What Is a Gantt Chart? A Practical Guide for Project Managers

In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the gantt chart—from its definition and components to how to create and use one to manage your projects. Find out how gantt charts work and why so many project teams use them to get work done.

What is a gantt chart?

A gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart used in project management to visually represent a project over time. Gantt charts typically show you the timeline and status—as well as who’s responsible—for each task in the project.

In project management, gantt charts are used to schedule, track, and communicate deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and resource assignments. They’re particularly helpful in managing complex projects with interdependencies that a simple to-do list or Kanban board can’t handle.

What does a gantt chart show?

A gantt chart allows you to simplify complex projects into an easy-to-follow plan that includes:

• How a project breaks down into tasks and deliverables
• When each task will begin and end
• How long each task will take
• Who or what is assigned to each task
• How tasks relate to and depend on each other
• When important meetings, approvals, or deadlines need to happen
• How work is progressing in a project
• The full project schedule from start to finish

So how does a gantt chart communicate these details?

Let’s break a gantt chart down into its key components so you understand how the pieces come together to paint a clear picture of your project. We’ll start with a gantt chart’s most elemental parts.

Core components of a gantt chart

Here are the elements you’ll need to build even the most basic gantt chart:

• Tasks: A list that runs vertically down the left of the gantt chart to describe project activities and may be organized into groups and subgroups
• Timeline: A horizontal line that runs across the top of the gantt chart and shows months, weeks, days, and years
• Task bars: Horizontal markers on the right side of the gantt chart that show the start and end dates of activities, with the bar’s length representing duration

Features that enhance the value of a gantt chart

These additional components take your gantt chart's functionality up a level and make it a whole lot easier to ensure everything (and everyone) stays on track.

• Summary tasks and subgroups: Task groupings that enable you to organize activities into phases, with a high-level overview of progress
• Dateline: A vertical line that highlights the current date on the gantt chart so it’s easy to see where things stand today
• Milestones: Diamond-shaped indicators on the chart that represent major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables in the project
• Dependencies: Lines that show relationships between connected tasks and ensure work happens in the right order
• Progress tracking: An indicator that shows how far along work is and may be represented by a percent complete column and/or task bar shading
• Resource assigned: The person or team responsible for completing a task or the physical resources (equipment, facilities, etc.) needed for that activity
• Critical path: A series of tasks that must get done on time for the project to hit its deadline, highlighting the shortest path to project success

The purpose and benefits of gantt charts

In project management, a gantt chart is used to communicate and track the big-picture plan so teams and stakeholders have a clear path to successful project delivery. Its horizontal structure makes it easy to see how tasks stack up over time so you can actively monitor progress along the way.

Gantt charts are important because they provide clear answers to questions like these:

• Can we take on more work?
• How will we get from point A to point B?
• What needs to happen first?
• Can we meet a requested deadline?
• Who has the bandwidth to tackle these tasks?
• Are we on track to finish on time?
• How are we performing?

Gantt chart advantages

Here are just a few key benefits gantt charts provide to projects and teams:

• Visualize your entire project: A gantt chart gives you a start-to-finish view of your entire project timeline so you can see how tasks are progressing in real time. That means you can provide up-to-the-minute status reports to managers and stakeholders in a flash.
• See how tasks are connected: Modern gantt charts make it easy to shift tasks around without breaking your stride. With dependencies—a star feature of any gantt chart—you can keep tasks connected even when your project changes.
• Keep everyone on the same page and on time: Web-based gantt charts ensure no one’s left in the dark. All your project info and discussion threads live in a central hub everyone can access for streamlined communication and collaboration.
• Know who’s busy and who isn’t: With gantt charts, resource management is no longer a guessing game. You can see who’s got bandwidth to take on new tasks—and who’s at max capacity—at a glance.

Do gantt charts have disadvantages?

A common criticism of gantt charts is that they’re too rigid and complex. In fact, some folks see gantt charts as a waste of time when you can simply make a list.

It’s true that spreadsheets, desktop project management apps, and even online design tools have their limitations. Drawing a gantt chart may take extra time because the platform is overly complicated or requires manual effort. They also lack the agility and collaboration needed to stay on top of projects.

However, many of the cons people associate with gantt charts don’t apply to the modern cloud-based tools you’ll find today. That’s because online gantt chart software makes it a whole lot easier to build and share detailed project plans without getting lost in the details. 

You’ll find clean design that’s easy on the eyes, plus drag and drop scheduling that makes building and adjusting timelines fast and painless. And since everything happens online, your whole team can update progress and collaborate on projects in real time.

Advanced gantt chart uses

Now you know how to make a gantt chart to plan and schedule project tasks. But that’s not all they’re designed to do! Let’s explore some easy ways you can use a gantt chart to manage and track your projects. 

• Update and monitor progress: Clients and bosses expect you to stick to your promises. That’s why it’s important to monitor tasks to ensure you’re on track to deliver work on time and budget. If things start to go sideways, you can adjust the gantt chart to get things back on track and reset expectations along the way.
• Report on project status: When project files and updates are scattered across different email threads and other platforms, it’s hard to get a good sense of what needs to get done and how close you are to the finish line. A gantt chart acts as a single source of truth so everyone involved knows where your project stands.
• Estimate project time and effort: Assigning hourly estimates to gantt chart tasks makes it easier to assess and monitor project scope and budget once work gets underway. It also gives you a more granular view of availability when assigning work so you feel confident your team can get the work done without missing deadlines.
• Compare actual progress to your plan: It’s easy to think things look pretty good, when in reality you’re 3 weeks behind and $10,000 over budget. When you create a baseline, you’re taking a snapshot of your gantt chart at a specific point in time. Comparing baseline sets makes it easy to track shifts against your plan more easily.
• Optimize workloads and schedules: It’s hard to finish any project on time and budget when your team is overloaded and overwhelmed. A gantt chart plots everyone’s work on a visual timeline so you can see how tasks stack up across your projects. In TeamGantt, you can check and adjust workloads right from your gantt chart as you schedule tasks.

When to use a gantt chart for your project

If any of the following conditions apply to your project, use a gantt chart:

• Your project has a hard deadline.
• Tasks need to be done in a specific order.
• You have to coordinate multiple people or teams to execute the work.
• A boss, client, or team member wants to see a visual timeline of the project from beginning to end.
• Team members juggle multiple projects at a time, and you need to manage their workloads.
• You have a good idea of roughly how long each task should or can take.

How to create a gantt chart for your project

There are lots of different ways to make a gantt chart—from traditional desktop apps to collaborative project management software. No matter which tool you use, the basic steps are the same. 

In this tutorial, we’ll use TeamGantt to show you how it’s done. Sign up for a free account to follow along and create a gantt chart of your own.

1. Define your project scope

You can’t build a gantt chart without a clear idea of the work that needs to get done. That’s why it’s important to gather the right details first.

These questions can help you scope out your project before you sit down to create a gantt chart:

• What goals and requirements does the project need to meet?
• What are the project’s major deliverables?
• How will we get to those deliverables by the deadline?
• What key milestones do we need to hit?
• Could any dependencies or constraints impact the project timeline?
• Who’s on the project team, and what role will they play in key deliverables?

2. Break your project down into smaller steps

Lots of project managers use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to identify all the tasks you’ll need to complete to consider your project done. You can sketch your WBS out in a spreadsheet, flowchart, or outline.

Explore different formats for building a work breakdown structure.

No matter what format you choose, the basic process for creating a WBS is the same: 

• Start by listing out your project’s major phases of work. 
• Then itemize all the steps and deliverables required to get the work done below each phase.

The more detail you can spell out when it comes to tasks, the better you’ll be able to track progress and steps leading up to a deliverable.

3. List project tasks vertically down the y-axis of your chart

Your task list makes up the y-axis of your gantt chart. So take all the tasks and subtasks you outlined in a work breakdown structure, and add them down the left side of your chart.

Go ahead and organize your tasks into phases or subgroups at this stage. Adding structure to your task list will make your gantt chart easier to scan and understand. It’ll also allow your team and stakeholders to see what tasks are part of a deliverable or a phase.

Here’s how to add tasks to your gantt chart in TeamGantt:

• Click on the Add Task link (+Task), and type the name of your first task.
• Hit Enter to add another task, and repeat this process to build out the rest of your task list.
• To create a task group, right-click on a task, and select Convert to Subgroup.

4. Schedule tasks on your gantt chart timeline

Now that you’ve got a full list of work to be done, you’re ready to map out a visual timeline. Add start and end dates to each task on your list, and draw a horizontal bar on the right side of the diagram to represent the duration of work.

TeamGantt makes scheduling tasks super-simple because you can drag and drop each task on your timeline. Here’s how:

• Click on the timeline to the right of the task to place its taskbar on the gantt chart.
• Drag either side of the taskbar to adjust its duration.
• To reschedule a gantt chart task, simply click on its taskbar and drag it to a new date on the timeline.

5. Add important project milestones

Adding milestones to your gantt chart makes it easy to track project deadlines, approvals, meetings, and other key deliverables or events. Milestones typically appear as a yellow or gold diamond on your gantt chart to set them apart from day-to-day tasks.

See examples of how to use project milestones.

Here’s how to add a milestone to your gantt chart in TeamGantt:

• Click the Milestone link, and give your new milestone a name.
• Drag the milestone icon across the gantt chart to schedule it on the timeline.
• Repeat this process until you have all your milestones added to the list.

6. Draw dependencies between related tasks

If you’re not going to move forward on the project without an approval—or one task must be done before another—this is your chance to note it. So take a moment to review your gantt chart and identify any dependencies.

Not every planning tool offers dependency functionality, and it can be a huge help. As your plan shifts, the flow of the work will stay intact.

Here’s how to link dependent tasks in TeamGantt:

• Hover over the beginning or end of a taskbar, and click the dot that appears.
• Drag the dependency line and drop it on the taskbar you want to connect it to.

7. Assign tasks to your team and resources

Now you’re ready for resourcing! Invite your team to the project, then assign each task in your project to the person responsible for the work. Be sure to account for any non-human resources in your plan, such as equipment or facilities needed.

Here’s how resource assignment works in TeamGantt:

• Click Assign people under the Assigned column for that task.
• Select the person or label you want to assign the task to from the drop-down menu.

Once you’ve assigned tasks in TeamGantt, you can use filters to view only the work assigned to a particular person or label.

8. Color-code your gantt chart to enhance visualization

Color is a great way to customize your gantt chart and make it easy to understand at a glance. Use different colors to categorize tasks by project phase, department, team member, or priority. It’s up to you!

Here’s how to apply colors to gantt chart tasks in TeamGantt:

• Hover over a taskbar, and click on the colored square. 
• Choose a new color, and you’re all done!

Best practices for an effective gantt chart

If you want to build a gantt chart everyone can use and navigate, there are a few simple rules you should keep in mind. Follow these simple tips and best practices to make a good gantt chart that’s easy to update and manage.

Add important details and documents to tasks

Sometimes your team and clients may forget what they committed to. Or maybe they don’t fully understand the intent of a task or group.

Use the notes section of your plan (most gantt chart software should provide this) to spell things out. While you’re at it, be sure to upload key files directly to the task so everything’s ready and waiting for work to begin. 

In the project sample below, we added notes about the scope of the task and uploaded a copy of the creative brief for more detail.

Set up custom labels to tag and filter tasks

Labels make it easy to organize and highlight tasks in your project plan. Use labels to tag tasks by priority, client, department, marketing channel, or any other category you want to track. In TeamGantt, you can add project labels on the People tab and color-code them for better visualization.

Once labels are in place, you can filter your gantt chart to focus on only what matters—like high-priority tasks, a specific project phase, or work assigned to a particular team. It’s a simple way to keep your plan clean, clear, and easy to manage.

Display start and end dates for each task

Seems like a silly tip, but it’s easy to hide this info in some apps! If you’re using TeamGantt, you’ll see the dates in the gantt view.

Regardless of what tool you’re using, you want to make it clear not only when a task ends, but when it starts. Again, this will help to keep your team and clients accountable.

Integrate your gantt chart with other productivity tools

If your team uses multiple apps to collaborate on projects, why not integrate them with your gantt chart so everything connects back to the plan? Here are a few popular integrations you can use in TeamGantt to streamline effort and maximize productivity:

• Trello: See your cards in a project timeline, create dependencies between cards, and view workloads—all without ever leaving Trello. 
• Slack: Create tasks from chats, check your daily task list, and get notified about new comments and assignments right from Slack.
• Procore: Export TeamGantt projects to the Procore format to keep construction schedules synced and subcontractors on task.
• Dropbox: Share important documents more easily by uploading Dropbox files directly to your tasks and projects.
• Google Calendar, iCal, or Outlook: Sync project tasks with your favorite calendar app so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Zapier: Automate work and streamline collaboration by connecting TeamGantt to your other favorite apps.
• ‍TeamGantt API: Got a developer on hand? Build custom integrations with your project data using our public API!

Avoid these common gantt chart mistakes

Don’t let simple mistakes undermine your plan. Watch out for these common pitfalls when building your project gantt chart:

Assigning work without checking team availability

If you’re lucky enough to use a product that shows you overall team availability, use it! Knowing how booked your team is and what projects they’re part of will play a huge role in delivering work on time and maintaining team morale.

Having an overall view of your team’s availability and conflicting work will help you adjust your plan to either meet the needs of existing project work or shift the milestones you’ve put in your plan.

Here's how to view team availability directly from your gantt chart in TeamGantt.

Overlooking holidays and time off

Now is your chance to block time off in your plan. This is important now because as soon as your timeline shifts (you know it will, don’t fight it), you’ll open yourself up to making an error and dropping a deadline on a date that should be blocked. If you note them in your plan, that won’t happen.

Forgetting to ask for feedback

If you deliver a plan that has a mistake, misinterprets a task, or even misses a date, it can create confusion and delays. So grab a teammate and ask them to review your gantt chart before you post it for review.

Of course, you’ll also want to be ready to get some feedback on your plan. Formalizing a plan means you’re taking a set of ideas and expanding on them. That also means you might interpret something differently than a teammate. That’s okay!

Setting it and forgetting it

A gantt chart is a living, breathing document that should keep up with project changes—not a fixed plan that’s set in stone. Invite your team to collaborate on work and track progress in real time so your gantt chart’s always up-to-date.

Gantt chart resources

If you’d rather use a spreadsheet to build your gantt chart, we’ve got guides for that too. Just be sure to choose a gantt chart builder that gives you the features you need.

• How to Create a Gantt Chart in Excel
• How to Make a Gantt Chart in Google Sheets

Use the Agile method to manage projects? These resources can guide you on how to create gantt charts that play well with your process for a hybrid approach to project management:

• How to Use an Agile Gantt Chart in Project Management
• How to Use Gantt Charts with Trello

And finally, here are some ready-made templates to inspire your gantt chart creation:

• Free Project Planning & Management Templates

Build a free gantt chart in minutes

When you’re a project manager, every minute counts. So why waste time building out a bunch of complicated spreadsheets just to keep tabs on a project?

At TeamGantt, you don’t have to. Our gantt chart platform enables you to stay focused on the tasks that move the needle. Whip up a project plan in minutes, and watch your team cross the finish line faster. It really is that simple.

Try TeamGantt for free!

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