What is a Gantt Chart?

Gantt chart is a visual view of tasks/activities scheduled over time. Gantt charts are used for planning projects of all sizes and they are a useful way of showing what work is scheduled to be done on a specific day. They also help you view the start & end dates of a project in a simple view.

The History of Gantt Charts

The first project management bar chart was invented in 1896 by Karol Adamiecki.

A quick history of Gantt charts:

• 1896: Karol Adamiecki creates the first project management bar chart: the Harmonogram, a precursor to the modern Gantt chart.
• 1931: Adamiecki publishes the Harmonogram (but in Polish with limited exposure).
• 1910-1915: Henry Gantt publishes his own system in project management, the Gantt chart.
• Present Days: Gantt charts or bar charts are the preferred tool for managing projects of all types and sizes.

Features of Gantt Chart

On Gantt Chart, you can easily see:

• Start and Finish dates for activities.
• Project milestones.
• Dependencies between activities.
• The person assigned to each activity.
• Duration of each activity

Advantages of Gantt Chart

• You can know the project’s start date.
• You can know what the project activities are.
• You can see who is working on each activity.
• You can see when tasks start and finish.
• You can check how long each task will take
• You can check how activities group together, overlap, and link with each other
• You can see the end date of the project.
• Excel Gantt chart template saves your time by organizing the plan of your project & tackling the tedious planning work for you.
• All you need to do is add your activities & the dates, and you’ll have a presentation-quality Excel Gantt chart.

Who Use Gantt Charts

• Project Managers
• General Managers
• Team Leaders
• Operations Managers
• Scheduling managers
• Work Managers
• Marketing Managers
• CTOs & CEOs

Why use a Gantt chart?

A Gantt chart is used for the following activities:

• Establish the initial project time schedule – who is going to do what, when and how long will it take.
• Allocate the resources of the project- ensure everyone knows who is responsible for what.
• Make project adjustments – the initial plan will need many adjustments.
• Monitor and report progress – helps you stay on schedule.
• Control and communicate the schedule – clear visuals for stakeholders and participants.
• Display milestones – shows key events.
• Identify and report problems – As everything is depicted visually you can immediately see what should have been achieved by a certain date and, if the project is behind schedule, you can take action to bring it back on course.

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See Also
3-week lookahead template
S-CURVE EXCEL 
Monthly Cash Flow Template