KB13797: How to Create a Gantt chart in MicroStrategy Developer 9.x?

Gantt charts (also referred to as project timelines) are bar graphs that help plan and monitor project development or resource allocation on a horizontal time scale. A Gantt chart is essentially a horizontal bar chart. It provides a graphical illustration of a schedule that can help users plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project. The data analyzed in a Gantt chart has a defined starting and ending value; for example, Project A begins 4/15/06 and ends 5/10/06.
In order to create a Gantt chart in Strategy Developer 9.x, the following points must be kept in mind:

• A pair of metrics defines start and length pair which will be translated as a horizontal bar in the chart.
• At least two metrics must be displayed in the columns:
  
• MetricA will serve as the starting data point.
• MetricB will serve as the length/duration from the starting point.
• Multiple metric pairs can be added to the columns to represent more start-length pairs.

For example, the following Gantt chart displays the availability of different Call Centers in a 24 hour day:

 
The above Gantt chart is comprised of the following objects:
 

• Call Center - Attribute to represent the call centers.
• Available - Metric that represents the start hour that this Call Center is available.
• Available Length - Metric that represents the length of time that this Call Center is available.

Notice that in the Grid View of this report shown below, there exists:

• Call Center positioned in the rows.
• Available in the columns as the first metric (remember that the first/left metric denotes the starting point.)
• Available Length in the columns as the second metric (remember that the second metric denotes the length/duration from the starting point.)