How to Get More Organized with Trello Gantt Charts Software

There’s barely any need to introduce the superpowers of Trello because it’s the top choice for organizing work for project managers across the globe. The philosophy that stands behind the platform is profound: by gaining visibility and establishing flexibility, teams can work better, faster, and more efficiently. Therefore, Trello’s structure reflects these simple but powerful principles.

Trello Gantt charts are one of the most popular applications of the charts with a modern-day project management tool. Trello is a simple and useful Kanban-based platform for handling your work. It allows you to organize all of your project’s tasks in a clear and flexible way. Visualizing a project’s stages and steps with Trello Gantt charts is the natural next move for most project managers using the tool.

If you’re employing Trello to manage your team’s work, Gantt charts software can be of huge help in staying on top of deadlines since they allow you to gain deeper insight and full visibility over your projects. Here are the basics about the gantt charts, how they can be used in project management and what are their advantages, as well as which Trello Gantt chart tools on the market are especially relevant.

What is a Gantt chart and why is it important?

When Henry Gantt introduced his bar chart more than a hundred years ago, he surely didn’t know how his invention for project scheduling would fare in history. Well, Mr. Gantt, the Gantt chart has been doing great.

The renowned charts were first used in the U.S. for scientific management and planning tools during World War I. Today Gantt charts are present in almost every business field. Gantt chart software’s are used to illustrate the consequential steps in executing a project, the interdependencies between tasks, and the potential bottlenecks that have to be prevented for successful project completion.

What Gantt charts are -- and how they can help your workflow Click To Tweet

The concept behind the chart that Henry Gantt invented is simple. The bar chart presents the sequence of tasks that need to be completed to achieve a certain result against a predefined time frame. For project managers, it illustrates which steps precede others, and how they are all interconnected in the schedule of a project.

How to use Gantt charts?

The Gantt chart is an excellent way to visually represent the progress made on a project. Completed work can be indicated with a percentage or shown in relation to the reference point of the current moment. On the basis of such a chart, you can easily review completed tasks, see pending ones, and identify problematic areas.

With the complexity of today’s work, Gantt chart software have sometimes been underestimated and labeled as too simplistic. However, one of the biggest advantages of a Gantt chart is its simplicity.

When you integrate Gantt charts with a project management tool such as Trello, you also get the rest of the important details, such as why a task has to be executed and who needs to do it.

Gantt charts can be of great help in crafting a project’s road map – or, simply put, the timeline of evolving from concept to reality.

The essential information the road map should contain includes

1. The goals you want to achieve.
2. The schedule of each goal.
3. The milestones for each stage.
4. The dependencies between tasks.

All of these details can be easily included in a Gantt chart.

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How to use Trello Gantt charts to boost your productivity

To add Gantt charts in the equation and get your work even more organized, you can start by creating a new board in your Trello profile or adapting an existing one. The tasks that you want to have in the chart needs to be formatted in their respective Trello cards in a specific way so that they can be easily transferred into a chart.

There are slight differences between different Trello Gantt chart tools on the market, but the main principles are similar. As with all Trello projects, a card represents one task. Its title should be as specific as possible. The best approach is to define the title by the formula verb + noun, so that you describe the exact action that has to be completed.

Input all tasks that you want to include in the project’s Gantt chart within a list on your Trello board. You can arrange them in the order they have to be executed and place the first task on the top of the list.

Making sure you stay on top of things

Once you have all tasks stacked up in one list, add due dates for each of them. You can do that by clicking on the Due Date button within each card. In order to have a complete Trello Gantt chart, you will need to add the starting date for every task. You can do that by manually entering text in the Description field of each card. Type in “start: month/date/year.” Some tools may have a separate button for that.

With most Trello Gantt chart software, you can easily alter the time periods of each task in the chart itself. The changes you make in the visual representation are automatically transferred to the original Trello board too.

Here are the top four Trello Gantt charts that we tested and recommend for you. Click To Tweet

The best Gantt chart tools for Trello

You can use a number of Trello Gantt chart extensions to bring the chart functionality to your project management tool. While most of them will do the job, a few shine brighter because of their ease of use, as well as the features they offer. Here are the top four that we tested and recommend for you.

1. Elegantt

The most renowned tool for creating Gantt charts in Trello is probably Elegantt. Trello’s CEO, Michael Pryor, himself has praised the extension!

Elegantt is a Chrome extension you can add to your browser with one click. Once you’ve installed it, you have to log in with your Trello profile. Then you can choose whether you want a Gantt chart produced for each of your boards.

With Elegantt, you can easily review task dependencies and milestones. You can use filters to focus on certain areas of your project. Furthermore, on the Gantt chart, you can click and drag, zoom in, and hide unnecessary fields.

Pricing: 14-day free trial; freemium with limited features; pro plan starting at $5 per month per slot.

2. Ganttify

Another great option for crafting Gantt charts in Trello is Ganttify. It works with Trello, Basecamp Project, and Google Calendar.

After you sign up and allow Ganttify to access your Trello profile, you can start producing Gantt charts based on your boards. Additionally, you can add new timelines and drag and drop updates to your project seamlessly.

Start and end dates can be added with a right-click in the tool. You can zoom in on tasks to get the details and zoom out to grasp the big picture. Ganttify charts can be easily exported as PDF files or images for your presentations.

Pricing: Free, making Ganttify one of the best free gantt chart software on the market.

3. Trellogantt

Trellogantt is a Gantt chart creator you can sign up for with one click. You have to log in with your Trello account.

The tool is flexible. It allows you to quickly rearrange tasks and deadlines. Users can review deadlines, and milestones and timelines and Trello cards are synchronized automatically, so their work will always be up to date.

Pricing: Free, as the creators are still improving the tool.

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4. Placker

Placker provides planning and tracking for Trello, including creating Gantt charts.

As with other tools, you have to sign up with your Trello account. You can also use the Chrome extension. After logging in, you can choose which of your boards you want to make into Gantt charts.

Placker allows you to review one or multiple boards within the same chart. You can juxtapose planned due dates with actual delivery dates of tasks, and you can also filter the timelines by member, label, and milestone.

Pricing: 15-day free trial; pro plans start at $7.49/month per user.

Boost your productivity with Trello Gantt charts

Gantt charts are a powerful addition to the flexibility and visibility for projects Trello provides. By transforming your lists of tasks into a visual chart, you gain a better understanding of your project’s steps, milestones, deadlines, and potential bottlenecks.

As powerful as Trello Gantt charts can be, they are not difficult to create. You can start using them today — just choose one of the tools reviewed above, and you’ll be on to visualizing your work in no time.

Consider Trello alternatives

Trello is one of the first project management apps that comes to mind when one thinks of an online Kanban board or a simple project management software.

But that does not mean that it’s the best. Teams with lots of projects or team members will quickly discover the limitations of Trello, like the lack of bigger picture planning, like gantt charts or other more in-depth project management methodologies.

This is why it’s great to consider Trello alternatives. One such tool is Hubstaff Tasks, an Agile project management tool with Kanban boards, automated daily standups, weekly current and future sprints, as well as automated workflows.

What do you think about Trello and Gantt charts?

What’s your best use of Trello Gantt charts in your project management process? We’d love to hear your ideas and practical experience!

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