.JPG)
Wie sieht der Projektzeitplan aus? Definition
A project timeline is a visual representation of all the tasks and activities that are supposed to be completed in a project, as well as their duration and start and end dates. Such an overview provides the manager with key information on all the tasks and related allocation, helping them manage projects on both general and more detailed levels.
Types of project timeline
There are no two identical projects - that is why we divide project timelines into several different types based on their features.
Projektzeitplan nach Arten von Diagrammen
Zu den beliebtesten Arten von Projektzeitplänen gehören:
- Historical timeline that simply outlines the chronological order of the project's tasks and acts as a project schedule for its stakeholders,
- Vertical chart timeline is mostly used to track project-related data, with billable hours, project budget involved.
- Gantt chart that combines tasks with allocations and their details to provide managers with a comprehensive overview of all the key deliverables in the project.
This text will focus on the type of project timeline that appeals most to professional service companies - the Gantt chart calendar with employee capacity and task assigned to particular team members.
Wie erstellt man einen Projektzeitplan?
If you are still here with us, you know you need a project timeline for your business. So let’s get to the point: how to create a project timeline?
Woraus besteht der Zeitplan des Projekts?
Beginnen wir mit den Dingen, die Ihr Projektzeitplan am Ende Ihrer Reise enthalten sollte.
Idealerweise sollte sie enthalten:
- project stages or tasks (whichever fits your project best) for the entirety of the project scope,
- their duration, start dates, and end dates,
- Abhängigkeiten - zum Beispiel, wenn eine Aufgabe abgeschlossen sein muss, damit eine andere beginnen kann,
- team members, their capacity, and allocation.
Nun wollen wir sehen, wie es in der Praxis funktioniert.
5 steps to create a timeline for your project
The process of preparing a project management timeline usually takes just a few steps. They include:
1. Define the project scope
That’s the simplest step - you need to figure out what task needs to be done for the project to succeed.
Specify the requirements for the scope of your project
To get started, you need to talk to your customer to discuss the basic details behind the operation. By the end of this conversation, you should have:
- Projektbeschreibung und Hintergrundinformationen, die für die Durchführung des Projekts erforderlich sind,
- main objectives, tasks, and/or project milestones,
- project goals, including target audience, desired features, outcomes for each phase.
Erfahren Sie mehr über das Projekt
However, these factors are insufficient for the project timeline - they must be much more specific. That is why you can now move on to organizing the project scope and its deliverables.
Zu diesem Zeitpunkt sollten Sie:
- write a project statement,
- create a list of stages and tasks in the project, as well as their dependencies, that need to be completed, and their general schedule,
- Führen Sie eine grundlegende Ressourcenprognose durch, um festzustellen, welche Ressourcen für das Projekt benötigt werden und ob Sie ein Projektteam für die Aufgabe haben,
- Geben Sie das gewünschte Start- und Enddatum für das Projekt und seine Phasen an,
- die Aufgaben entsprechend zu priorisieren,
- consult other project managers who may have experience in similar projects or tasks.
Having done that, you can now organize the information even further - it’s time to divide your projects into smaller pieces.
2. Aufteilung des Projekts in Teile
Once you know what your team must do to succeed, it’s time to take a closer look at all the necessary operations, their scope, and milestones.
Aufteilung des Projekts Schritt für Schritt
First, divide the project into key stages marking the significant development of the project.
For each of them, select a milestone showing you the exact goal you must achieve for the project to proceed. Do not forget to determine the task dependencies and dates if they are critical for the tasks!
From there, split the stages into small, manageable deliverables and place them chronologically. Once again, include task dependencies when necessary and identify any bottlenecks preventing your teams from succeeding.
3. Bestimmen Sie die Zeit und die Ressourcen, die für die Durchführung jeder Phase oder Aufgabe benötigt werden
You already have a list of tasks that need to be done. Now it’s time to check what they need to complete on time - and according to all the complicated requirements.
A successful project in a nutshell
Analysieren Sie dazu jede Aufgabe oder Phase und legen Sie sie fest:
- welche Maßnahmen die Aufgabe umfasst,
- what are its stakeholders,
- how much time it will take to complete all tasks and fulfill the project plan,
- welche Fähigkeiten oder Qualifikationen zur Erfüllung der Aufgabe erforderlich sind,
- how much money each task will cost,
- wie die Kosten im Vergleich zum Budget aussehen.
After completing all of the steps above, you will be able to see how long the stage will take, what resources it requires, and what are its possible deadlines.
4. Aufgaben an Spezialisten zuweisen
Now, you can use your newly acquired knowledge to start project scheduling in project management.
Start the process with capacity planning - check the status of your employees and other duties they need to attend and establish the number of hours they have at your disposal.
At this point, you can start resource planning by allocating specialists whose schedules do not collide with your perfect project schedule.
Zu guter Letzt sollten Sie überprüfen, ob Ihr Projekt keine freien Stellen zu besetzen hat. Dieser Schritt mag trivial erscheinen, aber er kann den Unterschied zwischen Erfolg und Misserfolg ausmachen!
5. Setzen Sie alle Aufgaben auf die Zeitachse und perfektionieren Sie Ihren Plan
If you have a project scheduling tool and you have already allocated your specialists, you probably already have your project timeline in a calendar or a Gantt chart.
However, if you use Excel for a resource management plan (or if you prefer Jira resource management), you still need to take one more look at your project timeline and arrange it in chronological order.
Verwalten Sie Ihr Projekt und seine Aufgaben
Zu diesem Zeitpunkt sollten Sie auf Probleme wie diese achten:
- freie Stellen oder Aufgaben, die keinen Spezialisten und Teammitgliedern zugewiesen wurden,
- benches or overtime included in the plan - they should be avoided as much as possible,
- Abhängigkeiten, bei denen die Gefahr eines Ausfalls besteht,
- alle sonstigen Risiken, die das Projekt beeinträchtigen könnten.
However, if you have found no wrongdoings, your project timeline is ready!
Projektzeitplan-Vorlage in Excel - wie soll sie aussehen?
The project timeline is difficult to create in Excel, as the tool has limited visualization options. To make things worse, Excel’s graphs are based on tables, making editing difficult. Therefore, this program's project timeline template may not suit your needs.
Let’s see what the Excel project management timeline looks like.
Excel-Projektzeitplan-Vorlage - Tabelle
In the project timeline template, everything starts with a table. In this case, it should contain the name of the milestone, its start date, and its priority (on a scale from 1 to 5).
Hier ist ein Beispiel für eine solche Tabelle:
Adding a scatter plot chart for the project timeline template
Jetzt ist es an der Zeit, mit unserer Projektzeitplanvorlage einen Schritt weiter zu gehen und die Tabelle in ein Punktdiagramm zu verwandeln.
To do that, select the data table, go to the Insert menu, and select the Scatter chart. You can edit it in this panel, too.
The result of the change in the project timeline template should look like this, with each dot representing a project milestone. However, the entire project plan remains invisible - there is no way to show its details here.
Of course, project managers can also expand the chart a bit in this panel using the same project timeline template. For example, you can add the title to the chart, and add chart elements and data labels.
However, an Excel project timeline has significant visibility problems - and they will not change regardless of the number of labels you use to describe the data.
Additionally, these are not the only limitations in the Excel project timeline and project timeline template.
Projektzeitplan-Vorlage in Excel - Einschränkungen
Excel project timeline templates are not a perfect tool - especially for service companies managing several specialists and projects simultaneously. That is because the tables are not meant to act as project timeline software and lack the big picture necessary for the job, not to mention the milestones and timeline templates in general.
Was ist bei Excel-Projektzeitplanvorlagen unmöglich?
For example, in Excel project timeline template, you cannot:
- view each phase, milestone, and task, as well as their details, separately,
- create a list of allocations and responsibilities for each team member,
- monitor work progress for each stage, task, or employee,
- Zuweisung und Abschnitte bei Bedarf flexibel bearbeiten,
- monitor budgets and spending - again, you need another spreadsheet for the purpose,
- collaborate with your employees or teammates and exchange information with them in real-time.
Therefore, it is no surprise that numerous service companies decided to look elsewhere for their project timeline tools - and we have an example of a perfect project management tool for them.
Beispiel für einen Projektzeitplan
Excel project timelines do not always look intuitive, and they undoubtedly require lots of additional labor. However, preparing a timeline in Primetric is much less time-consuming, as it was designed as project timeline software in the first place.
Schauen wir uns an, wie es in einem Projektzeitplan-Beispiel funktioniert!
Erstellen Sie ein neues Projekt in Primetric
Every new project in Primetric starts with a few basic pieces of information we need to have to adjust the view to your needs. Therefore, before you start, you need to create a new project and add some details to it.
Erstellen von Stufen und Schätzungen
After you confirm the data you filled in the Create a new project window, you will be redirected to the project panel. Here you can add stages to the project (the button on the left), add a sufficient date to them, monitor their status, and create estimates for each stage.
Create and monitor the budget for every project in Primetric
Additionally, in Primetric tools, stakeholders can also monitor your budget from the start - the estimate can include your costs, rates for your teams, and live calculations - just like in the screenshot below.
Erstellen einer Projektzeitleiste in Primetric
You can now go to the project calendar tool and plan the project from start to finish by creating a project schedule. Simply click on the Calendar tab to get there.
After doing so, you will see an empty calendar that only marks the project's duration. Now you will have an opportunity to fill it in.
Simply click on the day you want the allocation to appear, and choose a person you want to add to the project. If you have any doubts, the project timeline software will help you do that!
Hinzufügen von Zuweisungen für Teammitglieder
Then, you can repeat the process and fill in all the project team allocations in the project. You can do it in the very same with all tasks in Gantt chart.
You do not have to worry about overbooking, time offs, missing milestones, and public holidays - the system will track them and inform key stakeholders whenever such an event is in the schedule.
Here’s what it looks like:
If you want to see whether Primetric can accommodate your project and all its important dates, feel free to book a demo with our advisors or start a trial immediately with our tools - you can begin the process online right now!
Benefits of the project management timeline
Alright, but why, in the first place, should you even consider spending your precious time on preparing a timeline?
Dafür gibt es einige gute Gründe.
Vorteile für Projektmeilensteine und... alle Beteiligten
- Clear overview of the entire project and ability to track it. No one wants to be kept in the dark. With a project timeline, you can track and monitor the project's milestones while ensuring all tasks are on schedule.
- Mistakes can’t hide! There’s no denying that planning is a complicated process prone to human error, regardless of the tools you use. However, creating a timeline and using it to track task progress can simplify and help you correct mistakes.
- Tracking progress and status is easier. The project timeline shows you everything that is supposed to happen in the project - and later on, you can use it to see what’s happening in its every task.
- There are no bottlenecks in the project. Without a project timeline, work tends to pile up, creating chaos no one in the team wants to deal with. It’s better to identify these issues before they put the entire operation at risk!
Do you want to know more about project timelines or project management?
Dann sind Sie bei uns genau richtig!
Besuchen Sie unseren Blog und lesen Sie darüber:
- efficient workload management for your team and it's every task, with an estimate included,
- kritische Faktoren für den Projekterfolg, die Sie bei der Erstellung eines Projektzeitplans beachten müssen,
- creating a perfect resource management plan that will help you monitor the status of work for your teams along with all the deadlines,
- Ressourcenplanung in Jira - natürlich nur, wenn Sie das Tool verwenden,
Oder nehmen Sie Kontakt zu unseren Beratern auf und buchen Sie gleich eine Demo.
