A timeline in venture administration is a visible illustration of the venture’s schedule, duties and milestones from begin to end. It’s created within the venture planning section and referenced and revised all through venture execution.
Timeline templates can schedule initiatives quicker. Challenge timeline templates additionally influence workload administration, prioritization, change administration and progress monitoring. Obtain these free timeline templates to schedule initiatives from inception to completion.
10 Should-Have Timeline Templates
The next free timeline templates can be utilized to make a timeline in a wide range of instruments, from Excel spreadsheets to Google Docs and Sheets. There are ones that service building and manufacturing, although any trade will revenue from venture timeline templates.
Free timeline templates present important instruments for correct scheduling, equivalent to a PERT chart and significant path templates. All of those timeline templates assist with planning, hold the complete venture crew on monitor and accountable, and rapidly onboard new crew members.
1. Excel Timeline Template
Use this Excel timeline template to map actions, processes or initiatives over a 12 months. Challenge managers can use this free timeline template to see who’s liable for what, whether or not they’re a crew member or a division within the group.
The pliability of this timeline template permits it to serve a number of totally different functions. It may be used as a venture timeline to estimate the period of a venture and visualize the order duties will likely be accomplished. It can be used as a product roadmap to indicate product growth groups the actions they should execute from ideation to closing launch. Lastly, utilizing this free template timeline as a strategic roadmap exhibits all of the initiatives a corporation will execute over time to realize the general strategic objectives and goals of its strategic plan.
Timeline templates are helpful, however they’re not nice for venture administration. They require guide updates, which takes time away from extra essential duties. These are static paperwork so that they aren’t collaborative. Subsequently, even free timeline templates aren’t essentially the most environment friendly approach to create, handle and monitor a venture schedule, venture administration software program is.
ProjectManager is award-winning venture and portfolio administration software program that has highly effective roadmap instruments to handle applications and portfolios. They accumulate all initiatives and show them on a Gantt chart with useful resource administration, time monitoring and process administration options. Customers can filter by assignee, venture supervisor or buyer to make forecasts, see which initiatives are open and who’s assigned to duties, in addition to spotlight key metrics to maintain stakeholders knowledgeable. That is all performed in actual time to maintain everybody on the identical web page. Get began with ProjectManager at present totally free.
2. Gantt Chart in Google Docs
Gantt charts are utilized in venture administration to construct schedules and arrange duties. They’re half spreadsheet and half graphical illustration of the venture schedule. The timeline is displayed as a bar chart that exhibits the beginning and end dates of all venture duties.
Making a Gantt chart in Google Docs permits groups to retailer and share the doc on-line. This fosters collaboration in a means {that a} static Excel doc can’t. This free timeline template can present a high-level view of the venture for reporting functions when up to date and shared with stakeholders.
3. Gantt Chart Template for Excel
Excel spreadsheets have their limits, however for these on the lookout for a simple approach to construct a Gantt chart, this free timeline template is the best way to go. It doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of Gantt chart software program, however can arrange duties and create a timeline exhibiting the complete venture on one web page.
On the left-hand facet of the timeline template is an easy spreadsheet. All venture duties may be listed, with their begin and finish dates. Then add the period every process is predicted to take. As soon as this data has been fed into the template, the right-hand facet bar chart routinely populates. Customers can then add coloration to distinguish venture phases.
4. Gantt Chart Template for Google Sheets
Gantt charts are notoriously troublesome to create, which is why many go for venture administration software program. However for these not able to improve and nonetheless want a Gantt chart to schedule venture work, there are timeline templates which have performed the laborious work.
Utilizing this free timeline template fosters collaboration, not like Excel spreadsheets, because it’s cloud-based. Plus, many individuals are already used to working with Google’s merchandise. The Gantt chart template for Google Sheets can simply be shared and totally built-in with different Google merchandise. It’s comprehensible why some choose this kind of timeline timesheet.
5. Development Timeline Template
Development initiatives use timelines to schedule work. These initiatives are very structured and lend themselves to the hierarchical construction of a Gantt chart that may coordinate not solely duties but additionally assets, prices and monitoring.
Opening up this free timeline template in ProjectManager provides customers entry to highly effective Gantt charts that hyperlink dependencies, filter for the important path and set baselines. Nevertheless it additionally hyperlinks with a number of venture views, equivalent to kanban boards, process lists, calendars and extra. There are useful resource administration options to steadiness workload, danger and subject monitoring, dashboards and experiences to watch progress in actual time, greater than any mere template can do.
6. PERT Chart Template
PERT charts are utilized in venture administration to schedule initiatives. They arrange and coordinate duties. PERT is an acronym for program analysis overview method, and a PERT chart is a timeline template that breaks down every process to allow them to be analyzed to estimate the minimal time wanted to finish the venture.
The PERT chart works by utilizing nodes, that are represented by rectangles or circles on the timeline template, to indicate occasions and milestones that happen through the venture. Vectors join the nodes. These are strains that stand for the totally different duties that have to be accomplished. This permits venture managers to visualise dependencies between steps.
7. Vital Path Technique Template
The important path in venture administration is the longest sequence of duties that have to be accomplished on time for a venture to complete efficiently. It identifies important and non-essential duties. This permits venture managers to make knowledgeable choices if there are points concerning time, value or scope.
This free timeline template will enhance accuracy and suppleness when scheduling initiatives, particularly extra complicated ones. Challenge managers can see which duties must be prioritized and the way lengthy it’ll take to finish them. This timeline template can be used to speak clearly between the venture supervisor and stakeholders.
8. Challenge Calendar Template
Timeline templates are available in a wide range of kinds. A venture calendar is a kind of timeline that captures a month’s price of exercise. This permits the venture supervisor and the crew to see the complete month’s duties in a single place, together with highlighting essential dates.
This venture timeline can foster higher process administration, crew collaboration and communication when workflows change. Challenge managers can use the calendar to indicate the crew’s availability when there are holidays and different issues that may intrude with assigning duties effectively.
9. Google Sheets Timeline Template
One other approach to create a venture timeline template is with Google Sheets, which is the Google model of a spreadsheet. It’s a free different to venture administration software program and one which many individuals are already accustomed to. It’s simpler than Excel and higher and, like Google Docs, cloud-based, which suggests there’s no downloading or saving information.
Google Sheets timeline templates will not be actual Gantt charts. There’s no workflow automation, for instance, and so they’re not as simple to make use of as Gantt chart software program. However they will schedule initiatives, present the period of duties and mark milestones and deliverables.
10. Grasp Manufacturing Schedule Template
For these in manufacturing, a manufacturing schedule helps steadiness provide and demand when producing a commodity. This free timeline template is constructed for manufacturing. It’s versatile sufficient to reply to fluctuating demand and units up stock to keep away from stockouts.
Use this free timeline template as a part of the bigger provide chain administration. It may handle assets, but additionally help gross sales by conserving them conscious of manufacturing schedules to offer clients extra correct achievement dates.
ProjectManager Works Higher Than Timeline Templates
Making a timeline, managing it all through the life cycle of a venture and monitoring progress to make sure that it adheres to the schedule may be performed on templates. The one query is why? Templates are static paperwork. They’re taking groups away from their work to manually replace the timeline templates. They’re not collaborative. It’s like managing a venture with out real-time information to make insightful choices. Challenge administration software program solves the issue of templates. ProjectManager is award-winning venture and portfolio administration software program that makes it easy to create, handle and monitor timelines in actual time, whether or not for one venture, a program or a portfolio. We’ve already proven the ability of Gantt charts or roadmaps for scheduling initiatives, however there are additionally options to handle these assets on the timeline and monitor their progress and prices.
Use Useful resource Administration to Stability Workloads
The venture timeline solely units up the venture for profitable completion. The assets are what execute it, whether or not the crew or the instruments, gear and supplies they require to do their jobs. These assets can, first, be scheduled on the Gantt chart or roadmap, however then they must be monitored to make sure that the work is being performed. Safe timesheets may help monitor labor prices and supply a window into the share of labor performed for every crew member. Then use the crew web page or color-coded workload chart to view useful resource utilization. Managers can rapidly see who’s overallocated or underutilized after which steadiness their workload from that web page to maintain everybody working at capability and staying on schedule.
Monitor Progress With Actual-Time Dashboards and Reviews
Conserving to the schedules means managers should have real-time information to trace the precise progress in opposition to the deliberate progress. As soon as they’ve set the baseline within the Gantt chart, this data is routinely up to date and delivered all through the software program. For instance, the taskbars on the Gantt chart are shaded to characterize the share full for that process. However there are extra strong instruments, such because the real-time venture or portfolio dashboard, which shows easy-to-read graphs exhibiting key efficiency indicators (KPIs), equivalent to time, duties, workload and extra for a high-level overview of the venture. Get deeper into the info with customizable experiences on venture standing, portfolio standing, workload, variance, timesheets and extra. Filter the report for particulars or to be extra basic for stakeholders, which might get the experiences in a wide range of codecs to remain up to date.
Associated Free Template Content material
These free timeline templates are however a drop within the deep bucket of free templates obtainable on our website. Now we have free venture administration templates for Excel, Google and Phrase that tackle each section of managing initiatives throughout a number of industries. Beneath are a few of the roundup posts that accumulate templates beneath a theme.
ProjectManager is on-line venture and portfolio administration software program that connects groups whether or not they’re within the workplace, out within the area or anyplace on the planet. They will share information, remark on the process degree and keep updated with electronic mail and in-app notifications. Be a part of groups at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software program to ship profitable initiatives. Get began with ProjectManager at present totally free.
