What is the Difference between Gantt and PERT Chart

What is the Difference between Gantt and PERT Chart?

4-5 minutes

PERT and Gantt charts are visualization tools that are often used in project management. Both of these charts are used for task scheduling, controlling, and administering the tasks necessary for the completion of a project. The difference between them is that a PERT chart is a kind of network diagram, while a Gantt chart is a bar chart.

What is the PERT Chart?

PERT Chart is an acronym for (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). A PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. It is a method to analyze the tasks involved in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task and to identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project.

What is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart is a type of horizontal bar chart commonly used in project management, which is a visual view of tasks scheduled overtime. It provides a graphical visualization of a schedule that helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks (or elements) in a project.

Gantt chart boils down multiple tasks and timelines into a single page. Using a Gantt chart allows all stakeholders to perceive the same schedule information, sets mutually understood expectations, and conducts their efforts according to the desired protocol. The Gantt chart tool provides a visual timeline for the start and end of tasks, making it clear how tasks are interrelated and perhaps rely on the completion of another before one can start.

PERT vs Gantt Chart

PERT charts are network diagrams that use boxes to represent tasks and arrows to present dependencies between tasks. The boxes are laid out from left to right, but there is no fixed Y-axis with dates. The first box, or root, is centered vertically on the left side, and the subsequent tasks can be drawn anywhere along the Y-axis. Arrows can point to the right, up or down, but never to the left.

Gantt charts are bar graphs. The X-axis contains dates and the Y-axis lists separate tasks. On each line of the Y-axis, the chart depicts a bar positioned to extend from the task’s start date to its end date. Tasks are listed in the start-date order.