A Gantt chart, commonly used in project management, is one of the most popular and useful

ways of showing activities (tasks or events) displayed against time. On the left of the chart is a
list of the activities and along the top is a suitable time scale. Each activity is represented by a
bar; the position and length of the bar reflects the start date, duration and end date of the activity.
This allows you to see at a glance:

 What the various activities are

 When each activity begins and ends
 How long each activity is scheduled to last
 Where activities overlap with other activities, and by how much
 The start and end date of the whole project

To summarize, a Gantt chart shows you what has to be done (the activities) and when (the
schedule).

Gantt Chart History

The first Gantt chart was devised in the mid 1890s by Karol Adamiecki, a Polish engineer who ran a
steelworks in southern Poland and had become interested in management ideas and techniques.
Some 15 years after Adamiecki, Henry Gantt, an American engineer and project management consultant,
devised his own version of the chart and it was this that became widely known and popular in western
countries. Consequently, it was Henry Gantt whose name was to become associated with charts of this type.
Originally Gantt charts were prepared laboriously by hand; each time a project changed it was necessary to
amend or redraw the chart and this limited their usefulness, continual change being a feature of most projects.
Nowadays, however, with the advent of computers and project management software, Gantt charts can be
created, updated and printed easily.

Today, Gantt charts are most commonly used for tracking project schedules. For this it is useful to be
able to show additional information about the various tasks or phases of the project, for example how
the tasks relate to each other, how far each task has progressed, what resources are being used for
each task and so on.
A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart developed as a production control tool
in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer and social scientist.
Frequently used in project management, a Gantt chart provides a graphical
illustration of a schedule that helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific
tasks in a project.

Gantt charts may be simple versions created on graph paper or more complex
automated versions created using project management applications such as
Microsoft Project or Excel.

A Gantt chart is constructed with a horizontal axis representing the total time
span of the project, broken down into increments (for example, days, weeks,
or months) and a vertical axis representing the tasks that make up the project
(for example, if the project is outfitting your computer with new software, the
major tasks involved might be: conduct research, choose software, install
software). Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent the sequences, timing,
and time span for each task. Using the same example, you would put
"conduct research" at the top of the verticle axis and draw a bar on the graph
that represents the amount of time you expect to spend on the research, and
then enter the other tasks below the first one and representative bars at the
points in time when you expect to undertake them. The bar spans may
overlap, as, for example, you may conduct research and choose software
during the same time span. As the project progresses, secondary bars,
arrowheads, or darkened bars may be added to indicate completed tasks, or
the portions of tasks that have been completed. A vertical line is used to
represent the report date.

Gantt charts give a clear illustration of project status, but one problem with
them is that they don't indicate task dependencies - you cannot tell how one
task falling behind schedule affects other tasks. The PERT chart, another
popular project management charting method, is designed to do this.
Automated Gantt charts store more information about tasks, such as the
individuals assigned to specific tasks, and notes about the procedures. They
also offer the benefit of being easy to change, which is helpful. Charts may be
adjusted frequently to reflect the actual status of project tasks as, almost
inevitably, they diverge from the original plan.
Because of the many advantages offered by Gantt charts, thousands of
companies use Gantt charts to become more productive, enhance their
communications, forecast over the long term and track results. While some
naysayers believe they limit the size of the project that can be tracked, those
using Gantt charts note an array of key benefits, including the five listed here.

Gantt Chart Advantages

While there are a number of reasons to use Gantt charts below are five key
reasons they are often advantageous:

1. Avoid Completion Confusion: Gantt charts were created to keep

users on track, providing a visual timeline for starting and finishing
specific tasks. By providing a visual overview of milestones and other
key dates, these charts are thought to offer a more understandable and
memorable method of maintaining timescale-based tasks and
deliverables whether tracked on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis.
Below diagram shows the power of visualization found in Gantt charts.
In a glance you can see that the interviews are done, there 50% more to
do in training etc.
 A Gantt chart template available at Creately ( click to use as a template )

2. Keep Everyone on the Same Page: Where there is a visual framework

for the work to be done, there are fewer chances for misunderstanding,
especially when it comes to highly complex tasks. Using Gantt charts
allow all types of stakeholders to have the same information, set
mutually understood expectations, and conduct their efforts according to
the desired protocol.
3. Understand Task Relationships: These charts can make clear how
various tasks are interrelated and perhaps rely on the completion of
another to meet specific objectives. These task relationships revolve
around understanding the timing of each task, which then impacts other
tasks listed. This can better assure the optimum work flow, maximized
productivity and overall project success.
 A Gantt charts makes it very easy to visualize related tasks

4. Effectively Allocate Resources: By being able to look ahead on the

Gantt chart, users can clearly discern where resources need to be
anticipated, allocated or shared to maximize the use of those resources.
The more closely the chart is followed, the better chance there is of
keeping project costs within budget while also better assuring on-time
completion.
5. Get a Handle on the Future: While it is often easy to get caught up in
day-to-day tasks as detailed on a chart, Gantt chart advantages include
helping decision-makers look farther ahead to ensure each given project
is working toward the achievement the organization’s long-term
strategic objectives.
What about Gantt Chart Limitations?
For those Gantt chart cynics mentioned earlier, this method is not designed to
be the cure-all for an organization’s project management ills. There are some
situations where other tools may indeed be more effective – particularly in
scenarios when a particular milestone or critical task is missing because the
project manager didn’t include. Other limitations include the inability to include
certain constraints like time, scope, and costs. Overall, however, Gantt chart
advantages have been realized by all types of organizations for applicable
applications.

Use Gantt Charts More Effectively Using Creately

One reason people are reluctant to use Gantt charts is because of the lack of
drawing tools. They usually comes packaged with expensive project
management tools which are not suitable for simple Gantt charts. Creately
makes it very easy to draw Gantt charts by providing you Gantt chart
templates and simple drag and drop interface to draw Gantt charts.Detailing
a project schedule or a sequence of events timeline is made easier than ever
before with this intuitive and feature-rich Web-based software that facilitates
chart creation, collaboration and completion in short order. Check
out Creately Gantt charts.
Gantt Chart
Gantt charts are an easy way to schedule tasks and track the progress of your project against your
deadline, in short it is a project planning tool that shows the beginning and finish dates of individual
tasks through horizontal bar graphs. A simple Gantt chart can be done using a spreadsheet, but for
rather complex projects with many tasks it is better to use a project management software.
Before you create a chart it is important to list all the activities of your project including how long it
might take to finish them. It is possible that some tasks might overlap, while others will run one after
the other. To keep things clear, you should list the activities in a table. This first step is very
important, because it sounds easier than it is to break the project’s activities down in advance, but it
will help you to really concentrate on the important tasks at hand.
After that you can start creating a Gantt chart. It always consists of a horizontal axis that illustrates
the time span of your project (divided in days, weeks or months) and a vertical axis that shows a list
of all the individual tasks. Colors can be used to show the progress of the task (to-do, in progress,
finished).
The advantages of using a Gantt chart is that it helps you monitor the progress of your project and to
set priorities. The project manager and the team members can easily see what needs to be done at
what time and if there are any delays the chart can easily be altered to balance it. This is important
to remember, a Gantt chart is not carved in stone. Having a perfect chart does not guarantee a
successful project execution on deadline, it is also crucial to compare the projected progress to the
real progress and then update the chart accordingly.

Here is a Gantt chart template for download.

Critical Path
The disadvantage of the Gantt chart is that it does not show the dependency of tasks to each other
and it does not show which tasks are ‘critical’ to finishing the project on time. This is where the
Critical Path Method (CPM) comes in. A critical path is a sequence of tasks that must be finished
before the project can be finished and in some cases a task must be finished before the next
dependent one can start, so if a task cannot be finished on time, then the whole project will take
longer to the same extent.
It is important to mention the bottleneck in combination with the critical path. During the process of a
project you will encounter obstacles that will hinder you from finishing the project on time. While the
critical path can’t prevent those, it will help you recognizing them and taking the right measures at
the right time so that it will prevent your project from getting delayed.
Like with the Gantt chart, the first step in creating a critical path diagram is to list all the activities of
your project in a table. The second step is to illustrate your tasks with a circle and arrow diagram
(the circles are also called ‘nodes’). Each circle is labelled with a number starting with ‘1’. The arrow
between the two activity nodes represents the activity that needs to be done in order to finish the
task.
Simple Critical Path Diagram

Afterwards it’s possible to use a spreadsheet to illustrate your critical path in a Gantt chart.
Conclusion
This is, of course, a very simple overview on how to create and use a Gantt chart and the Critical
Path method to plan and monitor the progress of your projects. They are not automatically a
guarantee for a successful conclusion of a project, but they are vital tools that can help the project
manager and the members of a team keep on the right course.