Agile Marketing With Gantt Charts

08.08.2019

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Since the introduction of agile, project management has evolved from a linear methodology to a more dynamic model. We are now seeing the same thing with project management software, in which the tools are currently based on Gantt charts and/or Kanban boards.

Agile Marketing With Gantt Charts Free

To help project managers determine the best use case for each methodology we compare both approaches with input/advice from industry experts.

This Gantt Chart Marketing template is a valuable tool for planning, monitoring, and scheduling, and it can be customized to suit your needs. To use the Gannt Chart Marketing template, begin by identifying the marketing channels your company utilizes and the type of campaigns you are organizing.

What Is Kanban?

Kanban is a project management methodology that utilizes agile principles. It was first utilized by car manufacturer Toyota to help project managers track the progress of work using a visual board, which is now referred to as the “Kanban board” and is adapted by software development teams. This visual board separates tasks into different categories, and each category represents the different stages of a task. The most common set up is “to do,” “in progress” and “complete.”

The purpose of Kanban is to establish a continuous workflow, said Archie Sharma, director of strategic partnerships at Wrike. “Kanban project management represents individual tasks as cards that are moved along a board divided into the different stages of production. This puts the focus on a continuous flow of a small number of tasks, preventing teams from overcommitting or getting distracted by less important tasks,” Sharma said.

Related Article: Agile vs Scrum vs Kanban Weighing the Differences

What Are Gantt Charts?

Gantt Charts are seen as the more conventional way of managing projects. A typical Gantt chart is comprised of a horizontal axis and a vertical axis. The horizontal axis shows the timeline of a project, and the vertical axis highlights where the individual tasks should take place. This setup allows the project manager to get an overview of how long a task, as well as the project as a whole, should take. “Gantt charts are a staple tool in project management. They've achieved this status because of their ability to visualize the timeline of a project and the resources needed for it,” said Sharma.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Kanban

Nikolay Tsonev, marketing specialist at Kanbanize, said the main benefit of utilizing Kanban is it allows project managers to break down “complex projects into smaller work items” and prioritize accordingly. Additionally, the Kanban board can help project managers keep tabs on different tasks since it is all visually represented.

But the main benefit, according to Tsonev, is that Kanban can increase output. “On a Kanban board, managers can set up work in progress (WIP) limits, which restrict the number of items that team members are working on. This helps them focus their attention on the most important work at a specific moment so they can make sure they complete it.”

However, despite hailing the benefits, Tsonev said that successful implementation of Kanban involves a cultural shift. “Probably the biggest disadvantage of Kanban is its complex structure, which makes it harder for implementation. This is because the method requires a culture shift in the entire organization to which some employees might not respond positively.”

Tsonev added that since Kanban is focused on WIP, it may not be suitable for result-driven projects.

Related Article: Why RPA Implementation Projects Fail

Advantages and Disadvantages of Gantt Charts

The main benefit of Gantt charts, according to Sharma, is it allows project managers to set more accurate deadlines. “[With Gantt charts] you are able to easily determine the total amount of time it will take to accomplish a project, [and] projects can be broken down into bite-sized tasks,” said Sharma. He also added that a Gantt chart can help you identify dependent tasks and track them as well.

Since Gantt Charts provide project managers with a definitive start and end date of the project, it gives them a clear overview of the project and allows them to plan their resource allocation ahead of time. However, “a disadvantage of Gantt Charts is that they rely on setting up deadlines based on estimation. This is often a huge problem in project management because, many times, what has been initially conceptualized does not come to pass. As a result of this, end customers get enraged and remain unhappy with the service that has been delivered to them,” said Tsonev.

“Gantt Charts are also not suitable for big projects. With the addition of too many tasks and assignees, they can turn into a complicated structure where different team members are disconnected from each other and the process turns into chaos,” added Tsonev.

Kanban or Gantt Charts? Which One Should Project Managers Choose?

Both Kanban and Gantt charts have their advantages and disadvantages, but how should project managers decide which is best for their team?

Peter Peterka, founder and CEO of Global Six Sigma, said it essentially boils down to whether your goal is continuous improvement or getting an end result. If you are after the former you should choose Kanban, and if you’re after the latter you should opt for Gantt charts. “Brands should use Kanban if they want a simple, visual overview of a workflow process in real-time and want to get the latest status. It is also good for achieving small steps towards continuous improvement [and] great for encouraging leadership at all levels,” said Peterka. “Gantt charts should be used when you want to see projects on a timeline and get a defined overview of the project, with deadlines and priorities outlined. It is perfect for those brands that have results-driven projects in mind.”

Most project managers are aware of Gantt Charts that help them to increase productivity and efficiency and ensure that tasks and projects are completed on time.

The charts can be applied to small projects and complex ones.

What are the secrets that make the charts a powerful tool in project management?

What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart is a visual way to view scheduled tasks. The charts are widely used for planning projects of all sizes in different industries and spheres. It’s a useful way of showing what work is scheduled to be done on a specific day and time. Gantt Charts also help teams and managers to view the start and end dates of any project. All in one simple view.

Historical background

Gantt charts were named after Henry Gantt. People often think that he was the one who first had the idea of project planning on bar charts.

However, it was a polish engineer Karol AdamieckiCounter strike source surfing. who first devised the “Gantt” chart in 1896.

The professor Adamiecki came up with the idea of displaying processes and progress visually to make it easier to see production schedules. Most of his researches were connected with the steel industry.

By the way, the first “Gantt” chart was named as the harmonogram.

The professor published his articles about it in Polish and Russian. That’s why the world didn’t know much about these charts.

Henry Gantt came to the same idea about 15 years later. He started a visual planning with bar charts in 1910 to allow supervisors to see if production was on track or behind schedule. Thus, these charts received a name in honor of Henry Gantt.

What was before?

Before starting to use comfortable Gantt Charts, people planned their projects on paper. Yes, and it’s not about the Stone Age 🙂

Magnetic blocks and colorful pens were quite popular for Gantt planning. Then advanced Gantt Chart software were developed. Nowadays you may find a lot of such tools and platforms but they’ll be described below.

What can you see and recognize with Gantt Charts?

What tasks the project includes
The start date and the finish date of any project
Tasks duration: when they start and finish
How long will each task take?
Who is working on every single task?
How tasks group together

Gantt Charts for everybody

Gantt Charts can be easily used almost by everyone who wants to visualize their tasks.

All difficult processes are done by computer algorithms, so anyone can just create a simple task list and add start and end dates.

Actually, Gantt Charts may be effective tools for the following roles:

CEOs and CTOs
Project managers
Product managers
Product owners
Team leaders
Marketing managers
Operations managers
Scheduling managers, etc.

Many of us used to think that Gantt Charts are the exclusive tool for formally trained IT project managers. That’s right. However today you may find Gantt Charts in working arsenals in other areas.

As Gantt Charts are easy to build, they can be used for almost any project. Here’re the most popular spheres where the charts are applied:

Construction
IT
Marketing
Finance
Education
Architectural Teams
Telecommunication
Healthcare
Government teams

The easiest ways to create a Gantt Chart

You may easily build your Gantt Charts even with a sheet of paper:

Combine all your tasks in a list. Highlight the start date and the estimated duration for every task.
Create graphs with the days or week.
Put your tasks onto the graph paper. Define the earliest possible start dates. Draw bars and mark the time taken to complete them.
Schedule. Your dependent activities should not start until the tasks they depend on have been completed. Gantt charts will help you to find out critical paths, prioritize objectives and apply WBS (work breakdown structure). If your project is big and consists of many tasks, be sure to set all dependencies in a right way, otherwise, it may look really complicated 🙂

Share project objectives with your team members if needed. And that’s it!
Finally, analyze your project.

You may also create Gantt Charts using Excel. People use Excel in companies all over the world in different ways and for tracking massive projects as well.

Gantt Charts software

One day project managers found that they could save time and resources in creating and updating their Gantt Charts using some computer opportunities.

Gantt Chart software is associated with project planning, project management, and project scheduling software. The services were created to automate the processes, to create task dependencies, add milestones, identify the critical paths, etc.

Today you may use a local desktop program like Microsoft Project or any powerful online Gantt Chart software to create shareable and collaborative Gantt Charts and plans.

The online approach in Gantt Chart project management supports ease of sharing and collaborative project planning. Any team member can see your project plan and also update their tasks and attach files.