Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a bar chart used for project planning. It visualizes tasks in a form that helps you estimate the total project duration. It consists of rows of tasks and columns of days. The duration of a task is depicted as a bar. Another task can begin only after the previous dependent task completion. The dependency is expressed using the arrows which point from a task to a dependent task.
Gantt Chart Elements
Software Ideas Modeler provides the following elements for the Gantt chart:
- Task Table - contains tasks and activities. A timeline of a task table is defined with a start and end index. Alternatively, you can specify a start date and the number of days. The weekends are emphasized with a different style in the table.
- Task - a row in the task table that is specified by its name and activity.
- Activity - shows the task activity in time. It is a bar aligned to the task table timeline.
- Dependency - a relationship that connects a task with another dependent task.
Gantt Chart Activity
An activity defines a start and end index on the task table timeline when the task will be done. You can also specify blocking length, which is the same as the total task length by default. An activity with a different length and blocking length is depicted as a bar with a lower bar on the right. The blocking length expresses when the other task can start. Tasks can also continue after that when the total length of the task (referred simply as Length in the properties) is longer than the blocking one.
How to Draw Gantt Chart
1. Drag the Task Table from the toolbox to the diagram canvas. You can adjust the height of the timeline and the width of the task part of the table using the orange rhombus grip (placed in the top left part of the table). If you want to change the number of available days you can do it in the Properties dialog (right-click on the table and choose Properties from the context menu) or in the Properties sidebar - edit the From Index and To Index properties.
2. Select the task table and click on the Add Task button in the context bar.
3. Select the task and click on the Add Activity button in the context bar.
4. Drag the activity and adjust its size to express the desired duration of the task. You can change the blocking length using the orange rhombus grip.
Gantt Chart Example
The following picture shows an example of Gantt chart drawn using Software Ideas Modeler:
Gantt Chart Tool
If you are new here, you can continue with downloading our Gantt chart tool Software Ideas Modeler, which helps you with Gantt chart creation:
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