Gantt Chart
A planning tool that lays work out as horizontal bars on a calendar. What starts when, how long it takes and what waits for what — all on one screen.
Register nowWhen to use it?
- To tie work to dates and make start times explicit.
- To show the order of the work and the steps that wait on each other.
- To spot work falling behind while there is still time.
Step by step
- 1A project can hold several charts. Use the menu at the top left to add one or switch between them.
- 2Add rows with "Add task". Double-click a row name to change it.
- 3Selecting a row opens the detail bar below: start, end, progress and status live there.
- 4Drag a bar to shift its dates; drag either edge to make it longer or shorter.
- 5The indent button turns a row into a subtask of the one above. A parent bar is computed from its children and cannot be edited by hand.
- 6The dependency button links "cannot start before"; an arrow is drawn between the two bars.
Tips
- For markers with no duration, switch a task to milestone: it becomes a diamond instead of a bar.
- The red line marks today. Unfinished work whose end date has passed gets a red outline.
- Day / week / month buttons squeeze or open the calendar. Month view fits a long plan on one screen.
Worked example
Example: a website rebuild
The work has to fit into eight weeks. Who starts when, and which task is waiting on which, is unclear. Laying the tasks onto a calendar makes the collisions visible.
Tasks and weeks
- Content inventory — week 1
- Design — weeks 2 and 3
- Copywriting — weeks 2 to 5
- Development — weeks 4 to 7
- Content entry — weeks 6 and 7
- Testing and launch — week 8
Questions it raised
- Development starts in week 4 but design ends in week 3: no slack at all
- Content entry waits on copywriting, which ends in week 5: tight
- Only one week for testing, so any bug pushes the launch
- Are copywriting and design the same person?
What the chart produced was not a plan but the risks in the plan. Eight weeks works on paper, but there is no slack anywhere. A Gantt chart is not for inventing durations — it is for showing you where the slack is missing.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Gantt chart?
A chart that places tasks as horizontal bars on a calendar. The length of a bar is the duration, its position is when the work happens. It shows at a glance which tasks are running at the same time.
How do you make a Gantt chart?
Work out the tasks first, then put them on the calendar. The right order is: build a work breakdown structure, estimate each item, note the dependencies, then draw. A Gantt chart drawn without a breakdown just makes an incomplete list look tidy.
What is a dependency?
If a task cannot start until another finishes, there is a dependency between them. On a Gantt chart these form chains, and the longest chain sets the real duration of the project — every delay on that chain moves the delivery date directly.
What is the difference between a Gantt chart and a roadmap?
A Gantt chart ties tasks to days and weeks and is for the team doing the work. A roadmap is coarser — quarters or months — and communicates intent; it usually goes to management or customers rather than the delivery team.
Is it free?
Yes. Klarsti is free and ad-free right now, and you do not need an account to build a Gantt chart.