Project

Management
Gantt Charts

Pre-Assessment
Who has heard of a Gantt Chart?
Who would like to explain what a Gantt chart
is?
Who has used a chart to help organize a
project?

Why should I care?

Gantt charts can help with lifes projects
Remodeling a bathroom
Building a deck
Organizing a wedding
Cooking
Group Projects

Think about a group project you have

done

How did it go?

Was it easy to split up tasks?
Did you have timelines?
Was it easy to co-ordinate the tasks?
Was it easy to express what needed to be
done and when?
Did you use any techniques that helped?
Wish there was a better way?

Why should I care (cont.)

Used by project managers
Construction Managers
Excellent employment opportunities
Projected employment
487,000 in 2006, 564,00 in 2016
Increase of 77,00 in next 10 years

Median Salary
Building equipment contractors
$75,200 (Php3.1M/yr)
Electrical contractors
$74,380 (Php3.1M/yr)
Residential building construction $69,400 (Php2.9M/yr)

Why Should I Care (cont.)

Engineering and Natural Science Managers
Job growth about as fast as average
Median Salary
R&D in the physical, engineering and life sciences
$120,000
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing $111,070
Architectural, engineering and related services $88,990

Expectations
Understand that a Gantt chart is a useful tool
for planning and scheduling projects
Should be able to read and produce a Gantt
chart

Gantt Chart Overview (cont.)

What does it look like?

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Advantages
Planning and scheduling
Allows you to assess how long a project should take
Lays out the order in which tasks need to be carried out
Helps manage the dependencies between tasks

Monitoring a project
Allows you to immediately see what should have been
achieved at a point in time
Shows how remedial action may bring the project back on
course

Advantages and Disadvantages (cont.)

Shortcomings
Quite unwieldy for project with more than about
30 activities
Does not represent the size of a project or the
relative size of work elements

History of the Gantt Chart

Created by Laurence Gantt (1861-1919) in
1910
Mechanical engineer, management consultant
and industry advisor

Used as a visual tool to show scheduled and

actual progress of projects
Accepted as commonplace today but was an
innovation of world wide importance
Used on large construction projects
Hoover Dam in 1931
Interstate highway network in 1956

Evolution of the Gantt Chart

Basic Gantt Chart (1918)

Evolution (cont.)
fill in the bar method to show project
completion

Sequential and Parallel Activities

Sequential, also called Linear
Activities that are dependent on other activities
being completed first
Ex: Must design before build
Must preheat oven before inserting pizza

Parallel, also called Nondependent

Not dependent on completion of any other task
May be done at any time before or after a
particular stage is reached

Steps for Creating a Gantt Chart

1. List all activities in the plan
2. Head up graph paper with the days or weeks
through to task completion
3. Plot the tasks onto the graph paper
4. Schedule activities
5. Presenting the analysis

Steps for Creating a Gantt Chart

1. List all activities in the plan
earliest start date
estimated length of time it will take
Whether it is parallel or sequential
If sequential show which tasks they depend on

List All Activities Example

Task

Possible Start

Length

Type

1. High level
analysis

week 1

5 days

Sequential

2. Selection of
hardware
platform

Week1

1 day

Sequential

3. Install and
commission
hardware

Week3

2 weeks

Parallel

4.Detailed
Week1
analysis of core
modules

2 weeks

Sequential

5. Detailed
analysis of
supporting
utilities

2weeks

Sequential

Week1

Dependent
on

Steps (cont.)
2. Head up graph paper with the days or weeks
through to completion
3. Plot the tasks onto the graph paper
Draw a rough draft

Steps (cont.)
4. Schedule Activities
Schedule activities so that sequential actions are
carried out in the required sequence
Where possible, schedule parallel tasks so that
they do not interfere with sequential actions
Allow some slack time for holdups, overruns

Steps (cont.)
5. Presenting the analysis
Prepare final version

Checking for Understanding

What are some reasons to use a Gantt chart
(benefits of using)?
What are some projects where you might use
a Gantt chart?
What is the difference between a dependent
and independent task?
Give an example

Checking for Understanding (cont.)

It is day 5

What are they behind schedule on?

What are they ahead of schedule on?

Based from Report

Date 11/26/2013:
Activity WRITE
REPORT is behind
schedule.
Activity
EVALUATION is
ahead of schedule.