Gantt Chart in Excel
I know it’s an old trick but I learnt it only recently. As of now, I use Mermaid for Gantt but Excel version takes may be five minutes but it is clean enough to use. First, let me post the Mermaid Gantt.
Code on the left and the image on the right - I did this using obsidian. Another cool trick when using it is by using CDN. Just build a standard XML and change the content inside that <div class=”mermaid”> tag.
Now, let’s go back to Excel. The thing here is stacked horizontal bars.
Let’s say this is your data.
Step 1: Have separate columns for each phase you want to have and add the duration under corresponding heads
Step 2: Create a stacked bar only with start dates. Why? Because having a single column will create separate bars for each row I have made some basic changes in the way the axes look.
Step 3: Add the columns to the graph using Select Data.
Also, change the Horizontal Axis Labels. Note: I have clubbed both the Feature and Phase columns together here.
You are almost done. Just hide that blue bar, your graph is ready.
Almost done.
Some minor tweaks. Notice the rows are in reverse order. Start and end dates are arbitrary. Bar width, for example.
How do you want to decorate it, it’s upto you.
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