How to create deliverables column in Gantt chart?

Question

I’m taking Intro to Project Management online and the instructor has required us to produce Gantt charts with deliverables prominently in their own column on the far right. We can use any software we want, as long as it looks good and professional. I'm a newb when it comes to the available options for Project Mangement software, and we haven't learned any of them in this course.

I presumed that given the plethora of project management software and online dashboard tools available, that adding a custom column on the right would be a fairly easy thing to do.

I know that one can do this with Excel, but isn’t this a situation of “don’t reinvent the wheel”? So what I’m wondering is how can I do this with other project management software?

What I've Tried Already

I tried the following softwares:

• MS Project 2016
• TeamGantt
• Gantt Project

I have not been able to discover how to place the deliverables at all, let alone to show them in one aligned column on the right. Also, none of them format well to fit on one page.

I also tried this link:

How to create custom fields at project level in MS Project

But, it did not provide the clear solution for my question.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

In MsProject: First know that there is no way that you can put columns to right of gantt chart in MsP, other than that;

You have to indent your deliverables in order for them to rollup. To do it first enter the deliverable name to a line, then enter tasks related to it just below it. Press "Indent Task"(Alt + Shift + Right) you can select multiple tasks excluding the deliverable and do this. You will see that first line will change in to a roll-up task and contain sub-tasks under it. You can Expand them with + sign or collapse them with - sign.

Then: Collapse all the rollups (you can use view->Outline->Level1) Put any column you would like to show to the left. (Dates, Resource names, etc.) Go to "View" and select timescale "Entire Project" Print Preview and see the output. Change the column and gantt size however you like and it will change on the print preview. If you want to remove something from bottom of the page set them from the page settings in print preview.

Then you can either print or export to PDF.

Answer 2

Best practice is to create a milestone for eache deliverable. Then, your deliverable will have dates for completion, and you can show clearly in the timescale.

You can also create a new custom field, but you will not be able to monitor them.

Answer 3

I was reviewing this posting I created in 2016 when I was stuck on a Project Management software issue, and wanted to weigh in and let people know what I had to do to get it to work in the end. This isn't the step-by-step I'd want it to be, but if I don't put something now, I'll forget and then 10 years will have passed before I realize it. So, here you go:

1. Create timeline in the MS Project or use freeware program GanttProject
2. Import MS Project .mpp file into Visio
3. Add the right column in Visio manually
4. Export your new Visio document to .png file, or save a screenshot.

Even using this process, it wasn't easy and things had to be manually added and subtracted painstakingly in Visio to get them to line up.