Project management charts greatly help project managers plan, schedule and track progress on projects of all sizes. There are many types of project management charts and there’s even one for each stage of the project life cycle such as project initiation or project closing charts, for example. Furthermore, there are also planning charts, diagrams and matrices for each of the key 10 project management areas such as cost, schedule, resource or stakeholder management. So luckily for project managers, there are many alternatives when it comes to choosing a project management chart to facilitate their planning efforts. In fact, using those charts is often a need for project managers. You’ll need to use a Gantt chart or a work breakdown structure to build your project plan, which is the foundation of your project. What Are Project Management Charts? Project management charts are visual representations of data that turn difficult project management concepts into something more easily digestible. They’re mostly used for project planning and can take many shapes such as flowcharts, network diagrams or bar charts. Gantt charts, PERT charts, CPM diagrams and WBS diagrams are great examples. Project management charts are especially useful when you’re communicating complex project planning information. They make data visual, turning complex concepts such as your project schedule or scope into something more easily digestible for the project management team and stakeholders. Data from project planning charts is even more useful when it’s tied to a real-time project management software like ProjectManager. Software can take a static chart and turn it into a dynamic tool for planning, execution and reporting. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. Top 10 Project Management Charts Before considering which project management chart is best for you, it’s important that you first decide which project management methodology you will use as there are differences between waterfall and agile project planning. It’s also important that you know that, while these are all project management charts, you’ll need a variety of them as they serve different project planning purposes such as creating a project timeline, allocating project resources, planning project work and more. Below, we’ve selected the top 10 project management charts for project planning so you can decide which are best for your project. 1. Gantt Charts Experienced project managers are familiar with the Gantt chart. It’s basically a bar chart that shows the project schedule on a timeline. Since then, Gantt charts have matured. They started to add task dependencies, such as when one task is related to another. Gantt charts are essential for modern project planning and scheduling because they allow project managers to visualize all the activities that make up the project on a timeline. They’re also useful to monitor progress once the execution phase begins. With new computing power, Gantt charts evolved from a basic bar chart to an essential project management tool that allows project managers to identify the critical path, assign tasks, establish task dependencies, generate a project timeline and much more. This is why most modern project planning software now include Gantt charts. Online Gantt Charts for More Flexibility Gantt charts aren’t equal. Other project management software programs have Gantt charts, but they’re bare bones. ProjectManager keeps the progress of Gantt charts on track for the new millennium. Our online Gantt charts include features the competition hasn’t yet considered. To start, ProjectManager can import your task list and schedule from a spreadsheet. If your plan was developed in Microsoft Project, but you want to move that plan online to share with your team, then good news. ProjectManager facilitates import of Microsoft Project files. Once you have your project plan in ProjectManager, our online Gantt chart is a project management chart on steroids. You can link task dependencies to prevent team members getting blocked. You can also assign tasks directly from the Gantt view which is an interactive project timeline that you can adjust in real time. Comment at the task level and all status updates are instantly reflected on the Gantt chart, which feeds into a real-time dashboard with project metrics that can be filtered and shared. For more information on Gantt charts, watch the short video below. It outlines all the ways that Gantt charts can help you make a thorough and effective project plan. 2. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Diagram One aspect of project planning is organizing project activities, deliverables and time. That’s where a work breakdown structure (WBS) comes in handy. It’s a way to take the tasks a team must accomplish in order to complete deliverables, and split them into manageable sections. The WBS is a deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team. In other words, it’s a great way to visualize all the tasks that need to be done in order to complete the project. It’s like a slightly higher-level view than a Gantt chart, which is useful for complex projects. A WBS can be represented as a list, a tree diagram, a spreadsheet or a column on a Gantt chart. To get a better idea of what a WBS looks like, you can download our free work breakdown structure template. Organizing and grouping tasks within your project plan is much easier to do. Once you have that information collected in our WBS diagram template, if you want to have a more dynamic tool in which to have more options, connect it to ProjectManager’s work breakdown structure software. Upon moving the WBS diagram to ProjectManager, content is reflected over the three views in the software. From the Gantt, as well as to the task list and kanban board, which is a visual workflow tool. The online Gantt chart turns the WBS diagram into a powerhouse for project planning. 3. Flow Chart Flow charts are another tool project managers should have in their toolbox when project planning. These charts help visualize processes as a way to improve project efficiency. The flow chart is a graphic display of the project’s objective and helps create a logical order of the work required to reach that goal. Planning a project is all about control, and a flow chart gives a project manager a tool to exercise control over tasks, resources and time. This means all processes, including planning and monitoring, refer to the flow chart to increase efficiency. The planning process begins with evaluation and development of project scope. This might then lead to a project level indicator, or to a project scorecard. Either of those options will flow to a project plan. Following the plan, there are tasks, resources, budgets, schedules and more. Each of which flows down to communications, or risk management, and then to change control, quality management, etc. Finally, there is the approval stage. If approved, the project plan is a go. If not, the flow chart circles back to the beginning to start again. 4. Critical Path Diagram (CPM) Another visual planning tool is the critical path diagram (based on the critical path method (CPM). It is used to show all the activities that are required to complete the project. The diagram illustrates the duration of each activity, preceding activity, as well as how the two are related to one another, and lag (the amount of time between two activities). A critical path diagram helps a project manager break down a larger project into activities that must be done in order for the project to deliver successfully. These activities are represented on the diagram as boxes. Between these activities or boxes are lines that represent the flow to show how each activity is connected and interconnected. The purpose of using a critical path diagram is to allow project managers to calculate the total duration of a project. The critical path is made up of critical activities. Non-critical activities are also shown. They are activities that will allow for more flexibility as they don’t have a major impact on the project 5. RACI Matrix RACI is an acronym that stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. A RACI matrix is a chart that helps assign responsibilities in project management. This table helps project managers identify stakeholders on their project or team members and gauge each level of involvement. This is done by noting next to each the initial R, A, C or I to categorize their engagement. For example, a stakeholder who is responsible means that person is directly responsible for the task. Accountable defines someone who delegates and reviews the work. Consulted means you’ll want their input and feedback on the work being done. And informed are those individuals who need to be updated on the progress of the work. This is obviously useful for assigning the responsibilities of team members on a project. But it can also be used to manage stakeholders. The RACI matrix helps a project manager to figure out which stakeholders need to know what and the frequency by which they should be updated on the progress of the project. 6. PERT Chart This visual project management tool is great when you’re mapping out tasks and project timelines. PERT is another acronym that stands for project (or program) evaluation and review technique. It provides a graphical view of the project’s tasks, schedule and timelines. A PERT chart is not a Gantt chart, though similar. Gantt charts are bar graphs, while a PERT is free form. PERT charts are made of nodes, boxes or circles that represent milestones. Connecting arrows show what must be complete between nodes. They represent the duration of each task. Some Gantt charts don’t show task dependencies, but all PERT charts do. They use directional, concurrent arrows to indicate a series of tasks that must be completed in specific sequence. But diverging arrows indicates work that can be done in parallel. 7. Workflow Diagram Workflow diagrams visually show the layout of a process, project or job. This is done as a flow chart. They are commonly used to show the full business process and information flows, help employees understand their roles and responsibilities, expose redundancies and bottlenecks and help avoid risks. This project management chart can be made with software or drawn manually. But whichever way you create one, you’ll get a lot out of the workflow diagram. They help with operations and create greater efficiency through streamlining work. They also provide documentation for legal, compliance and audit requirements. They’re also a great tool for clear communication across the organization. Visual tools are often easier to digest no matter which department is looking at them. The workflow diagram is also a way to strengthen security. Workflow diagrams track information securely and make sure your organization is on top of any security gaps. 8. Risk Matrix Risks can be good and bad, and project managers want to either take advantage of these unexpected opportunities or mitigate the impact of problems to the project. A risk matrix is used in project planning to identify and plan to resolve risks as they arise as issues in a project. The risk matrix will list risks that could occur as decided by experience and historical data. Then rates the likelihood of the risk in fact appearing in the project and what impact it will have if it does show up. The risks are categorized based on probability and severity. This tool helps project managers with their risk management on a project. It also communicates the risks that might become issues in the project to the project team and stakeholders. This allows for capturing these issues quickly and resolving them or taking advantage of them. 9. Milestone Chart The milestone chart is a visual timeline that helps project managers plan for significant events in their project schedule. Milestones are important events in a project, such as delivering the project plan or the end of one project phase and the beginning of the next one. Each vertical line of the milestone chart shows one milestone. There is a description of the milestone on the left-hand side of the milestone. A horizontal time scale charts the entire project. The milestone chart helps keep your team, stakeholders and customers updated on these major project events. Making milestones in your schedule and tracking them throughout the project is one way to keep on schedule. Sharing the milestone chart communicates the major events in the project and makes sure that everyone is aware of them. It’s like having a notice for the big deadlines that must be met. 10. Burndown Chart In agile project management a burndown chart is used to visually represent how quickly the project team is going through the customer’s user stories. It shows the description of the features being worked. These descriptions are from the perspective of the end-user. The burndown chart shows the team’s effort against the full sprint. That work that is still to be done is shown on a vertical axis. The time passed from the beginning of the project is shown horizontally. This presents both the past and the future so everyone can see where they are. The burndown chart is updated regularly to make sure it’s accurate. There are two types of burndown charts. One is used for sprints, or short iterations when their agile team works on user stories, while the other is a product burndown chart. The latter shows the work that remains for the entire project, while the former is only what’s left to do in the iteration. ProjectManager Is Better Than Project Management Charts Project management charts are great visual aids and some are helpful tools to set up the procedures for your project, but they can only do so much as static documents. When you start to plan and execute the project, you need project management software to connect teams and streamline work. ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software that automatically updates with real-time data to help you better manage your project. Track Time and Costs with Real-time Dashboards You have to input all the data and manually update your project management charts, but our software does all that busy work for you. Real-time dashboards automatically collect live data from the project, crunch the numbers and then display the results in project charts. These six project metrics include time, cost, workload and more, all updated in real time to give you an overview of your project whenever you want it. There’s no setup involved, either, it’s all done for you. Use Kanban Boards for Task Management Once you’re executing the project, you need a window into the process and a tool that gives your team the autonomy to manage their work. Our kanban boards visualize workflow, which means that project managers can see where their teams are in terms of production and also catch any potential roadblocks. Then they can reallocate resources to keep teams working at capacity. Meanwhile, teams can manage their backlog and collaborate when planning sprints. Unlike project management charts, our software is flexible enough to give you the tools you want to use. Our multiple project views means managers can plan on Gantt charts, teams can use list views to check off their tasks, stakeholders can view calendars to make sure milestones are met and all views share the same real-time data. There’s one source of truth that keeps everyone working better together, collaborating, sharing files and commenting at the task level. Planning can make or break a project, so you want to have the best tools at your disposal when going through the process. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software that helps planning, as well as executing, monitoring and reporting on all your projects. It works seamlessly with the project planning charts described above and has a robust set of project management tools to manage resources, time and cost. See how it can help you plan your project by taking this free 30-day trial today.