Guide to Gantt Charts

Gantt charts were first created in the mid 1890s by Karol Adamiecki, then later coined a Gantt chart by Henry Gantt in the early 1900s. Today, they're widely used as a project management tool that helps teams track and manage their projects.

The first iteration of a Gantt chart was created in the mid 1890s by Karol Adamiecki, a Polish engineer who was interested in management ideas and techniques. He named this new chart a harmonogram and only published the chart in Polish, which limited widespread use. However, the usefulness of the chart endured.

By 1912, Hermann Schurch, a Swiss civil engineer, pulled from the Gantt chart concept that Adamiecki created in the late 1800s and applied it to construction projects he was involved with at the time. Although the Gantt chart did not yet have a name, this chart plotted tasks against time, and was based largely on the structured approach in German routines to keep projects on track.

Between 1910 and 1915, an American mechanical engineer named Henry Gantt devised his own version of both Adamiecki’s and Schurch’s project schedule. Gantt published this new chart in English, making it available and readily-useable to a vastly larger population.

Gantt sought to make tasks as simple and intuitive as possible for teams and resources, specifically in the manufacturing industry, where projects are heavily dependent on strict timelines and a variety of resources.

Named the Gantt chart after its creator, this type of visual chart gained momentum in high-profile cases. One of the first larger, more important uses of the Gantt chart was during World War I, where General William Krozier, the U.S. Army’s Chief of Ordnance, hired Henry Gantt to increase the industrial production of munitions with the use of an efficient process, like the Gantt chart.

The Gantt chart was then used on other similarly important and time-sensitive projects, like the construction of the Hoover Dam in 1931 and the creation of the U.S. Interstate highway network in 1956. A book was even written by Wallace Clark, titled The Gantt Chart, a Working Tool of Management, to describe the Gantt chart and discuss its business efficiency.

However, Gantt charts were not limited to use in the United States. Walter Polakov, a strong believer in the Gantt process, leveraged Gantt charts in the Soviet Union in 1929 as he worked with the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy to craft the First Five Year Plan.

Originally, Gantt charts required preparation by hand on a piece of paper, or using magnetic blocks to signify each of the tasks. Although this was helpful in plotting out a project timeline, it also meant that any time a project task was updated or a timeline was changed, the entire chart would need to be redrawn or reformatted completely.

Since many projects are fluid and undergo dramatic changes throughout its lifecycle, the usefulness of Gantt charts were limited. It wasn’t until the 1980s, when the personal computer was invented, that Gantt charts were more widely and easily used to create complex, elaborate charts.

By the end of the 1990s, the internet promoted even further collaboration, and Gantt charts were able to be created, edited, and shared across teams, departments, and resources, making it a popular feature of many web-based applications and tools.

To prove this point, Gantt charts were identified by Robert Klein as “one of the most widely-used management tools for project scheduling and control” in 1999, solidifying its place as a vital tool for all project managers. And, by 2012, nearly all Gantt charts were being created on software, meaning project managers could easily adjust schedule changes and increase work efficiency without having to reformat or recreate Gantt charts from scratch.