Essential Features of a Gantt Chart Software

There are a number of benefits of using online gantt charts in project management. The software assists in visualizing your progress during planning and management of a project. But, if your tool lacks in some of the basic features, you will not be able to get the most out of it. You may also end up thinking that the software is difficult to use.

So, it’s important to make sure you have a web-based gantt chart that fits your requirements. Today, I’m going to tell you about some essential features of the tool -

• Task relationships

In a project, tasks are usually linked to one another. For example, the beginning of one task depends upon the completion of another one. So, if the former is not completed in the first place, it’ll have an impact on overall schedule of a project.

One of the most important features of an online gantt chart helps here i.e. being able to set task dependencies. The software makes it quite easy to set dependencies between different tasks and, thereby helps to keep the project on track. All in all, setting task dependencies is crucial because it lets you run your project smoothly.

• Milestones

It’s required to create milestones to divide your work into smaller tasks. You can view milestones for different phases of a project. So that when you complete a particular phase, you can mark a milestone complete to keep yourself motivated.

Milestones keep your project on track as well as they make a project manager’s life easy. How? With help of it, he/she is able to keep check on a project’s schedule. By viewing milestones in an online gantt chart your team members can easily see which deadlines are needed to be met in future. So, they can plan their work strategy in advance.

• Drag and drop

You should go for an interactive gantt chart software that lets you make changes in the tasks with its drag and drop. A gantt chart tool with this feature assists in extending or shortening the task date. It helps in saving time and therefore increases efficiency at work.

• Color coding

Make sure your software uses color coding to show different tasks in a project. This helps in assigning different colors to your team members.

For instance, for representing a manager you can use green and for a designer you can go for yellow color. A gantt chart tool with color coding assists in analyzing the project details visually. So, you should go for a tool in which you can assign colors based on a person’s role and identify their tasks. This not only simplifies the entire process, but also adds excitement to your work-life as well.

All the features mentioned in this article are a must in an online gantt chart software. Keeping these things in mind, when searching for a tool, will ensure that you find the best of the lot. So, begin the search and see what all options you can get in the market.