Hello,
I have some experience developing Gantt charts through my undergraduate program and through industrial experience.
From my perspective, some important factors before starting the Gantt chart are as follows:
• Define generic key milestones of the project
• Identify target dates for the key milestones
• Define functional groups that will be working on activities of the project
• List out deliverables per function group
Important factors for the development of the Gantt chart:
• Have the first section show key milestones (i.e. technical reviews and product development committee reviews for the products lifecycle)
• List each function per expectation of their involvement per the product’s development.
o My suggestion: R&D, Quality, Regulatory, Operations, Marketing.
• Underneath each function, list their respective deliverables.
• Link the predecessors of each deliverable/task. Setting predecessors will help identify the critical path of the project’s schedule.
• Set up a column or two for resources. Which ever is easiest for you, either setting the department within that function team (i.e. R&D – Sensor), and/or identifying the employee who will be completing that task.
• Have a comments section. Schedules are being modified all the time, so it is helpful having a comments section to identify changes, lessons learned, etc.