Project Management in Under 5: What is a Gantt Chart?

Mike: In this video, I want to answer
the question 'what is a Gantt chart?'

[Intense music]

The Gantt chart is arguably the most
widely used project planning tool.

In fact, it is so widely used, that for
some people, it's almost the archetype

of what a project is all about.

The Gantt chart is if you like the icon
for project management.

The Gantt chart was invented by
Karol Adamiecki.

Karol Adamiecki invented his
harmonograph five to ten years before

Henry Gantt went into print, describing
what is now known as the Gantt chart.

And there is absolutely no evidence, that
I am aware of, saying whether Gannt was

either aware or not aware of
Adamiecki's work.

But it does emphasize something important.

Which is, that if you want something named
after you, the best thing to do is to

write about it in English.

Because that way, Americans and British
people understand what you're writing about.

If you write about it in Russian,
as Adamiecki did,

then it might not get noticed,
and picked up.

That's just the way the world worked in
the early 20th century.

Anyway, Henrey Gantt gives us the rules
that we use for creating our Gantt chart.

A Gantt chart plots time along the
horizontal axis.

And on the vertical axis, we list all the
tasks that need to be done to accomplish

our project.

And if you've created a work break down
structure, then that immediately gives

you your task list.

And if you don't know what a work break
down structure is.

Take a look at our video, 'What is a
Work Breakdown Structure?'

Now, once you've created your graph, and
here's something important about the

way Gantt charts work, equal units of
distance along the horizontal axis

represent equal units of time.

Once you've created that, then you
represent each activity by a bar.

And the length of the bar represents
the duration of the task.

And the positioning of the bar represents
the scheduling of the task.

So, if one task follows another, then the
bar follows the previous bar.

And so, what we often see on our Gantt
charts, are these long diagonals of

one activity following another in time,

because each task is dependent on
the completion of the predecessor task

to get started.

But then, we might have other work
streams that run in parallel.

The other commonly used symbol you see on
a Gantt chart is a simple geometrical shape

like a triangle or a diamond, that
represents a milestone.

And we have a video on what a
milestone is as well.

So, that's your basic Gantt chart.

And it's very easy to read.

And we can put a vertical line though
the Gantt chart to indicate today.

So that at any point in time during our
project we can read off where we should

be in our project, and then assess the
level of completeness.

Now of course, when you look at real
Gantt charts produced by sophisticated

software, they are often different sorts
of bars with different sorts of shading.

There are sometimes different types of
milestones.

Different shaped symbols.

A milestone could be a decision point, or
a completion, or a gateway review for example.

So, how do you read these complicated
Gantt charts?

Well my answer is: it's simple.

If you don't know what the symbols mean,
that's not your fault.

It's the fault of the person who created
the Gantt chart.

So, when you create your Gantt charts,
always be clear and put a key on the

Gantt chart explaining what the different
symbols, and shading, and types of line mean.

And that way your reader will be able to
understand it very simply.

So, a Gantt chart, sometimes called a
bar chart, represents your project plan

by making each task into a bar, and putting
those bars onto a time schedule.

Your Gantt chart is a powerful tool to
help you think through your plan,

to articulate it, to communicate it, and
to monitor it during delivery.

[intense music]

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