A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of task duration against time progression.

Henry Laurence Gantt (1861-1919) was a mechanical engineer, management consultant and industry advisor. Henry Laurence Gantt developed Gantt charts in the second decade of the 20th century. Gantt charts were used as a visual tool to show scheduled and actual progress of projects. Accepted as a commonplace project management tool today, it was an innovation of world-wide importance in the 1920s. Gantt charts were used in large construction projects like the Hoover Dam started in 1931, and the interstate highway network started in 1956.

Henry Gantt's contribution to the management process is honored today with the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal. The award established in 1929 is given for distinguished achievements in management and for service to the community.

Gantt charts are useful tools for planning and scheduling projects. Gantt Chart allows you to assess how long a project should take, to see how remedial action may bring the project back on course, lay out the order in which tasks need to be carried out, help manage dependencies between tasks, determine the resources needed, monitor progress. You can also immediately see what should be done at some point in time.

Features of modern software Gantt charts:

• Gantt charts dragging and dropping operations
• Gantt charts changing the work calendar from popup menus
• Gantt charts resizing rows and columns with the mouse
• Gantt charts zooming in and out
• Gantt charts jumping to other displays and master tables
• Gantt charts customizing the text displayed
• Gantt charts customizing color-coding schemes
• Gantt charts customizing the display order of resources
• Gantt charts filtering the resources that are displayed
• Gantt charts displaying late operations in a special way
• Gantt charts displaying broken constraints in a special way
• Gantt charts displaying setup time
• Gantt charts displaying lines representing time constraints between operations