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Multi-Phase Project Gantt Chart

How to create a Gantt chart when your project schedule has multiple phases

Many complex projects are broken into smaller phases, which make it easier to track tasks, deliverables, and costs. The Microsoft Project plans that outline these projects are often lengthy and complex, making it difficult to create a basic Gantt chart.

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This article describes how to use OnePager Pro to create a multi-phase Gantt chart using your existing Microsoft Project schedule. If you use Excel instead of Microsoft Project, please follow our instructions for a Multi-Phase Excel Gantt Chart or a Multi-Phase Excel Timeline instead.

OnePager Pro is a Microsoft Project add-in that creates dynamic project timelines and Gantt charts. Don't have OnePager Pro yet? You can download a 15-day free trial to see how it works.

  1. Start with your Microsoft Project plan. In this example, we'll use a simple project plan with three major phases, and several tasks in each phase:

    2. A multi-phase project plan created in Microsoft Project.

    Place a "Yes" next to the tasks and milestones that you want to include in your Gantt chart. This will help you focus on the important details of your project plan without creating information overload.

  2. Click the OnePager Pro button on Microsoft Project's Add-ins tab:
  3. When the start screen appears, click NEW to create a new Gantt chart. On the import wizard, give your report a name and filter your project schedule based on your yes/no selections in the first step:
    OnePager Pro's user template button allows you to create templates for future projects.
  4. Click the Create new chart button, and let OnePager build the Gantt chart for you:

    This is a pretty good start. It shows the tasks and milestones that were selected, and has automatically grouped the Gantt chart into swimlanes by phase so that all of the tasks for a certain phase are in the same place.

  5. From here, you can make lots of other customizations. For example, you might want to assign a different color to each phase. To do this, go to Home > Chart Properties > Task Bars and change the color coding to look at the phase ("Level 1 Summary Name"):
  6. Apply that change, and OnePager automatically changes the colors to match the different phases of your project plan:

It's that easy! Once you try OnePager, you'll see how much flexibility it gives to you easily design your own project schedules, while remaining consistent with your underlying Microsoft Project data.

Get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.

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