What is a Gantt Chart? Everything You Need to Know

Adriana Girdler

The purpose and benefits of a Gantt Chart in project management What is a Gantt Chart? People ask this all the time. If you’re in …

The purpose and benefits of a Gantt Chart in project management

What is a Gantt Chart? People ask this all the time. If you’re in project management, it’s helpful to know exactly what a Gantt Chart is, its purpose, what it looks like, and how to implement it so that you can decide if creating a Gantt Chart will be beneficial to your project.

What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt Chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates the project schedule. It can also show dependencies amongst activities and can show you the current schedule of those particular activities.

It is NOT the project plan.

Thinking a Gantt Chart is the same as the project plan is a mistake many people make, so it’s important to understand that there is a difference. The Gantt Chart is just there to show you about milestones and timing of project activities.

Benefits of a Gantt Chart

A Gantt Chart is a great tool that allows you to see, at a glance, all the high-level milestones within your project from start to finish.

It can also show you dependencies of tasks. In the planning stage, this is really important because it helps you understand resource loading and where there may be some overlap of activities where you may have to put in place some risk mitigation.

It’s also a great way to understand the sequencing of events. You can have things organized in a way where you can see how each aspect of the project is feeding into another.

Disadvantages of a Gantt Chart + Creating a Gantt Chart

Gantt Charts don’t necessarily work for every project. There are several disadvantages you should be aware of that will help you decide whether a Gantt Chart will be beneficial to each particular project that you work on.

I want to make sure you have all the information you need to make that decision, so I’ve created a video that goes more into detail highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of Gantt Charts as well as some examples of what programs you can use to make a Gantt Chart, and how each of those look.

Head over to YouTube with me and we’ll get into all the details there!


I really hope that you found this helpful – and if you did, it would mean so much to me if you would share it on your social media.

Meanwhile, if you really are committed to mastering your next project, do consider taking my SLAY Project Management online course where I show you step-by-step how to successfully manage a project, plus you get access to every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to fill them out.

 -Adriana

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Adriana Girdler is a project manager, productivity specialist, entrepreneur, professional speaker, facilitator, visioning wizard, and author. As President of CornerStone Dynamics, Adriana is one of Canada’s prominent business productivity and project management specialists—helping both individuals and businesses do what they do, only better. She is a certified master black belt lean six sigma with over 20 years’ experience improving how companies work.

She also holds both PMP (project management professional) and CET (certified engineering technologist) designations. She’s a Tedx speaker, as well as a HuffPost and Thrive Global contributor. She has been interviewed on Global, CBC, CTV, CHCH, 680News Radio, Newstalk 1010, Sirius XM and published in the Globe and Mail and numerous industry magazines. WANT ADRIANA'S FREE ONLINE TRAINING? In 45 min, learn Adriana's 5 project management secrets she use on EVERY project. Sign up for the Free Webinar here: THE FAB FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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