Visualize View: Reviewing your Gantt chart

Once your project plan is error-free, Visualize View automatically transforms your dependency map and time estimates into a clean, professional Gantt chart. This is where you review your project timeline, identify potential bottlenecks, and verify that your schedule makes sense before creating exports for stakeholders.

Understanding Visualize View

Visualize View presents your project as a traditional Gantt chart with tasks displayed as horizontal bars showing duration and timing. The timeline runs across the top with dates and months displayed, and your tasks are organized vertically following the structure you created in your dependency map.

Your project milestones appear as vertical blue lines with milestone names displayed above them, making it easy to see key project checkpoints on the timeline.

Gantt Chart Features

Automatic Generation

Soufflé automatically creates your Gantt chart from your dependency map (your Diagram View) and time estimates (your Resource Plan View). The chart respects all dependencies you created, ensuring tasks are scheduled in the correct sequence based on your project logic.

Weekend/Holiday Exclusions

The timeline calculation accounts for weekends and holidays based on your project settings. If you enabled weekend or holiday exclusions when creating your project, tasks will automatically shift to avoid non-working days.

Critical Path Highlighting

The critical path analysis from Checks View carries over to your Gantt chart. Critical path tasks can be visually highlighted to help you identify which work directly controls your project timeline.

View Controls

Collapse All / Expand All

Two buttons in the top toolbar allow you to quickly control group visibility:

  • Collapse All: Closes all group toggles, showing only top-level groups and individual tasks
  • Expand All: Opens all group toggles, displaying all tasks within groups

Individual Group Toggles

Each group has its own expand/collapse toggle (chevron icon) that you can click to show or hide the tasks within that specific group. This allows you to focus on particular areas of your project while keeping others collapsed.

Timeline Views

Use the "Quarterly" dropdown (or current selection) in the top toolbar to choose your timeline scale:

  • Bi-Weekly View: Shows two-week periods, best for short projects or detailed scheduling review
  • Monthly View: Shows individual months, useful for medium-term planning
  • Quarterly View: Shows three-month periods, ideal for most project timelines
  • Yearly View: Shows annual periods, best for very long projects or high-level planning

Display Filter

Click the "Display" dropdown to open the Display Filter modal, which allows you to control what elements appear on your Gantt chart:

  • Milestones: Shows milestone markers as vertical blue lines
  • Groups: Displays group containers and allows group expansion
  • All Tasks: Shows all individual task bars on the timeline
  • Critical Path: Highlights critical path tasks in red
  • At-Risk Paths: Shows at-risk path highlighting in orange, secondary at-risk path in yellow

Each option has a checkbox that you can toggle on or off to customize your chart view.

Chart Review Process

Verify Task Scheduling

Review the automatically generated schedule to ensure it matches your expectations. Check that tasks start and end when you expect them to based on your dependency structure and time estimates.

Check Milestone Timing

Examine where your milestones fall on the timeline. Verify that milestone timing aligns with the completion of prerequisite work and that milestone dates make sense for your project goals.

Identify Timeline Bottlenecks

Look for areas where multiple tasks converge or where the timeline seems compressed. These bottlenecks may indicate resource constraints or scheduling challenges that need attention.

Review Critical Path

If you have critical path highlighting enabled, pay special attention to these tasks. Any delays in critical path work will directly impact your project completion date, so verify these schedules are realistic and achievable.

Working with Groups

Group Expansion

Groups appear as collapsible containers with their overall timeline span shown. Click the chevron icon next to any group name to expand it and see the individual tasks within that group.

Group Timeline Display

When collapsed, groups show their full duration span from the earliest task start to the latest task completion within that group. This gives you a high-level view of how different work streams contribute to your overall timeline.

Nested Task Visibility

When you expand a group, individual tasks within the group become visible with their specific durations and timing. This allows you to drill down into details while maintaining the option to collapse back to a higher-level view.

Timeline Interpretation

Task Duration Bars

Each task appears as a horizontal bar showing its duration on the timeline. The bar length represents the time estimate you provided, and its position shows when the task is scheduled based on dependencies.

Task Sequencing

Tasks that depend on each other are automatically sequenced in the correct order. You can trace the logical flow of work by following connected tasks from left to right on the timeline.

Common Timeline Issues

Tasks Starting Too Early

If tasks appear to start before their dependencies are complete, return to Diagram View to verify your dependency connections are correct.

Timeline Longer Than Expected

If your project duration seems excessive, look for critical path tasks that might be overestimated or dependencies that could be adjusted to allow parallel work.

Milestone Timing Problems

If milestones appear at unexpected times, verify that they're connected to the appropriate tasks and that their dependencies are set up correctly.

Resource Conflicts

If you notice multiple intensive tasks scheduled simultaneously, consider whether you have the resources to execute them in parallel or if the sequence should be adjusted.

Moving Forward

Once you've reviewed your Gantt chart and confirmed the timeline makes sense, you can proceed to Export View to create presentation-ready visuals or execution-ready data files for your stakeholders and team members.

Signs you're ready to export

  • Task scheduling appears logical and achievable
  • Milestone timing aligns with project requirements
  • Critical path analysis shows reasonable schedule risk
  • Overall timeline meets project constraints and expectations

If you need to make changes

  • Return to Diagram View to adjust dependencies or add/remove tasks
  • Go back to Resource Plan View to revise time estimates
  • Use Project Settings to modify project start date or weekend/holiday exclusions that affect scheduling
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