Gantt Chart - Shading after Finish Date to include actual deadline

Tara Dolgner

I'm wondering if I can also use the Gantt chart to identify when we were timely on actions.

 

For example, now it will show a bar correlating with the Start and Finish times.  I'm using these as planned start and due dates.  If the deliverable was sent after the Finish time, is it possible to have the Gantt chart linked to a new column that shades past the current bar until the actual completion date?

JamesR

Tara,

 

What you are asking is not possible.  What you want is a comparison of Actuals to baseline.

 

Step 1 Cretae your plan and save as Baseline Plan and Lock down.  

Step 2 Use Save as New andcreate t,he Actuals Plan.

Step 3 Create a Report to show Both Plans in one view

Step 4 Format Gant Bars different oneach Plan

 

I Hope this helps

 

James

 

J. Craig Williams

James,

 

I like that idea.

For some customers, I need to build the two schedules into one because we are calculating variances (schedule and cost). 

But for the ones that don't care about cost (at least not in the way I do), then this would solve some of their concerns.

Cool.

Going to add that to my pipeline.

 

Craig

J. Craig Williams

You will want to add a RowID column (which needs to be maintained when rows change or are moved around) in both sheets.

Sort on that.

 

Feature Request #1 related to James' process:

Allow sort of row # in a Report (so we don't need to add our own column for it)

 

Feature Request #2 related to James' process:

Reports: Select all columns and default to same order as original sheet(s).

Allow user to choose "primary" sheet when the column names are the same (and they usually are)

 

Craig

 

Tara Dolgner

James -

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

So in this solution, the actual and baseline will be in two separate rows?  I'm testing it now.  I can sort it so the same title is listed and they become stacked.  I also changed the bar color for the actual gantt.

 

Is this correct or is there a way to have them featured on the same row?

 

Tara

J. Craig Williams

Tara,

 

There is not currently a way to have them on the same row in Smartsheet.

 

Craig

JohnHinkle

Another option is to add a Baseline Start Date column and a Text/Number column with a formula that shows the days difference between your Baseline Start date and your actual start dates. Use conditional formatting to color the Gantt bar (or cell) red if this number is greater than 0, which would indicate a slip in your timeline. 

J. Craig Williams

Thanks John! 

That's something I always neglect - the color of the Gantt chart.

Some PM's ONLY use PM software to get to a Gantt chart. To me, it is the last thing I look at. But this might change that.

Green - OK, Yellow - looking iffy, Red - oops.

 

Thanks again!

 

Craig

Tara Dolgner

Thanks, John.  Good idea!