There are lots of tools available in the market to create Gantt charts. However, you can also create a Gantt chart using Microsoft Excel. It is really easy.

Here are the simple steps:

1. Start the new worksheet and enter the project timeline data as a input in a excel spread sheet or enter the sample data in excel worksheet. Example: In an Excel sheet, make four columns for entering data with labelled Tasks, Start Date, Duration, and End Date.
2. Click on the chart and select bar chart option. Select a Stacked Bar Chart using Chart Wizard.
3. For selecting data for the stacked bar chart, right click on the chart and clicked on the select data option. Select data source dialog box will appear. In this dialog box click on add the series.
4. By clicking on add, edit series dialog box will be appeared with series name and series values.
5. Click on the series name and select the label name, start date in excel sheet. Click on the series values and select all the dates of the column start date in Excel sheet and click OK. Repeat the same operation with the column labelled Duration.
6. For changing the Axis Labels, click on edit and fill the axis label range by selecting the all the tasks (Task1, Task2…..Taks8) under labelled Tasks. Click OK and you will see that under the Axis label name of the entire task are labelled. Now this is the starting of Gantt chart.
7. There are two legends named Start Date and Duration. Select them both and delete them because for the Gantt chart there is no need of the legends.
8. In the series you found the Blue Bars. To modify it Right Click on bars. Select Format Data Series. There are options Fill for that select no fill, For Border Colour select no colour and click on close button. Now you can found some appearance of the Gantt chart.
9. There are a Labels Tasks1, Tasks2…..Task8 now format them by right clicking on it and choose option “Categories in reverse Order” and close. You can found the entire tasks in a specific order. In a chart you can found all the tasks and also found Tasks4 and Tasks5 overlap each other.
10. . For the better view of chart, we have to change dates into the comma style (Display the value of a cell with a thousand separators). Enter your starting date and ending date of your project and convert it into comma style.
11. . Right click on dates which are appeared on the chart, select format axis and enter minimum fixed and maximum fixed value i.e. starting and ending date of the project in a comma style. Click on close.
12. . Now you can found little bit easy readable data in the chart. You can also change the format of the date by right click on date/format axis/number and select format of date. Gantt chart will be designed according to data.

One of the major reasons in delay in the completion of the project is when team members sit idle, waiting for finishing of the task of their colleague. Team member start their task as their colleague complete their tasks. It is the responsibility of project manager to create a good project schedule.

There are some specific techniques like Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM) which are very helpful for scheduling. Completion time of the project depends upon the critical path.

Here are few more tips to fine tune your project schedule:

Create Tasks & Sub Tasks: Divide whole project in to tasks & sub tasks. Calculate the estimated time of all the tasks & sub tasks & related activities.

Impact Analysis: Most of the times, client or customer raises for changes in the requirements. During the revisions in the schedule due to these changes, do a through impact analysis. I’ve seen many projects fail to deliver on time because of improper impact analysis. Most of the times, people do effort estimation for changes on the fly which leads to problems.

Determine Predecessor: Project must contain some activities which are not started until its predecessor activities are completed or we can say that some activities depend upon the other activities. So it is necessary to identify such activities and create schedule accordingly.

Gantt Chart: Create the Gantt chart for the project. It is an effective way to represent the schedule graphically. Gant Chart is a helpful tool for the monitoring a whole project progress.

Identify the critical path of the project. It is easy to know that which activity take longest time for completion and which activities can be delayed without making the project longer.

Reduce the slack time. Slack time is a time in which team members can relax and task are delayed but the project has been finished on time. This way productivity of team can be improved.

Crashing: Delivery time of the project can also effect the scheduling of the project, so it is necessary to reduce the delivery time of the project. You may use crashing for reducing the delivery timelines.

Fast Tracking: For completion of the project in a fix time it has been necessary to execute the entire task on fast track or execute independent tasks parallel.

During the project there are number of question like

1. How much time a Project take for completion?
2. How much time has been taken by the entire sub task separately?
3. Which tasks are completed at a time?
4. Which are the critical tasks, which can take extra time for completion?

By the use of activity network diagram, total time for the completion of the task, starting time of each task, ending time of each task are calculated and displayed with the graphical methods. The critical path method (CPM) was invented in the late 1950′s by Morgan R. Walker of DuPont and James E. Kelley, Jr. of Remington Rand.

Critical Path Method helps to identify the longest possible path for the completion of project.

Activity network diagram is also common to project managers by the name Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) or Critical Path Diagram. By use of the activity network diagram, we can able to determine that which activity take more time or we can say that which activities time is consuming. So by knowing about the time consumable by all the activities it is easy to determine that on which activity there is a need to apply more stress or on which activity need to apply less stress. So that whole project can be completed on time. As in an activity network diagram time, of all the activities are determined so creating an activity network diagram is a time consuming process.

In the project bounding, critical path method has an important role. Let’s see how it works:

Right Team: For Completion of the project at right time team has a great role. All the team members must have a knowledge about the all the sub tasks which are performed for completion of the project. Team will consist of manager, team members etc. For completion of the Project.

Main Subtask: Try to complete main sub task of the project first. Main sub task means those task without which project cannot be completed. For this purpose take the reference of the previous project, check out what were the main sub task for the completion of the project. As a reminder write the task at the top half on the activity card.

Arrange all the activity tasks in a specific order – which are required for completion of the entire project smoothly. For connection of all the activity cards use the path, which make a sequence for complete the whole project. If at any time, there is a requirement of new activity card it is easy to insert in sequence and if any activity card did not require, it can be easily deleted.

Time Duration: Assign the time duration of the each task for the completion and write it on the bottom half of the activity card. Check those activity cards have hours, minutes, and days for the completion. So select these cards which require less time for completion.

Determine Critical Path: Calculate the completion time of the all sub tasks so that we can able to determine the total time required for completion of project. The path which is used for the completion of all the sub tasks is known as Critical Path. By the critical path it is easy to check that project is going on a pre-define schedule or not. It is helpful for making the improvement in the speed of the completion of the project. Here, one important aspect is that if we can reduce the time/schedule for critical path, the project can be completed in less time. Basically, the critical path can help in determining possibilities of increasing the speed.

At the end calculate the earliest starting time and the finishing time and also calculate the latest starting and finishing time for all the subtasks which are helpful for the completion of whole Project.

Presence of the entire team, manager and member of clients must be present during the release planning meeting. Release plans are used for the creation of the iteration plans. There is a set of rules in the release planning meeting that every attendee to follow. Below are three key outcomes of release planning meeting:

1. Release Date
2. Release Goals n Objectives
3. Estimate for each Story
4. A high level schedule to achieve the release date

Purpose of the release planning meeting is that the entire team member must commit on the achieving the target within a time limits.

All business users take the business decisions and all the technical team make all the technical decisions. The main target of all the decision either technical or business is that to achieve the goal with in time limits. The key of the planning a release is knowing the team’s velocity.

All the attendees must come in the meeting with a prior preparation. It will help in run the meeting smoothly. It will also take less time. Generally Release Planning Meeting takes 4-8 hours depending upon the size of release.

Key points to discuss in the meeting are:

1. During the release planning meeting set the release end date.
2. Discuss all the points related to the current project release, so that common understanding will become between all the members of team on all the points related to the project.
3. Set the goals & objectives of the release. These should be for both developing team as well as for business users/customer.
4. During the meeting make a priority list of all the stories for the release and add only that stories which are helpful for achieving the goal.
5. The scrum team has been fully responsible for the technical part of the project, if any team member found any technical/non-technical problem which may change the time estimate or release schedule, so, that team member must have discuss that point(s) in the meeting.

Also, it is very important that decisions in the meeting should be collective. These should not be forced to any of the stakeholder.

In the sprint meeting product owner has a responsibility to describe about the features which have a highest priority. It is the moral duty of the all the team member to ask all the questions and clear their doubts which become hurdle in the completion of the sprint or project. When the sprint planning meeting completes, all the members of the scrum team decide how much they can commit to during the coming sprint.

Here are some important points to consider which might help help in making a sprint planning meeting effective:

This meeting should be time boxed. Approximate time can be set as 4 hours for a two weeks sprint or 8 hours for a 4 weeks sprint.

Defining Sprint Goal: It is important for the entire scrum team (including product owner & scrum master) to define the sprint goals & objectives. Try to keep these objective. At the end of sprint, at the time of sprit review or retrospective, success of sprint will be measured against these goals and objectives.

Role of product owner: The main responsible person in the sprint planning is the product owner. Product owner should come in meeting with some ground work. i.e. he or she must prioritize requirements before coming to meeting.  In the problem meeting as all the members discuss their problems. So it the responsibility of the product owner to make final decision on the suggestion given by team members.

Role Scrum Master: Scrum master must help team to negotiate with the product owner.

Time for each task: In the meeting team must have to decide that how much hours each team member will take for each task. Here, manager should not decide it.

Scrum master or manager should not force the team to cover their task according to product owner. Leave this according to team members to make decisions.

Only discuss points which have direct link with the current sprint of the project, do not discuss the unnecessary points in the sprint planning meetings.

Last but not the least, active participation of each team member is mandatory.

Here are help tips to build successful project teams:

Team Selection: During selection of the project team, first select the team leader. Which is necessary for a project Team? Team leader must have the full knowledge about the project, knowledge about the various functions that are to be performed in the project. Team leader must be an expert person who knows the tact for facing and solving any type of problem in a project. Team Leader must know the way of how to manage his team member for the competition of the project.

Check the calibre of the team members for the project. They must have the knowledge about the required domain or field. Based on the skill level of the team member, place him or her in the relevant position in the team hierarchy.

Attitude of team members must be positive about the company and project. If they have a positive attitude, they can solve any type of problem in a project and work towards the achievement of goals for the project success.

Whenever a new team member joins the project, first help him understand the goal of the project. When, he or she understands why this product or software is being build, team member can add more value to the development.

Communication: For the successful project team it is necessary to give time to all the team members in which they can communicate with each other. So it is the responsibility of the project manager to set the spare time for communication at the time of project scheduling.

Performance Evaluation: Define frequency & criteria for performance evaluation of team members. It should be transparent. Give a fair feedback to each team member and suggest areas of improvement in a positive way in a one-2-one meeting. For performing members, give rewards – financial or non-financial.

Induction: When any new member comes in a team, it is the responsibility of the project manager to arrange induction program. Give the knowledge about the company, about the project. For new team members, arrange KT of the project well on time. Avoid for making the pressure on a new member.

Apart from these points, also plan some team building exercises and team trainings etc.

These are not only for the problem solving or issue resolving but these are also for the next day’s planning. Scrum Master ensures that it starts on the time and finished in 5-15 minutes.

In the daily scrum meeting following question is asked from each team members:

1. What did you do yesterday?
2. What will you do today?
3. Are there any impediments in your way?

Best practices for a better daily scrum meeting:

1. The scrum meeting is also known as stand-up meeting. In scrum stand-up means stand-up. In the meeting do not allow any team member to sit. By this way all the team member only make discussion on points. As it is too difficult for each to stand an hour. So meeting has been bind up in a small interval (5-15 minutes) of time.
2. Status of task yesterday and planning for completion of task for toady are also discussed in meeting. By doing this whole the team gains excellent understanding about the work has been done and what work remains.
3. Morning time of the Daily Scrum meeting is preferred, because in the morning team discuss about their today’s plan.
4. Start time and end time of the meeting should be fixed every day. By making this a part of daily schedule, fixed pattern has been established. By making time and place fixed, it will go more smoothly.
5. In the daily scrum meeting presence of all the team members must. Because in the meeting all the team member gives their status to each other. If any team member faces the problem, he or she can get help from someone else. It is possible only if all the team members are present in the Scrum meeting.
6. Since, entire team is responsible for the timely completion of the sprint. So, it is important to give status to each other rather than to only manager. It is responsibility of entire team to listen each team member.
7. In the meeting it is the main responsibility of the scrum master to track the due dates for all tasks for the completion.
8. It is important for scrum masters/managers that they guide the team members to take the tasks themselves from the sprint backlog rather than assigning to them. This way team will take responsibility with sincerely.
9. It is important for entire team & scrum master to concentrate on impediments. It is critical for the team effort success to remove any kind of blockage or hindrance to team work or team productivity.

In a Scum, whole the projects are divided into number of sub process. These sub process are known as sprints. Sprints can be of one week, two week or three week duration. Scum team is generally consisting of more than seven or less than seven people.

According to the scum teams velocity is related with the amount of work done by a team in a given sprint. Team must have to know about the velocity of the team in Scrum, if in any case team does not know about the velocity of team in Scrum, then team has no way to know that how much work to put into upcoming iteration.

If the team does to think about the velocity of a team, then at that time it is the 100% probability that team must miss the scope of the iteration. Scrum teams know that velocity is a rough estimate for the amount of work that a team can accomplish in a given sprint. In a Scrum required work is called a Backlog and the components of Backlog are called Backlog items. The size of the backlog items is known as points or story points. Velocity of the team in a Scrum has been calculated as follows:

Velocity of the team in Scrum = Number of total story points / One iteration

Let there are total 91 points calculated. So velocity of team in Scrum is 91 points per sprint.

By use of the Yesterday’s weather principal it is natural for commit about the same type of backlog items in the next sprint. Before doing this it is necessary to check the history of the Project.

These products are produced in a small cycles called iterations. These iterations are not more than one month. These take place one after the without giving any pause.

Starting of the each iteration, cross functional team select the different items from the prioritized list. The whole team commits to complete the items by the end of the each iteration. Scum methodology has a benefit both to the client and developer. As client gets all things which he need from the developer and developers has a benefit of taking the part in the scum methodology are more subjective.

During the Scum methodology on the end of the day team discuss about the daily progress and also discuss about the nest planning for completion of the work or Project. This daily meeting is named as ‘Daily Stand-up Meeting’. When the sprint reaches at the ending point, whole team review all the points of the Sprint and also represent it by demo method, show what they want at the output.

Scrum has three roles like The Product Owner, The Team, and the Scum Master. By combination of all these these roles is known as The Scum Team. The product Owner is the person who is responsible for all the activities related to the project. The Team is a self manageable in the Scrum methodology. The size of the team is generally seven persons, gives or takes two. In the Scum methodology, the success of the project depends upon the Scum Master because it is acting as an interface between team of the project and the management.

Product owner manages & compiles Product Backlog – set of all requirements. Product Backlog remains with the product from starting of the product to the completion of the Product. Release Backlog is a subset of the Product Backlog that intends for the current release.

Scrum has no technique for expressing the items in a product backlog. Planning is also necessary for the sprint. Because of that reason, at the starting of each Sprint, planning meeting take place. Scrum motivate their teams for acting as a multi skilled team members, which means team members does not have to do only one type of work, they must have a knowledge about all the module of the project. So that any person can be placed at any place in the organization for the completion of project.

Here is a brief snapshot explaining scrum methodology:

Keep on reading for further articles on scrum & agile.

Project Life Cycle is a sequence of Activities which are bind together to achieve the goal or target. It is also a responsibility of the project Manager to arrange the resources which are required for the completion of the Project. The whole requirement of the Project is to produce in the first phase of the specific product. At the end stage of the project it issue quality, delivery and completeness. Project Life Cycle in Consist of four of phases which are helpful for the completion of project and give the specific output. In the Project Life Cycle each Phase has their specific goal.

Project Life Cycle consists of following phases which are defined as follows:

Initiation: In the first phase, called initial or initiation stage, in this phase project are defined. As for the successful of the Project, project Manager & project team has a great role. So according to the requirement of the Project well experienced person who has a complete knowledge about the handling of the project is appointed as a Project Manager. So, it is the duty of the Project Manager to select the Project Team Members according to the requirement of the project. The Scope of the Project is also defined in this phase and also defines the complete approach to get the required output.

Planning: In the Second Phase of a Project Life Cycle all the planning is done which is required for the Project achieve the target goal. In this planning phase all the task are assigned to particular team member according to his calibre. As the Planning of the work is done before it’s starting, so all the process running smoothly and complete at a fix time.

Execution: In the first two phases project has been defined and all the planning related to the Project is done for getting a specific output. In the third Phase of a Project Life Cycle, the entire tasks are being executed according to the given input. Controlling of whole the process is also done in this phase.

Closure: In the last Phase of Life Cycle, Project reach at their end point or we can say that Project will move towards its completion stage. In this phase after the completion of the Project a report is written in form of documentation about the Project. It involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over the documentation to operations team, closure of supplier contracts, release of resources etc.