A Gantt Chart can be a valuable visual tool for setting and tracking project milestones. This is because it can assist in documenting which project activities/tasks need to be done, associated start dates, who (individual or team/department) is responsible for undertaking the work, and how long this will take.
This information is helpful in tracking which tasks are completed, in progress, or delayed at any particular point during the project lifecycle. This would help your team remain accountable and deliver the project to the client on time. Creating such a comprehensive Gantt chart can be a long, time-consuming process. Bearing this in mind, we offer a ready-made template to simplify this exercise.
This easy-to-use template is equipped with Excel formulas and color coding to make it as functional as possible. It is created to fulfil the needs of project managers and team leaders who typically will be responsible for setting and monitoring milestones.
How to Fill this Template
With this spreadsheet template, you add new tasks, assign tasks to team members, date tasks, set milestones, and track progress. All this information is presented visually. To better understand how to use this template, you need to learn its components and features.
Here is a discussion of how you can use this Gantt chart to track milestones:
Documentation details
The project title and company name provide context for the document. It is also important to specify the project manager, who is the preparer of the Gantt chart, and the start date of the project. This information is essential for documentation purposes. The calendar is automated to begin from the start date in this section. Therefore, modifying this date automatically adjusts the start date of the calendar.
Milestones and task description
The Gantt chart should itemize all the activities you need to undertake to complete the project and group them into milestones/phases. The work breakdown structure in this section has four phases. Use the ‘Phase Title’ cells to name the milestones. Each phase is further broken down into specific, manageable tasks.
Then, for each task, it should have the following:
- Task ID and name – You need the track ID and name for identification purposes. This way, when referencing the Gantt chart you can quickly locate each individual task to determine its other traits such as assignee, start date, and progress.
- Priority and assignee – The priority highlights the urgency of the task to be completed in relation to the project milestones and deadline. You will have three priority levels (normal, high, and low) to choose from. To fill this section, simply select the cell and from the dropdown list, select the appropriate priority level. You can modify the priority levels in the configuration sheet provided.
- Start date and duration – Each task will have time constraints – a start date and duration. These two constraints automatically translate to the horizontal bars in the timeline.
- Progress – Task progress is tracked as a percentage of its entire duration. For instance, if a task is planned to take 4 days, on its third day, its progress will be 75%. You are to fill this section manually as you inspect task progress. The respective cell will then be filled with the light pink color to reflect this progress.
Calendar and Timeline
The next two components – calendar and timeline – make up the core of the Gantt chart. The 8-week calendar starts from the date provided earlier in the first section of the Gantt chart (Cell CM3). The timeline visually represents task duration using horizontal bars, which are automated to reflect that provided under the “Duration (days)” column. The bars have an incremental unit of 1 day.
Status
The last component is the task status. This feature provides five options using a drop-down menu. The five statuses are in progress, on hold, delayed, completed, and milestone (you can personalize or rename these statuses in the configuration sheet provided). Mark as ‘milestone’ when the milestone under which the task belongs has been achieved.
A Quick Word
You can access this Gantt chart template in XLSX and Google Sheets formats. These formats offer you flexibility on which format to use when you want to leverage the unique capabilities of each format. For instance, the ‘Share’ feature in Google Sheets can be extremely helpful when you want to collaborate with various teams or departments remotely. It offers real-time collaboration such that teams can be updated immediately when changes occur.
