Even though it may sound ideal, it can spin into a nightmare. Gantt charts are also hard to explain to stakeholders. So, before using a Gantt chart in your next project, you can consider these seven alternative project management methods that may be easier to use.
1.Project Management Timeline
Just like the name suggests, the project management timeline visualizes the project’s timeline from start to finish. It is a simple way of breaking down a project chronologically without the overwhelming details of a Gantt chart. It makes it easy to understand, flexible to use, and you can change plans as you go.
All you need to do is change the start and end dates. Also, when explaining your project to stakeholders, a project management timeline is easier to explain, and you are unlikely to overwhelm anyone.
2.Project Schedule Network Diagram
Another alternative to Gantt charts is the project schedule network diagram. This method accounts for a project and determines its critical path, that is how long it is going to take to finish the project. A typical project schedule network diagram has nodes, i.e. activities on nodes (AON) that represent the activities of the project, and arrows that show the sequence of events and dependencies.
Also, you can show leads and lags in the diagram. The project schedule network diagram is a suitable alternative as it gives a logical sequence of events and highlights primary relationships in a project.
3.Kanban Board
A Gantt chart can limit you in the sense that it is ideal only in linear projects. However, not all projects are linear. If this is the case for you, a Kanban board can help you manage your project.
Kanban has its roots in lean manufacturing, where you do not hold any inventory. You only bring them in when you need them, also known as the just-in-time production system. With Kanban, you increase your productivity and efficiency, and reduce the costs of holding any inventory.
This method has crossed over into project management and is ideal in agile projects like software development. While using Kanban, you represent the work items on a kanban board, which shows team members the state of every piece of work.
4.Scrum Board
Scrum is a project management method based on iterative and incremental processes—in a similar way to Kanban. It is flexible, adaptable, and delivers value to the customer fast. When using scrum, you have a sprint which is the basic unit of work, and sprint planning which plans how to do a sprint.
There is also a daily scrum that evaluates the progress of a sprint (sprint review) every 24 hours. The benefit of using a scrum board is that it is easily scalable, reduces the time to market, allows for timely prediction of completion of projects, and reduces the risks of projects since it does the most key functionalities first.
5.Cross-Functional Flowchart
A flowchart is a step-by-step diagram with connecting arrows that shows the sequence of a process or system. It simplifies complex processes into easy-to-understand concepts. This simple flowchart has been developed further and used in project management, becoming what is known today as a cross-functional flowchart.
Like a flowchart, a cross-functional flowchart shows step-by-step how a project flows. However, it also includes who handles what and when—hence the reason for its name.
Cross-functional flowcharts use swimlanes to set out responsibilities across different teams.These track dependencies from one team to another, and are a great alternative to Gantt charts when working on large projects with multiple teams.
To add details to your cross-functional flowchart, you layer the horizontal and vertical swimlanes.
6.Project Checklist
Project management can’t get any more basic than a simple checklist. You have most probably used a to-list before to boost your productivity at work, or even at home. And now, you can use it to manage your next big project.
A project checklist does not differ from a traditional checklist. When using a project checklist in project management, you will write out all the to-do tasks and the resources needed for each of these. This way, you will forget nothing.
You can go further and group items which you can do concurrently. As things get done, you will check off completed items on the list. Checklists are usable with project network diagrams, making them a great complement to other tactics if you don’t want to use them alone.
7.Mind Mapping
When ideas come to your head, they pop up all over the place. You do not experience a linear thought pattern. It can be challenging when working on a creative project to use a linear project management tool like the Gantt chart. Here is where a mind map comes in.
A mind map is a diagram used to visualize and explain information from a central idea. It uses a hierarchical structure that shows relationships between different parts of the whole to the principal idea.
To create a mind map, you draw your central idea at the center of a sheet of paper before drawing main branches that relate to the central idea. Doing this will give you an unrestricted view of your project since they put the central idea in the center and main themes radiate from it.
Mind maps are ideal when handling creative projects, and other scenarios when you need to incorporate new ideas as you go along.
Plenty of Project Management Methods Away From Gantt Charts
Projects demand a lot of planning and meticulous execution. Gantt charts are faithful and can help you deliver most projects, but they’re hard to use and require a lot of mental capacity to execute and succeed.
If your project does not need to use Gantt charts, consider the methods we mentioned in this article. All of them are manageable, and will save you the headache of having to deal with Gantt charts.
