Gantt charts in SSRS 2012 - three approaches to rule them all

 Gantt charts are some of the most sought after visualisations in production environments. Fortunately to my knowledge there are at least three approaches in SQL Server Reporting Services of how to create Gantt charts.

Those three approaches also do address specific requirements so that if you know all of them you have a nice and handy toolset for any situation.

1. The chart approach
   The first method use the chart element to give you a Gantt. From a visual point you will get very close to what your users might expect a Gantt chart to look like. The downside is that it doesn't provide the flexibility the other two approaches have.
   You can make its size fixed or flexible - depending on your user's needs. If you use SSRS as a document generator or if you want to use it as a visualisation at your shop-floor (on a flat-screen showing the actual work-load the fixed size will be preferable.
2. The table approach
   This one has a fixed width but will give you a lot of flexibility concerning interactive sorting or additional task information.
3. The matrix approach
   If your report is meant to be consumed interactively then this might be the best approach. In terms of flexibility there is a huge amount of possibilities. 

In the next couple of weeks I will guide you through those three approaches. After that we will take a look at refining und polishing them a little bit.

The guides will always comprise of three parts:

• Source DataHow does the source data need to be
• Data TransformationIn order to make the approaches work there are different transformations of the source data needed.
• Report DesignThe most obvious part.

The first part - the chart approach - is now online.