Generating a GANTT chart automatically?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JMF
  • Start date Start date
J

JMF

I am a total newcomer to Access, so I may also be totally unaware of an
obvious possibility, but:

I was thinking of using Access to manage a project, with its tasks and
deliverables, etc. and one thing that would be interesting to do is to be
able to generate a kind of GANTT chart from the info in the database. Surely
there is a way to do this?

("Why don't you just use MS-PROJECT?" Mainly because I'm hoping to do a more
general management of the project, and I'm guessing that with Access as the
basis I'll have more possibilities.)

Thanks for any pointers,

John
 
JMF said:
I am a total newcomer to Access, so I may also be totally unaware of an
obvious possibility, but:

I was thinking of using Access to manage a project, with its tasks and
deliverables, etc. and one thing that would be interesting to do is to be
able to generate a kind of GANTT chart from the info in the database. Surely
there is a way to do this?

("Why don't you just use MS-PROJECT?" Mainly because I'm hoping to do a more
general management of the project, and I'm guessing that with Access as the
basis I'll have more possibilities.)

Thanks for any pointers,

John
Click to expand...

Let me suggest a hybrid solution involving an Access database and an
Excel workbook. You could use Access to do the scheduling and calculate
dates, then export these to an Excel worksheet attached to a bar-chart
graph. There are graph controls available in Access, too, but I know
that those in Excel are pretty easy to use (and you'd be able to fiddle
with them, on occasion, if you needed to do so).

Bear in mind, too, that Excel includes a facility for optimizing systems
of linear or non-linear relations that you may find useful. Again, you
could export your constraints from Access to an Excel worksheet, then
have Excel optimize the system, then plot the results. You have lots of
possibilities.

(Of course, if you have a copy of Project, there's probably an easy way
-- though I don't know for sure -- to interface Project with Access.)

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.
 
JMF said:
Very interesting solution, Vincent. Thanks, I'll investigate!

John
Click to expand...

Good luck! Of course, if you run into snags, please feel free to post
further questions.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.
 
Do you have MS Project? If so, then you can either:

-Use VBA to create a Project file and GANTT chart
-Export the data as a project database, which is actually a MDB file.

I've done both, although I prefer using VBA to better control the data.
 
JMF said:
Vincent, thanks, you'll hear from me again as I try to figure it out!

John
Click to expand...

I don't have access to Project at the moment, but I suggest that you
look carefully at what it can do -- perhaps it can already produce the
Gantt charts you want. You might still use Access to track details that
aren't easily included in your project model in Project. Since, as
(e-mail address removed) says, Project can export *.MDB files, I imagine
that it can read them, too, so you might be able to link your Project
model to Tables or Queries that you maintain in Access. (Sorry, I'm
just speculating here -- but I do suggest you look at the Project
help-file documentation for more specific suggestions.)

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

[...]
 
Thanks again, Vincent, I guess the message is: approach it from both ends,
not only the Access end but the Project end, and see where they meet in the
middle.

John

Vincent Johns said:
JMF said:
Vincent, thanks, you'll hear from me again as I try to figure it out!

John
Click to expand...

I don't have access to Project at the moment, but I suggest that you look
carefully at what it can do -- perhaps it can already produce the Gantt
charts you want. You might still use Access to track details that aren't
easily included in your project model in Project. Since, as
(e-mail address removed) says, Project can export *.MDB files, I imagine
that it can read them, too, so you might be able to link your Project
model to Tables or Queries that you maintain in Access. (Sorry, I'm just
speculating here -- but I do suggest you look at the Project help-file
documentation for more specific suggestions.)

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

[...]
Click to expand...
 
JMF said:
Thanks again, Vincent, I guess the message is: approach it from both ends,
not only the Access end but the Project end, and see where they meet in the
middle.

John
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me; that's probably what I'd do.

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

JMF wrote:

Vincent, thanks, you'll hear from me again as I try to figure it out!

John
Click to expand...

I don't have access to Project at the moment, but I suggest that you look
carefully at what it can do -- perhaps it can already produce the Gantt
charts you want. You might still use Access to track details that aren't
easily included in your project model in Project. Since, as
(e-mail address removed) says, Project can export *.MDB files, I imagine
that it can read them, too, so you might be able to link your Project
model to Tables or Queries that you maintain in Access. (Sorry, I'm just
speculating here -- but I do suggest you look at the Project help-file
documentation for more specific suggestions.)

-- Vincent Johns <[email protected]>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.

[...]
JMF wrote:


I am a total newcomer to Access, so I may also be totally unaware of
an obvious possibility, but:

I was thinking of using Access to manage a project, with its tasks and
deliverables, etc. and one thing that would be interesting to do is to
be able to generate a kind of GANTT chart from the info in the
database. Surely there is a way to do this?

("Why don't you just use MS-PROJECT?" Mainly because I'm hoping to do
a more general management of the project, and I'm guessing that with
Access as the basis I'll have more possibilities.)

Thanks for any pointers,

John
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Rob -- somehow I'm not surprised that people have been working on
this in the past, too, also trying for a full Access solution. I'll study
the thread.

John
 

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