What Is a Gantt Chart? A Practical Guide for Project Managers
Summary
A gantt chart is a visual project plan that lists tasks and milestones on the vertical axis with time plotted on the horizontal axis. Gantt charts are used in project management to schedule, track, and communicate deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and resource assignments.
Whether you’re a project management rookie or veteran, you’ve probably heard of a gantt chart. Gantt charts might seem intimidating at first glance, but they’re pretty simple to use once you understand the basics.
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.
Watch this video for a quick breakdown of the basics.
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.
A gantt chart allows you to simplify complex projects into an easy-to-follow plan that includes:
How a project breaks down into tasks
When each task will begin and end
How long each task will take
Who’s 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
Key components of a gantt chart
Let’s break down the basic parts of a gantt chart even further so you understand how each element functions in a project plan.
Task list: Runs vertically down the left of the gantt chart to describe project work and may be organized into groups and subgroups
Timeline: Runs horizontally across the top of the gantt chart and shows months, weeks, days, and years
Dateline: A vertical line that highlights the current date on the gantt chart
Bars: Horizontal markers on the right side of the gantt chart that represent tasks and show progress, duration, and start and end dates
Milestones: Yellow diamonds that call out major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables
Dependencies: Light gray lines that connect tasks that need to happen in a certain order
Progress: Shows how far along work is and may be indicated by percent complete and/or bar shading
Resource assigned: Indicates the person or team responsible for completing a task
The easiest way to make a gantt chart
Easy drag-and-drop features. Switch between gantt, calendar, and list views. And templates too! Build a beautiful project plan in just 5 minutes.
Gantt charts may seem complicated at first. But once you learn how to read them, you’ll be able to tell exactly where your projects are and what needs to happen to guide them to success.
In a gantt chart, all project activities run vertically down the y-axis of the chart, with a timeline running horizontally across the x-axis. Each task listed down the left is represented by a horizontal bar on the right side of the chart.
In a gantt chart diagram, these taskbars span from start date to end date to show the overall duration of a task.
As work gets done, each taskbar fills up to indicate the amount of progress completed.
If one task relies on another one to start or finish, a line will be drawn between the two taskbars to mark a dependency.
Since project milestones have a 0-day duration, they’re typically represented by a yellow or gold diamond on the gantt chart.
Resource assignments are typically listed down the left beside the task name, but may also appear within or next to taskbars on the right side of a gantt chart.
Here’s a sample project that uses a gantt chart diagram to lay out the project plan.
Why are gantt charts used in project management?
The purpose of a gantt chart is to communicate a project’s big-picture plan so teams and stakeholders know what it will take to deliver it on time and budget—even as work gets underway. Here are just a few advantages gantt charts bring to project management:
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: Let’s face it: Things change. 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 timeline gives you the ol’ switcheroo.
Keep everyone on the same page and on time: Clear communication is a must-have in any project. Without it, you risk project delays and cost overruns. Web-based gantt charts, like TeamGantt, ensure no one’s left in the dark. That’s because all your project info and discussion threads live in one central hub that everyone can access, making team collaboration a breeze.
Know who’s busy and who isn’t: If you want to make smart business decisions, you’ve got to have a good grasp on your resources. With gantt charts, resource management is no longer a guessing game. You can see who’s got bandwidth to take on new tasks at a glance.
When should you use a gantt chart for your project?
So how do you know if a gantt chart is the right tool 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.
Creating your first gantt chart diagram
Now that you understand the different elements that make up a gantt chart, let’s walk through the basic process for creating one.
List tasks: Use a work breakdown structure to identify all the tasks and subtasks needed to complete the work.
Arrange your timeline: Determine the start and end date for each task, and draw a horizontal bar on the right side of the chart to set the duration.
Set project milestones: Add key dates, deliverables, or deadlines to your gantt chart as milestones.
Identify dependencies: Draw a dependency line between related tasks to link them to each other.
Allocate resources: Assign team members and stakeholders to the tasks they’re responsible for, and note any other resources needed (e.g., equipment, space) to complete the work.
Monitor and adjust: Regularly update progress and adjust the gantt chart to reflect any changes. Keep an eye out for potential delays or bottlenecks so you can address issues early.
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 in TeamGantt.
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.
Adapting your gantt chart to different project roles
A common complaint about gantt charts is that they’re too complicated for the average person to read and use. Key stakeholders and team members may get overwhelmed by too much information and give up trying to make sense of or contribute to the project.
Thankfully, the solution is simple: Tailor your gantt chart to your audience.
Let’s talk about ways you can adapt your gantt chart to key project roles so everyone stays engaged in and on top of the plan.
Applying gantt charts to the project manager role
As a project manager, you’re the keeper of the gantt chart who steers the project ship. You need to be able to drill down into the details and monitor overall project health so you can make strategic decisions to push the project forward.
Areas of emphasis for ongoing project management:
Monitor task progress, resource allocation, and milestone completion
Ensure project activities align with objectives
Identify potential delays or resource conflicts early
Update the plan to refine project execution and reflect shifts in scope, timeline, or resources
Pitfalls to avoid when managing projects with a gantt chart:
Focusing too much on small details can detract from strategic oversight.
Relying too much on the gantt chart’s data can lead you to overlook valuable insights from team members.
Engaging project team members in your gantt chart
Your team plays a vital role in keeping your gantt chart up-to-date. So how do you keep team members engaged in the plan?
Zoom in on the details that matter most to your team in regular project meetings. Here are a couple of ways you could do this:
Narrow your gantt chart down to tasks that are due within the next week during daily standups
Filter your gantt chart by resource assigned in weekly 1:1s
If team members want to use the gantt chart to log daily progress, that’s great! But don’t make it a requirement. Give your team other ways to manage personal tasks too.
That might mean integrating your gantt chart with another tool or using a platform that features multiple workflow options. For example, in TeamGantt, you can easily switch from a gantt chart to to-do list, calendar, or Kanban board views or use My Tasks to zero in on only the work assigned to you.
Areas of emphasis for project review meetings with your team:
Focus on tasks and deliverables assigned to that team or individual
Highlight upcoming deadlines and relevant dependencies
Remind team members of the importance of updating tasks along the way
Pitfalls to avoid:
Including too many unrelated tasks can overwhelm individual team members.
Failing to update their assigned tasks can misalign the overall project timeline.
Presenting your gantt chart to key stakeholders
Project stakeholders don’t have the time or attention span to dwell on every granular task detail. That’s why it’s important to stick to the essentials when reviewing project status with clients and leaders.
Presentation matters. Whether sharing your gantt chart as a PDF, slide, or view-only link, make sure the visualization is clean and simple. Only display major phases and milestones so your gantt chart is easy to understand at a high level.
Areas of emphasis for project status meetings with stakeholders:
HIghlight critical milestones and overall progress
Align progress and outcomes with business objectives
Provide concise updates on milestones and risks
Pitfalls to avoid:
Omitting critical details can lead to misunderstandings about project progress.
Stakeholders may lose interest if your gantt chart is not presented in a clear and engaging manner.
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 free online gantt chart software 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.
Gantt chart FAQs
Who invented the gantt chart?
Henry Gantt is widely credited with the invention of the gantt chart in the 1910s, though the first project management chart was invented by Karol Adamiecki in 1896.
Although Adamiecki created his precursor to the gantt chart—called the harmonogram—in the late 19th century, he didn’t publish it until 1931. It got limited exposure at the time because it was only published in Polish and Russian.
Meanwhile, Henry Gantt published his own project management system around 1910-1915 to a much wider audience.
Who uses gantt charts?
Gantt charts are used by project managers, business owners, team leaders, and executives in many different industries across various departments. Here are just a few types of companies and teams that use gantt charts to plan, schedule, and execute their projects:
Some folks think gantt charts are too complicated to build, read, and update. While traditional desktop apps have their limitations, many of the cons people associate with gantt charts don’t apply to the online gantt chart software you’ll find today.
That’s because modern gantt charts ushered in a whole new era of project management. Now gantt charts offer clean and simple design with drag and drop scheduling so you can build and adjust project plans in an instant. And because everything happens online, it’s easy to share plans, collaborate on work, update tasks, and track progress in real time.
How does a gantt chart compare to other project management tools?
Project managers use a variety of tools—from gantt charts and kanban boards to spreadsheets and task lists—to keep up with project details, deadlines, and to-dos.
So what separates gantt charts from the rest of the pack when it comes to time-sensitive or complex projects?
Spreadsheets, kanban boards, and task lists fall short when it comes to important project management tasks, like building a timeline, outlining dependencies, and managing workloads.
Without these 3 gantt chart features, you’ll have a tough time communicating the plan to your team, clients, and stakeholders. Here are just a few examples of questions a gantt chart can help you answer:
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?
The good news is, you can use a gantt chart without foregoing other alternatives. Your team may prefer kanban boards for managing daily tasks or using a spreadsheet to create a RACI chart, and that’s okay.
A good modern gantt chart should be a part of a complete project management solution. Look for these advanced gantt chart features to ensure your team and projects stay on track:
Clean and intuitive interface
Drag and drop scheduling
Team collaboration
Multiple project views, including board, list, and calendar options
The next generation of TeamGantt is here! Now it’s even easier to plan, collaborate, and track projects to a successful finish. Sign up to experience the future of gantt charts today!
