Plan Projects Using GanttProject
Free Project Management Software for Creating Gantt and PERT Charts
GanttProject is free user friendly project management software for private or business use. New users may view an online video tutorial to fastrack producing results.
Project management is usually thought of as having professional uses, such as coordinating a software development project. However, the techniques would be the same if applied to everyday uses, such as:
- Arranging a holiday
- Decorating a room
- Moving house
- Organizing a party
Wikipedia defines Project Management as the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. A descriptive textbook chapter Understanding the Basics of Project Management by Karl Albrecht et al is suggested reading to the uninitiated reader. Key steps in project management may be summarized as:
- Breaking down a project into a sequence of manageable tasks
- Allocating resources, such as equipment, people, time factors, and costs
- Identifying milestones to indicate the conclusion of an important stage
Using Software - Implementing Project Management
Visual representations called Gantt charts need to be created and are these are similar to bar graphs, representing the order of tasks in a project. The sequence of tasks provides a timeline or schedule for the completion of a project. The length of a bar indicates the duration of the associated task. A PERT chart is a flow chart version of the Gantt chart.
A list of Project Management software and the functions they do is described on Wikipedia. GanttProject is an easy-to-use project scheduling and management software available as open source, running on the Java platform, and may be downloaded for free.
Running GanttProject
Figure 1 shows GanttProject - a simple, user-friendly interface with two tabs at the top: one for Gantt chart and one for Resources. The current tab is set on Gantt chart showing a left window with headings for the main tasks, which are expandable. Start and finish dates can be seen for each task. The right window shows the Gantt chart task bars. The dotted line inside a task indicates progress for that task.
To get started, the user may access a very readable help module to understand how to operate the software. Also, it is suggested to view an online instructional video available from Teacher Tube to fast-track creating a first project by duplicating the instructions given in the tutorial. Simply pause the video when required.
Printing output
A really nice feature of Ganttproject is the ability to export output in different formats: image file, pdf, HTML, comma separated values, and Microsoft Project file. In particular, the software provides a self contained set of HTML web pages that are interlinked; making a presentable, clickable output. Figure 2 shows the resources page and Figure 3 gives the task details page.
GanttProject is a free alternative to commercial project management software such as Microsoft Project. It is available as open source and runs on the Java platform. Users can quickly get started as the software is simple and an online video helps to fast track. The interface is intuitive and the software is easy to use. A good range of reports and outputs in different formats make GanttProject attractive and conversable with other software.
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