What Is a Gantt Chart?
Gantt charts were developed almost 100 years
ago by Henry L. Gantt, a mechanical engineer
and management consultant. His goal was to design a chart that could show planned
and actual progress on a project. A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that represents
a set of tasks. For example, the Gantt chart in Figure 3-6 displays five tasks in a vertical
array, with time shown on the horizontal axis. The position of the bar shows the
planned starting and ending time of each task, and the length of the bar indicates its
duration. On the horizontal axis, time can be shown as elapsed time from a fixed
starting point, or as actual calendar dates. A Gantt chart also can simplify a complex
project by combining several activities into a task group. For example, in Figure 3-6,
Task 4 might consist of five separate tasks, which are hidden in this view