What is a Gantt chart? A guide for project planning

A Gantt chart is a project management tool that lets planners organize and monitor project tasks across specified timeframes, visually illustrating the sequence of tasks and events within a project.

A bit of history

Henry Gantt developed this charting method in the 1910s in the American automobile industry. Originally used to track vehicle production, it is now essential across construction, IT, healthcare and professional services.

Structure

The chart uses horizontal bars along a timeline, each bar representing a task; its length corresponds to the expected duration. Charts can also show task dependencies, required resources, milestones and completion dates.

Key advantages

Visualization of tasks and dependencies; planning by breaking work into units and spotting constraints early; coordination through a shared view; monitoring of completion against schedule to catch delays; and clear communication of status to stakeholders.

Gantt charts in FoxPlan

Most project management tools include Gantt charting. FoxPlan’s interactive Gantt lets you plan, sequence and baseline work, then track progress against the plan across the portfolio.