GANTT CHART

In the early 1900s, an industrial engineer named Henry Gantt wanted to display—in calendar days—how long it took to complete a series of tasks. So he developed the Gantt chart, also called a bar chart, and scheduling has never been the same.

A Gantt chart is an illustration containing a series of bars showing the calendar, or flow time, for each task. Each bar begins on the left when it starts and ends on the right when it finishes. It may contain other information, too. For example, it may provide an activity description and names of people responsible for completing each task.

Although using the bar chart has become popular, it does have its shortcomings. It does not show dependencies or relationships among tasks—for example, which task comes first, then second, and so on. It also does not distinguish between critical and noncritical tasks.

Because of its shortcomings, the Gantt chart is not the best tool to manage the details of a project. However, if you want to communicate about schedules with higher management, then the bar chart is a good tool. With the bar chart, you can summarize your detailed schedules because management does not want all of the details, only summary information.

for Developing a Gantt Chart

• Identify the tasks for your project.
• Determine the flow time for each task.
• Determine the start and stop time for each task, keeping in mind the sequence of each task.
• On the left side of the paper, list each task.
• Draw bars reflecting the flow time for each task, using the start and stop time for each task.