

What step will take the longest, which will be done relatively quickly.Īttempting this same sort of high-level view would be almost impossible on a traditional calendar, which is focused on the given day. You can look at any example Gantt chart, even without dates, and quickly see the basic layout of the project. The first is that they’re visual project calendars.

Advantages of Gantt chartsĬompared to traditional project calendars or schedules, Gantt charts offer a few distinct advantages as project planning templates. A Google Docs Gantt Chart was just a few mouse clicks away. Now it could be shared and viewed collaboratively, a true team calendar. The dawn of the Internet age of the 90’s and the 2000’s brought Gantt charts even further. Learning how to make a Gantt chart in Excel wasn’t far behind. Rather than having to draw a new Gantt chart each time, a new project management spreadsheet could be easily copied as needed. The personal computer revolution of the 1980’s brought Gantt charts to the forefront in a big way. Other example Gantt chart efforts include the Hoover Dam and the Federal Interstate system. When other project planning systems weren’t up to the job, Gantt charts were used during WWI to track the manufacture of arms for the war effort. You can’t have a really productive table read until you have all your cast finalized, after all.Ī similar project calendar system called a harmonogram was designed in the 1890’s by a Polish engineer named Karol Adamiecki, but it wasn’t published until the 1930’s. The table read is dependent upon casting being finished. However, casting and the table read are dependencies. You don’t need to have the film cast to start checking out potential locations. You also need to get started on location scouting, and you’d like to have a table reading before you go any further.Ĭasting and location scouting are independent of each other. You’ve got casting scheduled for the second week of June. Let’s say that you’ve started the pre-production process. Here’s a Gantt chart example from the film production world.

You can even break your project planning template by which stage of production you’re in:Īnother major feature of Gantt charts, including our free Excel Gantt chart template, is their ability to display “dependencies”.Ī dependency is simply a marker that one event cannot begin until another one has been completed. For the purposes of production, it can be broken up by department or major tasks. The bar begins when the task begins and ends when the task is due to end. It’s fine if you just need rough estimates for simple projects, but isn’t really full-featured enough for film and video production.Įach task has a bar associated with it.
