Gantt Chart

Map one comma-separated predecessor field to Dependencies and finish-to-start arrows are drawn between tasks. There is no relationship table to model and no bridge table to maintain; the field can come straight from your planning export.

From the arrows the visual computes the critical path: the longest chain through the dependency network, highlighted so you can see which slip actually moves the end date and which slip has slack. On a programme review that is the question people ask first, and the chart answers it without anyone opening Microsoft Project.

Add Baseline Start and Baseline End and every bar gets a ghost bar underneath showing the original plan. The tooltip spells out the difference in days, so a task three days late reads as three days late rather than as two bars of slightly different length.

Because baselines live in the model, they can come from a snapshot table, a versioned plan or a simple copy of last quarter's dates. Progress can be stored as a fraction from 0 to 1 or as a percentage from 0 to 100; the visual detects which and a Progress Format setting overrides it when your data is ambiguous.

Parent Task builds the hierarchy. Summary bars roll up their children, with progress weighted by duration, and each phase expands or collapses on click. One Collapse All folds a two-hundred-task plan into six phase bars, which is the view most steering committees want, while the detail stays one click away.

Up to three grid columns sit beside the task names for Owner, Status, Cost or anything else in your model, sortable and summed on summary rows. The time axis zooms from months to weeks to days with a sticky header, weekend shading and a today line, and the whole chart cross-filters the rest of the report from any bar or legend chip.