The Gantt chart is a specialized chart typically used to monitor the progress of a project.
In this section, you will be shown how you can create a simple Gantt chart.
As an example, we will create a Gantt chart that monitors the various processes and tasks involved in optimizing his reach on the social media.
A Gantt chart create to track the progress for a Social Media Optimization project looks like this:
To create a Gantt chart, you need to:
Define the data you want to plot using the Gantt chart
Define the visual timeline for the chart
Define processes
Define tasks
To create the Social Media Optimization Gantt chart, we will use the data shown in the table below:
| Process Name | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| Identify Customers | 08/04/2014 | 08/10/2014 |
| Survey 500 Customers | 08/08/2014 | 08/19/2014 |
| Interpret Requirements | 08/19/2014 | 09/02/2014 |
| Market Analysis | 08/24/2014 | 09/02/2014 |
| Brainstorm concepts | 09/02/2014 | 09/21/2014 |
| Define Ad Requirements | 09/21/2014 | 10/06/2014 |
| Design & Develop | 10/06/2014 | 01/21/2015 |
| Mock test | 01/21/2015 | 02/19/2015 |
| Documentation | 01/28/2015 | 02/24/2015 |
| Start Campaign | 02/24/2015 | 03/27/2015 |
In the above table, we have outlined the various processes involved and the start and end date for each.
The data structure needed to render the Social Media Optimization Gantt chart is given below:
The Gantt chart shown above tracks the monthly progress of each proces. Each month here represents a category. Let’s say Harry wants to monitor both, the quarterly and the monthly progress. In this case, we will have to render the chart with two categories - one for the months and another for the quarters.
The Social Media Optimization Gantt chart rendered with multiple categories looks like this:
The data structure needed to render a chart with multiple categories is given below:
There! You have now seen how you can create a simple Gantt chart.