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.