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Gantt & critical path templates

Teaching Case — What "I Could Not Check That" Looks Like

The most important template here, and nothing in it is badly written: it is an ordinary plan in its first week, with one task nobody has estimated yet. Everything downstream of that task therefore has NO DATE. Rather than drawing bars anyway, the engine leaves those rows blank, says which task caused it, and reports the plan as not verified. That state — checked, and could not decide — is the one most tools never show anyone.

Template previewGantt & critical path
Warehouse move — Gantt chart with critical path8 tasks; from 2026-10-05 to 2026-10-23, 15 working days; 3 on the critical path; 0 errors, 0 warnings, 1 question unanswered.Warehouse moveMo 5 Oct 2026 → Fr 23 Oct 2026 · 15 working days · 19 calendar dayscritical path: survey → quote → packshorten first: quote (up to 6d) · pack (up to 5d) · survey (up to 4d)Oct 2026Mo5Tu6We7Th8Fr9Sa10Su11Mo12Tu13We14Th15Fr16Sa17Su18Mo19Tu20We21Th22Fr23PreparationMove▲ Site survey4d · shorten → 4d▲ Fit-out quotes6d · shorten → 6dCouncil permitno dates — no duration is stated here or upstream of itFit-outno dates — no duration is stated here or upstream of it▲ Pack and label5d · shorten → 5dRemovalno dates — no duration is stated here or upstream of itUnpack and commissionno dates — no duration is stated here or upstream of itWarehouse liveno dates — no duration is stated here or upstream of itcritical — zero floatnear-criticalhas floattotal floatmilestonenon-working daybaseline1 question could not be answered — this plan is NOT verified.?`permit` states no duration, so neither it nor the 4 tasks after it (`fit`, `truck`, `unpack`, `live`) has a date·Mo 5 Oct 2026 to Fr 23 Oct 2026 — 15 working days across 19 calendar days, on a Mo–Fr week·one critical path, through 3 tasks — shortening any one of them shortens the project, up to the point another path becomes binding·to finish sooner, shorten `quote` by up to 6 working days (the whole task); `pack` by up to 5 working days (the whole task); `survey` by up to 4 working days (the whole task). Anything beyond those figuresmoves nothing — the gain from taking δ days off a task is min(δ, the figure above), and it is zero for every critical task not listed here.

Make it your own.

title "Warehouse move"
start 2026-10-05
calendar mon-fri

section "Preparation"
  task survey "Site survey" 4d
  task quote  "Fit-out quotes" 6d after survey
  task permit "Council permit" after quote
  task fit    "Fit-out" 15d after permit

section "Move"
  task pack   "Pack and label" 5d after quote
  task truck  "Removal" 3d after fit, pack
  task unpack "Unpack and commission" 6d after truck
  milestone live "Warehouse live" after unpack