Development project plan
A Gantt chart is a project management tool in which a project is broken down into tasks. You then estimate the amount of time for each task. When completed, the chart provides a snapshot of the overall timeline of the project and key dates and deadlines. You can use a Gantt chart to determine the deadline by which to deliver a project. Conversely, you can start with your project delivery date in mind and plan your task backward from that date.
The Development Project Plan is a simple Excel Gantt chart set up to assist with the development of your learning design project. The template enables you to plot key activities and milestones for your project and to set target dates for when materials are to be completed. The template is designed to help you keep your project on track and to be delivered on time.
Why?
When designing learning events, there are often multiple activities happening simultaneously, including writing content, developing activities, and developing assessments and marking criteria. At the same time, all of these actions may need to happen over a defined period of time. The Gantt Chart helps you bring all of this information together and to estimate and visualise the amount of time to be devoted to each task to enable you to deliver on time.
How?
To get started, download the Development project plan. Once downloaded, the worksheet in the tab titled “SAMPLE” includes an example completed Gantt Chart that demonstrates how you might use the sheet. The file also includes three blank Gantt chart templates in various colours (green, blue and purple). Column A of the spreadsheet also includes pop-up tips to help guide you into what to fill in each section. You may elect to modify the SAMPLE or use any of the other sheets.
To complete the Gantt Chart, you might approach the following steps:
Step one: project details
Fill in the project details, including the project title, school/unit name, project lead and project start date.
Step two: milestone markers
A milestone is a key date in the project. Typically, this would align with the completion of a key component of the course, such as a complete module. The project plan includes three milestone markers: a triangle (0), a flag (1) or a diamond. You can specify the symbol you wish to use by typing its corresponding number to the right of “Milestone marker” in the sheet. The marker symbol will appear to the right of the number.
Step three: project deadline
Enter the deadline date for the project to the right of Project Deadline, located in Column B near the bottom of the table. Once you enter the date, add a 1 under the number of days. This should place a milestone marker in the calendar area under the specified date.
Step four: enter milestone
Enter your milestones into spreadsheet. As mentioned previously, these are the key dates for deliverables in your project. In the sample sheet, each module in the sample course has been included as a milestone. For each milestone, include to whom it is assigned, the date that milestone is to be achieved, and put in 1 for the number of days. This will place a milestone marker on the date by which the milestone is to be achieved. Repeat this process for each milestone in the project.
You can collapse and expand milestones to reveal the tasks underneath by clicking the +icons in the left-most portion of the Excel window.
Step five: enter tasks
Tasks are the smaller activities or actions required to achieve the milestone. In the sample sheet, we have included some sample tasks that may need to be completed to make complete a module. For each task, enter the action to be completed, the person(s) responsible, the date that the activity is to begin and the number of days the activity should take. For items to take three days or more should appear as a coloured bar in the listing of dates on the right side of the sheet. This indicates the range of dates over which the task will take place. For each task, there is also space to note progress. To track your progress on each task, you can enter an estimate as to the percentage of the task completion.
Step six: monitor and adjust
Once you have completed your Development Project Plan Template, you will want to continue to refer to and to update the document as needed. For individual tasks, you may find that you will need to make adjustments to the amount of time required for tasks.
The template provided in this article is just one way to create a Gantt Chart. There are a variety of specialised applications (e.g., Microsoft Project, Asana, Monday) with Gantt Chart capability. If you have experience with these or want to learn how to use one of these programs, you should feel free to do so. We have provided this template because most people already have access and some familiarity with Excel.
