A Start Up Trek - Strategery | GeekDad | Wired.com: A friend of mine introduced me to gantter.com for one of my day job projects. If you’re not familiar with Gantt charts or need a free way to build one I suggest you check them out. Briefly, a Gantt chart lets you build a complete set of tasks, the dependencies between the tasks (which tasks have to be done before, after or during another task), duration of tasks, and what resources (usually people) are assigned that task. Interesting story: my day job involves space exploration. I’ve been told by several people that were there that Werhner Von Braun, the rocket pioneer that oversaw development of the Saturn V, which took us to the moon, kept a massive Gantt chart outside his office. It covered several walls from top to bottom and had a couple people whose jobs were to keep it up to date. Von Braun could look at the chart and determine the current critical path, that sequence of tasks that at that point in the program was driving the Saturn V delivery date. He would use the chart to know which of his departments he needed to assist, cajole or otherwise push to accelerate the schedule.