Keep A Timely Team With Gantts And Timelines

As projects develop there are likely to be many people that need to be kept in the know regarding its progression.

Managers and clients will want regular updates on its status, while colleagues need to be kept abreast of the latest developments. As a project leader, you may already be aware of the necessity for strong communication links among all the different groups that have a stake in the latest campaigns that you are running. Email, telephone and video links are the modern way to pass on messages, but at times presentations are scheduled that go into a little more depth than that offered by these methods.

Gantt charts have long been a popular way of showing the progress of an assignment, but there is another option that could also suit you, such as the Timeline function integrated into Microsoft Project. If you have lots of information to pass on to clients and members of your team, you may prefer to op for Gantt charts rather than streamlined timelines. The former has many advantages if you are considering showcasing information from a campaign.

It's chosen by project leaders around the world to reveal the status of tasks. Quite often within a large initiative there are a series of sub-tasks that intertwine with the larger objective. These rely on the availability of resources and other possible constraints, such as time and money. This makes for a very convoluted picture that can be simplified via Gantt charts.

These allow you to put together colourful and meaningful diagrams that highlight whichever part of the project that deserves attention. Managers for instance may wish to see how close deadlines are and how much funding the project has used, while clients could prefer to see how the overall objective is shaping up. As there are many aspects of an assignment that can be shown on these diagrams, they are able to fulfil a large number of functions.

As well as presenting a clear picture of events and resources, they can draw attention to potential problems, meaning you have the opportunity to address them if necessary. This is a great tool for project managers who can get a good impression of resource allocation and redistribute as needed in order to make projects a success. As deadlines and other important information is laid out, this could lead to creative solutions via changes to the current system, while you also get the chance to redefine accountability within campaigns.

At times, you may only need to get a brief impression concerning the status of a task. This could be useful for clients who are keen to get a snapshot of their campaign. Timelines generated via MS Project 2010 are ideal for creating these outlines, which may also appeal to your colleagues that want an overall report concerning the campaign. One of the great benefits of this function is that the diagrams are easy to create.

In addition, they can simply highlight just the information that is relevant at the time. For example, in a brief meeting it may be necessary to give fellow workers an accurate report on advancing deadlines, which could be easily depicted thanks to the Timeline function. As well as being relevant and easy to create, these kinds of diagrams can also be easily shared with workers and clients, as they are designed to integrate with other applications, including PowerPoint and Outlook.