Gantt chart, Kanban, Gantt chart, Kanban, Gantt chart or Kanban? Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
If you manage projects, especially with teams, there's a good chance you're using either a Gantt chart or a Kanban board. But which one is better? Which one is ideal for you?
In today's video, we're going to be looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of each, so you can pick the right tool for you. But before we begin, I'd like to thank today's sponsor, GanttPro.
Sponsor
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Gantt Chart
Let’s start our comparison with the Gantt chart. Here I have an example project; on the left-hand side of the screen, I have my individual tasks which make up the project itself.
Each task has both a start date and an end date, and of course, the duration here, identified in the number of days, is calculated for me. But the real power of a Gantt chart is the visual representation happening on the right-hand side of the screen.
Here you can see I have some color-coded bars, each representing the duration of a given task. The top bar identifies the project as a whole.
So here I can see if I started this project on September 10th, I should finish by October 5th at the end of the day. But the real advantage of using a Gantt chart is the dependencies.
Here you can see, not only do I see the visual representation of how long this particular task will take, but I also see what else is dependent on it. Let’s say, for example, I want to install this software across departments, and I'm scheduled to finish by September 21st.
What this tells me is that the soonest I can begin delivering the workshops is the following Monday. Of course, in this particular example, we're not working on the weekend, so the earliest we can do those workshops is on September 24th.
But what if this goes extremely well? What if installing this software takes less time than we predicted?
I'm going to drag this back a couple of days, and what happens now? Well, because of that dependency, everything else shifts accordingly.
Now I can start those workshops a bit earlier, and if we go to our due date, we will be finished by October 3rd. We're going to be finished in advance, and this is one of the biggest advantages of using a Gantt chart.
You can quickly and easily change the duration or the start and end date on the left-hand side of the screen. Or you can simply drag the bars on the right-hand side of the screen, and in this case, I can start reviewing feedback earlier.
I'll be finished an entire week earlier according to the Gantt chart data. Now, one of the disadvantages you're going to want to look out for with a Gantt chart is if there's too much detail required.
Sometimes a Gantt chart is overkill depending on the type of project you're involved with. In this case, I've just got a very simple example with only about five different tasks.
I think if you have something quite a bit larger and maybe you don't have quite as many dependencies going on in your project, it could be too much. If it is a lot more detailed and you still want to go the Gantt project route, I would encourage you to get familiar with minimizing and maximizing subtasks or subprojects or milestones within your project.
But if you have not tried using a Gantt chart, I would encourage you to do so. See if it's the right fit for your team and projects.
Kanban
Next, let’s take a look at the Kanban board view. Here we are looking at the exact same project that we just saw in our Gantt chart but in a different layout.
For those not familiar with a Kanban board, a Kanban board represents different stages in a particular workflow. Here we see four different columns: open, in progress, done, and closed.
The purpose in this example is to have all of your tasks start in the open column and then, as they are started, move from left to right. So as someone starts working on this particular project or task, it moves to in progress.
Once it is finished, it may move to the done column. Sometimes you may want a particular sign-off, or maybe there’s some checking that needs to happen before you can officially close or finish that particular task.
But as you can see, things move from the left to the right-hand side of the board. Now, of course, you will notice there's not nearly as much detail that we can see at this first level.
If I were to double-click on any of these tasks, I can still see the start and end duration, the total time, and all of the data that we saw within our Gantt chart. But one of the advantages of a Kanban board is getting a cleaner, somewhat higher-level view of what is going on in your project.
Depending on the scope, depending on what you are trying to achieve, Kanban may not be the ideal method for you. One of the disadvantages is the lack of dependencies.
For example, it can be very difficult to see if this particular task is dependent on something else and if that's going to prevent it from moving to the next column. But if you are looking for a cleaner way or maybe an executive-level way of viewing your project, the Kanban board view may be the right one for you.
So, Gantt chart or Kanban, which is the right view for you? I'd love to hear your opinion in the comments.
Have you worked with both a Gantt chart and a Kanban board? Which one do you prefer and why?
I'd love to hear from you, so be sure to let me know down below. If you haven't yet subscribed to Simpletivity, I would encourage you to do so.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
