Gantt Charts

Henry Laurence Gantt, an American mechanical engineer, is credited with the invention of the Gantt chart.

Planning and Scheduling

Use a Gantt chart to plan how long a project should take. A Gantt chart lays out the order in which the tasks need to be carried out. Early Gantt charts did not show dependencies between tasks but modern Gantt chart software provides this capability.

Monitoring a project
A Gantt chart lets you see immediately what should have been achieved at any point in time. A Gantt chart lets you see how remedial action may bring the project back on course. Most Gantt charts include "milestones" which are technically not available on Gantt charts. However, for representing deadlines and other significant events, it is very useful to include this feature on a Gantt chart.

EVOLUTION OF THE GANTT CHART

Here's a simple example that might have been used around the time Gantt charts were invented

Early Gantt chart users showed progress using a simple "fill in the bar" method to show how much of the project was complete:

They also might have shown the planned bar along side the progress bar like this:

Another type of chart which was used along with the Gantt chart was the basic "Milestone chart". This type of chart shows only important project events or milestones:

Milestone charts are very popular today, especially for management reporting. A major benefit is that it's easy to communicate a great deal of information in a single presentation slide. This example shows how the complete overall progress of two major projects might be presented to upper management:

Combining the Gantt chart and the milestone chart was the next logical step. This "Remodeling Project" uses bars to show the time required for each phase of the remodeling project. Important milestones are shown with a single diamond symbol: