Managing projects by Gantt Chart

Managing projects by Gantt Chart

Introduction

Gantt Charts (Gant Charts) are useful tools for analyzing and planning more complex projects. Help you to plan out the tasks that need to be completed. Give you a basis for scheduling when these tasks will be carried out. Allow you to plan the allocation of resources needed to complete the project, and Help you to work out the critical path for a project where you must complete it by a particular date.

Managing projects by Gantt Chart

When a project is under way, Gantt Charts help you to monitor whether the project is on schedule. If it is not, it allows you to pinpoint the remedial action necessary to put it back on schedule. An essential concept behind project planning (and Critical Path Analysis) is that some activities are dependent on other activities being completed first. As a shallow example, it is not a good idea to start building a bridge before you have designed it. (Project Management Institute, 2003)

These dependent activities need to be completed in a sequence, with each stage being more-or-less completed before the next activity can begin. We can call dependent activities 'sequential' or 'linear'. Other activities are not dependent on completion of any other tasks. These may be done at any time before or after a particular stage is reached. These are nondependent or 'parallel' tasks. To draw up a Gantt diagram (Gant diagram), follow these steps:

Step 1. List all activities in the planFor each task, (Peter, 1994) show the earliest start date, estimated length of time it will take, and whether it is parallel or sequential. If tasks are sequential, show which stages they depend on. You will end up with a task list like the one in figure 1. This example shows the task list for a custom-written computer project. We will use this same example for both this section and the section on Critical Path Analysis and PERT. This will allow you to compare the results of the two approaches.

Figure 1. Gantt Chart Example: Planning a custom-written computer project

Task

Earliest start

Length

Type

Dependent on...

A. High level analysis

Week 0

1 week

Sequential

B. Selection of hardware platform

Week 1

1 day

Sequential

A

C. Installation and commissioning of hardware

Week 1.2

2 weeks

Parallel

B

D. Detailed analysis of core modules

Week 1

2 weeks

Sequential

A

E. Detailed analysis of supporting modules

Week 3

2 weeks

Sequential

D

F. Programming of core modules

Week 3

2 weeks

Sequential

D

G. Programming of supporting modules

Week 5

3 weeks

Sequential

E

H. Quality assurance of core modules

Week 5

1 week

Sequential

F

I. Quality assurance of supporting modules

Week 8

1 week

Sequential

G

J. Core module training

Week 6

1 day

Parallel

C,H

K. Development and QA of accounting reporting

Week 5

1 week

Parallel

E

L. Development and QA of management reporting

Week 5

1 week

Parallel

E

M. Development of Management Information System

Week 6

1 week

Sequential

L

N. Detailed training

Week 9

1 week

Sequential

I, J, K, M

Step 2. Head up graph paper with the days or weeks through to task completion

Step 3: Plot the tasks onto the graph paperNext draw up a rough draft of the Gantt Chart. Plot each task on the graph paper, showing it starting on the earliest possible date. Draw it as a bar, with the length of the bar being the length of ...