The Gantt Chart: Discovery And Uses

By Author: Salvatore Andrea
Total Articles: 6261
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A gantt chart as it is referred to can be called as a special bar chart. It derives its name from the fact that it is a discovery of Henry Gantt. It is used to illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and the summary elements of a project. If there is a desire to seek work breakdown this is the ideal chart. Some charts developed by Henry Gantt shows the dependency or the current work status. Though they are very much normal today it was a revolutionary concept when it first saw the light of the day.

The first such type of chart saw the light of the day in 1896. It was due to the efforts of Karol Adamiecki. He called it a harmonogram. However, it was only published in 1931. It was within the year 1910 to 1915 that Henry Gantt published this chart. In this modern age they have become common techniques to represent phases of work. However, there is a common error here. They attempt to define the project work breakdown structure, at the same time create a project schedule. This chart can be fine for smaller projects. However, if there are around 30 projects ...
... then this chart will simply not work.

The other major disadvantage is that the chart does not represent the size of the project, or the size of the work elements. If two projects are behind schedule then it is natural that the larger project has a larger effect on resource utilizations. Things such as these differences are not shown. However, in spite of all this these charts are useful. Therefore, for any work if one is on the lookout to prepare a gantt chart excel sheet is all that is needed. One can create a chart in excel by customizing the stacked bar chart type. It gives a perfect picture of the work schedule.