The Gantt chart is a visual planning tool that represents how a project unfolds over time. Popularized by the American engineer Henry L. Gantt in the early 20th century, it takes the form of a chart in which each task is depicted as a horizontal bar: its position indicates the start and end dates, and its length the duration.
Beyond a simple task list, a modern Gantt chart reveals the dependencies between activities (finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish, with possible lags), the milestones (key steps with no duration), the percentage progress of each task and the assigned resources. It thus offers an immediate overview of the schedule, overlaps and delays.
It is today the go-to tool for planning and tracking a project, whether a construction site, a software development effort or an internal rollout. It eases communication with stakeholders, because a visual schedule can be read at a glance. Combined with the critical path method, it makes it possible to identify the tasks that truly determine the end date and to measure the float available on the others.
eyeot's Projects module offers a complete Gantt schedule: building tasks and their dependencies with lags, setting milestones for key steps, and recomputing the critical path to spot tasks with no float. Progress then feeds the schedule and cost tracking indicators, including earned value.