Fundamentals of Project Management, Third Edition

A Brief History of Scheduling

Until around 1958, the only tool for scheduling projects was the bar chart (see Figure 6-1). Because Henry Gantt developed a complete notational system for showing progress with bar charts, they are often called Gantt charts. They are simple to construct and read and remain the best tool to use for communicating to team members what they need to do within given time frames. Arrow diagrams tend to be too complicated for some teams. Nevertheless, it is often helpful to show an arrow diagram to the people doing the work so that they understand interdependencies and why it is important that they complete certain tasks on time.

Figure 6-1. Bar chart.

Bar charts do have one serious drawback—it is very difficult to ...