See how all of your tasks for a given project work together with BigTime’s Gantt chart, a Premier and Projector-level feature. It’s a tool that project managers use to visually gauge project timelines and tasks and prioritize their workload.
In this article, you’ll learn about Gantt charts and how BigTime’s Gantt charts can help you manage projects effectively.
Note: Depending on your lexicon settings, you may refer to tasks as phases. Learn how to update your company's lexicon settings.
Takeaways
- Expect a fast load time with BigTime’s Gantt chart feature, even with thousands of tasks. Projects that have more than 1000 tasks on screen have a sub-one second load time.
- Use Auto-Schedule to shift a task and all of its dependencies, which saves you time. You don’t have to manually move each task if a date changes; let BigTime do it automatically.
- Visually gauge project deliverables and deadlines. Colored blocks and links between tasks allow you to see how tasks for a given project work together.
- See the critical tasks that need done in order to complete a project with the Critical Path.
Are Gantt Charts for Me?
Gantt charts are ideal for projects with tasks are deadline driven, meaning start and end dates are important.
They’re also helpful if you have tasks that depend on each other. For example, in the image below, the yellow line links Tasks 1 through 4 and makes them dependencies—that is, one subtask depends on another.
Plus, you can indicate how two tasks are linked. In the image above, the tasks are linked from “Finish to Start.” That means, when “Task 1” is finished, “Task 2” will start.
Just double click on the link to make a change. A new window will pop up and you can specify how two tasks should be linked.
By changing several links to “Start to Start”, for example, our “Design” and “Build” tasks will all start at the same time.
Why Use Gantt Charts With Bigtime?
There’s a lot to like about BigTime’s Gantt chart feature. This is what you can expect:
- Fast load time. We designed this feature knowing that firms may have thousands of tasks. In fact, projects that have more than 1000 tasks on screen have a sub-one second load time.
- See recurring tasks. See recurring tasks on your Gantt chart scheduler.
- Create milestones. Milestones are key points during the life a project. When one milestone ends, another begins. They help keep project managers on task and are easy points of progress to share with clients.
- Clean interface that’s customizable. Easily see, create, and update project timelines and deliverables. Add project-related columns that are relevant to you, from project name to estimated hours.
- Add dependencies. See how tasks are related to each other by adding links between them.
Plus, we’ve got several features that make project scheduling in BigTime convenient. Use Auto-Schedule to shift a task and all of its dependencies, or change your view from monthly to weekly to daily. Use the Critical Path to see the most important tasks that need done in order to complete a project.