A Gantt chart is a form of bar graph used to show how scheduled information
interelates.
Activities (often called "Tasks") are shown labelled
as text in a column or "tree" on left hand side
of the graph, while a Timeline of days, weeks, months, years is displayed at the top of the graph.
Colored bars represent
the Tasks and their placement and length on the Timeline indicates when
a task is scheduled to begin and end.
Dependency lines with an arrow pointing to the next task show that one task is dependent on
another task's completion.
Several dependency relations can be displayed on a Gantt chart.
You might decide that one task must start when another finishes...that's called a
Finish- to-Start
dependency and is the most common and looks like this...
Or.. you might decide that two tasks MUST start at the same time, that's
called a Start-to-Start
dependency and looks like this...
Gantt charts can also show the % of completion of any Task by
colored lines embedded INSIDE
of the colored bars.
Milestones are points in time used as a marker to indicate that
a particular phase of the project
has been reached. A milestone looks like a little diamond "dot"...
Milestones are often used by management as a point in time when it's desirable to
track a project
to see whether it's "on track" or "delayed"
