Gantt Chart

In 1917, Henry Gantt designed a bar chart known as Gantt chart. Its main purpose was exemplifying project schedules (Rakos & Dhanraj, 2005). This chart is widely used in project management as it helps in planning, coordination and tracking tasks pertaining to a particular project. The chart design illustrates projects’ start dates, finish dates, terminal elements and summary elements. Project elements comprise of the work breakdown structure of a specific project. A number of Gantt charts indicate the relationship between activities and variables in a project (Rakos & Dhanraj, 2005). 

During its construction, a Gantt chart consists of a horizontal axis indicating a project’s life span whereas the vertical axis represents the project’s tasks. In this regard, the Gantt chart illustrates the order of carrying out tasks. Therefore, it indicates how a project should progress before its completion. With further improvements as witnessed in modern Gantt charts, one can indicate dependencies between tasks unlike in previous versions of charts (Rakos & Dhanraj, 2005).

In my opinion, not everyone uses Gantt charts appropriately. Despite its global popularity, several operational mistakes compromise the chart’s effectiveness. Commonly, Gantt chart users inappropriately attempt to classify work breakdown structure and schedule activities, similarly. By doing so they create confusion and the 100 percent Rule adherence reduces (Rakos & Dhanraj, 2005). To avoid such occurrences, users should clearly define the work breakdown structure in accordance with the 100 percent Rule. This will help to create a relief on project designs. Practically, it is advisable for users to employ the chart on small projects that fit on a single sheet. Some individuals compromise this graph’s efficiency by using it in large projects of up to 30 activities (Rakos & Dhanraj, 2005). As a result, these individuals come up with large charts unsuitable to display on a computer screen. They cause the analysis process to become complex and difficult.