Gantt Chart masterclass. How I plan and control QA tasks in a project
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The Gantt Chart is one of the oldest project management tools. It is beneficial when planning or controlling any size of a real-world project. It also allows you to see where you are in the project and predict where it will land. When providing a timeline to complete a project or set of tasks, the time estimates we provide using a Gantt Chart are much more accurate. Gantt Chart also helps to communicate the status of the project more clearly. However, we must understand how to create a simple Gantt Chart correctly.
Why am I writing this article?
Over the past six to nine months, I have been tasked with several projects. In most of those projects, I was in charge of quality assurance. As a result, I am responsible for providing accurate estimations for the team to determine a production rollout date. Also, I need to share the updates daily with the stakeholders to see if we are on track to push the code to production. In most cases, I used a Gantt Chart to provide a timeline and communicate the status with stakeholders for better visibility.
I love Gantt charts, and my family and I started to use them to plan events in our personal life. For example, I used a Gantt Chart to plan my sister’s engagement ceremony. Thanks to Gantt Chat, we can run the engagement project smoothly and without any last-minute surprises.
Since I am benefitting from Gantt Charts, I decided to share my knowledge with the rest of the world so they could also benefit. If you create one, you will likely enjoy creating many Gantt Chats.
Things you need to know
Critical Path
There needs to be more awareness about the critical path. Some people believe that critical path tasks are the most difficult. It isn’t. In general, the tasks on the critical path are simply those that take the longest to complete. In other words, the critical path is the longest path. Putting the critical path is the first step in creating a Gantt Chart.
The critical path is the timeline you will commit to your team or stakeholders. If any tasks on the critical path are late, it causes everything else to be late, and the entire project will be delivered late. Hence, It’s a good idea to double-check the critical path estimates once you’ve found the path.
Network Diagram
A network diagram is the best way to determine the critical path. If you jump to a Gantt Chart without drawing a simple network diagram, you may miss some dependencies, resulting in an incorrect critical path.
Types of Dependencies
- Finish to Start:Â Task one must be completed before proceeding to Task two.
- Start to Start:Â Task one must begin before Task two can begin.
- Finish to Finish:Â Task one must be done before Task 2 can be done.
- Start to Finish:Â Task two should be started to finish task one.
However, we mainly use the most straightforward “Finish to Start” dependency. It is simple and will reduce complexities.
Floating Tasks
Floating tasks, in other words, tasks are outside the critical path. In most cases, if a floating task is delayed, it will not affect the project deadline.
Contingency
Contingency is the extra time (safety margin) required to complete the project on time. When adding contingencies, it is best to distribute them among the tasks on the critical path.
Tools
There are numerous tools on the market for creating a Gantt Chart. One of them is Microsoft Project. However, using Microsoft Excel is the simplest and most enjoyable way to do it. It’s simple to share with others, and everyone understands how to use it.
Let's create a simple Gantt Chart
Sample Project
Assume you are the tester in a software team. The product owner who creates the product backlog for your team requested some critical changes. As a result, you have to communicate when you can complete testing activities and when you can provide QA Sign-Off for production push.
Step 01
Take some sticky notes and write down all the testing activities based on your QA process. One sticky note must contain one task.
- Study and understand the requirements
- Requirement clarification with the product owner
- Documentation in QA space
- Test Planning & define in-scope and out-of-scope for testing
- Define labels, tags, and prefixes to manage test cases and defects
- Create a dashboard in Jira
- Create test cases for UI & API-level testing
- Test data creation for dev testing
- Review test cases
- Modify test cases based on review comments
- API Automation
- Hand over critical test cases to the dev team and wait till dev testing is completed.
- Execute test cases & defect Reporting
- Defect retesting
- Regression testing to cover impacted areas
- Feature demo
- Provide Sign-Off
- Production sanity check
- Retrospective with the team
- Knowledge sharing with the team
When you write each task on the Sticky Note, make sure to size them using a preferred measurement. I usually use the days to measure. (I put 0.5 for a task that takes half a day and 0.25 for a task that takes two hours.)
Here is the list of tasks I have written on sticky notes for one of the personal family events
Step 02
To understand the dependencies between tasks, develop a network diagram using the sticky notes mentioned above. Spend as little time as possible. I recommend using a glass board or a wall in your office’s meeting room. When you’re finished with the network diagram, take a photo and include it in your QA documentation if necessary.
I’ve created a network diagram for the above 20 tasks (sample project) using a tool to give you an idea.
In the above diagram, the pink-coloured path is my critical path.
Step 03
3.1. Open a Microsoft Excel sheet and first put all the tasks on the critical path.
3.2. After that, put other tasks (floating tasks from 14 – 20) to the bottom of the critical path.
3.3. Then, add dates (skip weekends) horizontally.
Once you have put all the tasks mentioned above and dates (3.1, 3.2 & 3.3 ), apply some formatting on the excel. I usually add conditional formatting. For example, it automatically fills when the size is above 0.
Step 04
By looking into the network diagram, fill in the Gantt Chart. You have to enter when you are starting the task and how much time you are putting into the task each day
When I am filling, I usually convert days to hours for convenience and consider one column as one day.
Here is the Gantt Chart I have created for the above sample project.
You can download this Gantt Chart in Microsoft Excel format by clicking this button
When adding the effort for the floating tasks, use arrows to indicate the float. For example, the task Documentation in the above Gantt Chart required 4 hours of effort. But it’s not a task on the critical path. I used left and right arrows to indicate the task Documentation can be done between the 23rd of November to the 13th of December.
Step 05
Once your Gantt Chart is complete, conduct a quick review with the project’s stakeholders. It is essential to inform them of your plan and gain their support. For example, in the above Gantt Chart, there is a task “Hand over critical test cases to the development team and wait until development.” This task is on the critical path. This means that if this is delayed, the project deadline will be affected. Therefore, effectively communicate with the developers and obtain their confirmation to complete their development testing by the date mentioned on the Gantt Chart.
You can now commit to a deadline if everyone is satisfied with your Gantt Chart. In this case, you can agree to provide a sign-off by the end of the 14th of December.
Be sure to keep this in mind.
The Gantt Chart shows what needs to be done if the stakeholders need to get the changes into production before the 14th. They can, for example, include another QA to write test cases and execute tests. Furthermore, the developers can commit to completing their testing in one day. If such a discussion arises, make the necessary changes to the Gantt Chart.
Keep track of the project's progress
This is a critical step in the project. Just because you have a Gantt Chart does not mean you will be able to complete the project on time. You can colour the Gantt Chart to track the project’s progress and communicate the progress to stakeholders.
Gantt Chart will help you see if there is any risk of a delay so that you can communicate it with stakeholders as soon as possible to avoid surprises at the last minute. If the project is time sensitive, you can take action, such as working extra hours.
I prefer to provide weekly progress updates when working on a short-term project. It is up to you to determine the best timeline for your project.
Here is a sample coloured Gantt chart depicting project progress following the sync-up meeting on the 2nd of December. Developers mentioned that they had yet to start dev testing during the sync-up meeting on the 2nd. However, according to the Gantt Chart, nearly 30% – 35% of the work must be completed by the 1st in order to complete dev testing by the agreed-upon date. We are currently slightly behind schedule, which we must address by taking some actions to bring the project back on track.
This is a quick overview of how to make a Gantt Chart. Numerous online resources are available to help you learn how to create Gantt Charts. I recommend that you get one and finish it.
Final Note
There could be numerous methods for automatically generating Gantt charts. However, I prefer to make my own using a simple Excel spreadsheet. I enjoy making them, colouring them, and tracking the project’s progress. Gantt Chart is useful because it allows me to communicate the testing status clearly. Hence, investing 1-2 hours in creating a Gantt Chart is well worth it.
That’s it for today, guys. Thank You for Reading! I hope you found this article informative and useful.
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