Project Management - Gant Charts
What is the definition of a Schedule?
Gant diagrams are a tremendous instrument when used by PM's which wish to
visualize, plan, and track estimated and true progress of projects. Its visual
nature enables executives and front line staff alike to straightforwardly
understand project flow, without necessitating an entire class about project
management.
Each time project managers navigate the challenges of our projects, working to
make or beat the self-determined milestones, a solemn debt of thanks extends to
the heavens to Henry Gant for devising this easy-to-use tool to communicate
project schedules, since the
Gant Chart permits us to excel as program managers.
Gant Chart Sample
Background
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| Henry Laurence Gant |
Henry Gant Born 1861, Deceased 1919) was an American industrial advisor, mechanical engineer, and management consultant.
Henry Gant innovated project schedules in the 1910's.
Back then, project Gant charts were very innovative and fresh.
Huge construction projects like like the Hoover Dam and the Eisenhower National Defense Interstate Highway System necessitated a tool such as the Gant chart,
Now, a staple planning and scheduling of projects tool and buzzword in the repertoire of modern project management tools today, project Gant charts are
routinely deployed in the by PMP's, planners, and system developers. Working on
projects without them is unthinkable, except in the rare case when the inherent
nature of the work does not require them.
The Gant Chart has attained international fame, known in Spanish as carta Gant, graficas de Gant, and diagrama Gant and in French as diagramme de Gant
and Spanish as carta Gant, graficas de Gant, and diagrama de Gant], indeed the
whole world speaks this common language of project representation.
Henry Gant's global contribution to the modern project management is honored today through the Henry Gant Medal. This medal, established in 1929, is
awarded for distinguished achievement in management and service to the
community.
Practical Application
So, how does someone use a project plan? These charts are generally introduced during the planning and scheduling stages of projects. A visual tool, the
charts allow us to obtain a bird's eye view of the project in its totality.
From beginning to the end, the charts force us to:
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Make a realistic assessment of the end-time of the project.
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Order our effort (or activities) - one after the other, as well as
concurrently.
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Think in terms of task dependencies - which task is dependent on what.
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Concentrate on the necessary resources, both when and where, throughout the run
of the project.
Once the project timelines are drawn up, and project execution begins, we start comparing our actual, ground-level performance against what was planned.
This comparison is possible by checking the field reports against the project
schedules. Thus, we get to benefit from them in two immediate ways:
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To supervise work in progress. At the minimum, a percentage of completion can
be worked out, by taking a snapshot of the progress "right-now", and comparing
it with the chart, for the "right-now" point of time. If there are any slip-ups
in terms of time or cost, we are forced to question our optimism (or hope?)
that the tasks would get completed earlier then they actually did, at the
planning stage. This introspection helps in more realistic planning for a now
more matured manager in their future projects.
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To also think in terms of speeding up future tasks, while there is still time,
to redeem the total project's deadline. Perhaps resources (better manpower,
more funds, or additional material) need to be allocated much in advance for a
task that is going to be initiated later down the line? Perhaps some tasks may
be rescheduled in a more efficient manner, in order to meet some unforeseen
contingencies that have occurred after the project started?
How to make a timeline
A Carta Gant, after all this hoopla, is just a chart with rows and columns. One
simply writes all the tasks, one below the other, so that each task occupies a
single row. Alongside the names, columns are drawn to indicate the dates. The
dates may be in increments of days, weeks or months. Depending on the total
length of the project, we may decide the granularity of the date increments
which is appropriate - days, weeks or months.
Now, for each task in a row, we draw a horizontal (preferably hollow) bar alongside, with its start point in the column representing the date when it is
scheduled to begin, and the end point in the column of the date when it is
expected to end. Once these horizontal bars are drawn, we step back and get to
observe the tasks that are going to run sequentially, in parallel, or overlap.
As soon as the project has commenced, managers simply fill in the hollow bars to a length that is in proportion to the fraction of the work that has
been completed, for every task. In order to judge where we stand on any given
date - say today, we can draw an imaginary vertical line through the chart at
the current date - this is a "snapshot line". The tasks that are supposed to
have completed fully shall be to the left of this snapshot line. If they are
indeed completed, their hollow bars shall have been completely filled. Partial
filling indicates slip-ups. Tasks that are crossing the snapshot line are
current tasks in hand; well, at the least they are tasks that were scheduled to
have begun before today. If the horizontal bar on such tasks is filled in to
the left of the line, then the current tasks are behind schedule; if they are
filled in to the right of the line, then they are ahead of schedule. Future
tasks, of course, will lie completely on the right of the snapshot line.
Complicated projects
What has been described above is for simpler projects. Ideally, tasks in a simple project would not go beyond a single page, which makes them
manageable. Often, and especially in complex projects, each task may be broken
into smaller and more easily manageable subtasks. These subtasks may be moved
to subordinate charts, with their own timelines. In management terminology, the
process - of breaking up of these tasks into independent unit-tasks that can be
completed on their own - has been given an exotic name of Work Breakdown
Structure. The Work Breakdown enables the project manager's mind to grasp the
project in its entirety as well as to think in terms of allocating resources,
assign responsibilities, and measure and control the project, for every task
and sub-task.
Further, in team-oriented projects, where each task is to be handled by different personnel, there might be an additional column against each task,
where initials of these personnel may be entered, to identify who is supposed
to be doing what.
Project Milestones
Every time a milestone is achieved, The team should celebrate its joint
success. Such accomplishments help to boost the morale of personnel involved in
making the project a success. If the schedule is drawn up along with suitable
(and achievable!) milestones, by using some special symbol such as
brightly-colored diamonds, and the chart is kept in some centrally visible
place, it would motivate all the people to achieve them. These milestones could
range from perhaps the approval of project design by the customer, or
completion of project prototype, to delivery of individual modules by different
teams.
Conclusion
After Henry Gant showed the way, such a library of books about management have been authored on managing projects. Indeed, Project Management is a
full-fledged discipline in itself, deserving of a separate academic degree for
those who pursue it as a career and profession. More powerful models have
evolved in the past few decades, which strive to capture the complexity of
human endeavor and track and monitor its progress. The Graphica de Gant
continues to be used in some avatar or the other in all such models. And for
simple projects, The project timeline chart is the solution.
A Gant Chart is a pictoral representation of work effort as segments of work
across time. It aids organization and supervision of project development and
resource distribution. On the left part of the Gant Diagram flows a line with
the WBS (essentially, a series of tasks). The left-to-right presents time
succession, communicated either absolutely or relatively.
As you make a Gant Diagram, each work item consumes a row. Dates are provided across the horizontal axis, staggered as suitable to the mass of the Gant
at hand. Bars are shown as rows within the Gant Chart show the starting and
ending times of each WBS item in the project. Work can appear sequentially,
concurrently, or staggered.
Most project administration software (along the lines of Microsoft Project) allows management of projects via Gant diagram representation of project
workflow. These tools provide managerial toolsets to start, track and report
projects.
Example Gant Chart
Gant Chart History
The Gant Chart was created by Henry Gant, an American engineer, in 1917. Henry L. Gant innovated the first Gant chart to build ships around World War I.
His chart wound up being such a useful tool that it has remain unchanged for
practically a century. It was only in the 1990's that the Gant Chart was
modified to have task link lines.
Gant Chart Tip:
On significantly sized projects, tasks with a number of internal subtasks can be broken down into constituent Gant Diagrams to enhance usefulness.
