pros and cons of Gantt charts

February 12, 2013 Michel Operto , Digital Transformation

John Jeffreys, in his article about pros and cons of Gannt charts brings an interesting perspective on the use of this tool in Project Management.

Let’s remind ourselves that a Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the project tasks and summary elements.

Like John, I am convinced of the conceptual and visual value of Gantt charts. The tool encourages us to structure the project with several levels of detail, consider the dependencies between tasks, estimate their duration, identify the critical path, see at a glance the overall tasks list and progress made.

advantages of Gantt charts

it creates a picture of complexity
it organizes your thoughts
it demonstrates that you know what you’re doing
it (should) help you to set realistic time frames
it can be highly visible

disadvantages of Gantt charts

they can become extraordinarily complex
the length of the bar does not indicate the amount of work
they need to be constantly updated
difficult to see on one sheet of paper

personal viewpoint

As any other tool, it has limitations and can lead to drifts. The most common one is to be driven or sidetracked by the software that supports it. These are often very rich and consume a lot of the most precious resource of PMs: the time available to think.

Personally, I tend to use Gantts (and I start with paper or whiteboard) as a tool to visually breakdown the project, to sequence and indicate dependencies between tasks, to review completeness of deliverables expected from the project… and, at a macro level, at the start of the project.

During the project’s life, I use detailed Gantts mainly to communicate with project teams on their tasks (contents, deliverables, estimates), to put in evidence the critical path and follow up on progress made and as importantly what remains to be done compared to the initial baseline.