A bar chart consist of two co-ordinates axes- one representing the jobs or activities to be performed and other representing the time elapsed.

Each bar represents one specific job or activity of the project.

The beginning and end of each bar represents the time of start and finish of that activity and length of the bar represents time required for completion of that job or activity.

The following steps are involved in preparing bar chart:

1. Divide the project into many activities
2. List out activities
3. Find the inter- relationship among these activities
4. Arrange the activities in systematic manner
5. Calculate the quantity of work and time required
6. Draw according to scale

Limitations of Bar chart

1. They can be used only for small projects
2. It does not show interdependencies between various activities in the project. This is serious limitation of bar chart
3. The progress of work in project cannot be monitored scientifically.
4. Delays in work cannot be detected.
5. It gives some idea about physical progress of the project, but financial aspect involved is not known. i.e. whether the project cost is within estimated one or exceeded.
6. Bar chart cannot be used as controlling device by the project manager to take any corrective action to complete the project on time.

Even though the bar chart is having several disadvantages, still it can be successfully employed in case of small projects, where the number of activities are limited.

However, when the project becomes complex, It is very difficult to do the scheduling using this method.