to decide the number of tasks by following the time that you will be needed to complete it. Even you can decide on Gantt chart what you will be doing every day of a week or the month.
In the Gantt chart, there are horizontal boxes that you can fill as per the frequency of the means you can decide by ticking of filling the colors. It also represents how many times you will be doing this particular activity in each month that you can later check whether you planned well and followed or the plan you made was not easy to follow.
How is the Gantt chart suitable for your project?
So, the Gantt chart is the best visual description of your project to estimate the time for completing your project by setting the frequency of the tasks to be performed. The Gantt chart is helpful in multiple ways. Some of which are discussed below.
It elaborates the details of the project by making it transparently visualized
While seeking the interesting facts about the Gantt Chart vs. timeline, I found the Gant chart an amazing tool that clearly and transparently elaborates the details of the project's tasks. So, you may say it is a transparent visual description of your monthly plan, and that can even divide into chunks or weeks and days by filling different colors in the boxes of the Gantt chart.
It will make you able to follow the days and do the compulsory task you have already mentioned over there. It also makes you clear handed in front of the owner and stakeholders as they can also estimate the efforts you are making to make their project successful.
It let you know about the schedule of the project and the task to complete
if we talk about the Gantt Chart vs. timeline, then the Gantt chart is the best project management tool that makes you able to schedule each day as per the tasks to complete. When you have set your per day goal means you know very clearly that what you will be doing on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and so on. You will be doing multiple specific and important tasks on a specific day to attain the progress you have set as your goal or complete the work on time.
It clearly explains the tasks of the team members you may say dependency
Gantt chart also helps you keep track of your team members' work as per the scheduled day and date while making it easy to achieve the project goal. In this way, you can keep your team on the right track as they know what they will be doing and what they will avoid during their work.
So, the dependency of the tasks is very clear in the Gantt chart that is a guide for you, the team members, and the stakeholders.
It will help you to track the progress of your project.
When you know which team member will be doing which task on which day, you can better track the project's progress by counting the frequency of the task done as per the committed date and day. This will help you to analyze the working efficiency of the staff too. The modified Gantt chart has been more beneficial with more features as you can reschedule the time to cope up with the lacking of your tasks.
What is a timeline?
So, during the journey of understanding about Gantt vs. timeline, here, we reach the timeline after explaining the Gantt chart. Timeline is also a graphic visual explanation of your project chronologically that clearly reflects the date when the project will be started and when it will be completed before reaching the deadline.
It is slightly different from the Gantt chart as it does not contain a long detail of horizontal and vertical columns to elaborate the details. It just shows you the road map you need to follow, like you will be starting from this task, then and then this. It is simpler as compared to the Gantt chart.
Timeline, the project management tool is best as
It elaborates the list of tasks you and your team will be performing throughout the project management.
It clearly describes the sequence of the tasks in proper order, not like the first roof then pillar that is totally ruining.
It let allows you to confirm the duration of the project.
It also enables you to get your project goals by deciding the start and end date.
How can a timeline help you while working on a project?
Here, you will be able to clearly understand the Gantt Chart vs. timeline comparison as you have already read about the Gantt chart and now going to read about the timeline. Some important and distinctive features or the beneficial points of the timeline of project management are listed below.
It keeps you alert about the upcoming tasks.
The timeline of the project is designed in a way that you can easily track the upcoming tasks of the project. It is made just like the flow cart in vertical bars linking the events or the tasks now to next and other next. You may say it is just like linking the historical aspect of the projects that tells you which task you are doing and which is coming ahead that makes you prepare before time and let you do some initials or to collect the necessary material you need to start the next task.
It helps you take U-turns if needed.
It also helps you to take a U-turn, which means when you find anything disturbing or lacking in the project timeline, you can reset or do amendments in it while taking a U-turn from the task number where you feel the problem.
It allows you to grab the important events and let them schedule.
Another feature of timeline project that clearly reflects the difference between Gantt chart and timeline graph while learning about Gantt Chart vs. timeline is its ability to grab your intentions towards the important events you have scheduled before time like meeting with the boss or team members or the project contractor. This is a leading feature that will keep you on the safe side, not being late or forgetting about the scheduled meeting or other important events.
You can take an easy and fast view of the project details while satisfying your boss or project owner.
It is also easy to present the view of your whole journey during the completion of the project that reveals the simple and short details of each event you have attended and the tasks you and your team performed timely, reflecting the complete road map.
Conclusion
If we talk about Gantt Chart vs. timeline, they are almost the same except some features like Gantt chart has horizontal and vertical columns while timeline has only verticals, Gantt chart does not show the sequence of the work it only shows the frequency while timeline shows the sequences representing the upcoming tasks and many other features discussed above in the article.
