Project Management - Project Timelines
What is a Project Schedule?
A Gannt chart is an exceptional instrument in the hands of Project Management Professionals who aspire to envision, schedule, and monitor estimated and actual project progress. Its graphical way of showing data allows C-levels and non-managers alike to easily understand the flow of a project, without requiring an entire lesson for timeline management.
Each occasion project managers navigate the rigmarole
of our projects, hoping
to attain or beat the self-set goals,
a solemn thought of thank
extends to the heavens to Henry Gannt for creating
this intuitive device to chart project plans, since the project timeline makes
it possible for us to succeed in
this chosen career.
timeline Sample
History
 |
| Henry Gannt |
Henry Gannt was an American industrial advisor, mechanical engineer, and management consultant.
Henry Gannt devised [Gannt diagrams] in the early
twentieth century.
At the turn of the century, Graphicas de Gannt were very ground-breaking and unheard of.
Huge construction projects like like the Hoover Dam and the Eisenhower National Defense Interstate Highway System necessitated a tool such as the Gannt chart,
Now, a staple project planning tool and buzzword in the repertoire of modern project planning tools today, project plans are routinely deployed in the
by project managers, 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 Gannt Chart has attained international acclaim,
known in Spanish as carta Gannt, graficas de Gannt, and diagramas de Gannt and in French as diagramme de Gannt and Spanish as carta Gannt, graficas de Gannt, and diagramas de Gannt],
indeed the whole world speaks this common language of
project representation.
Henry Gannt's global contribution to the modern project management is honored today through the Henry Gannt 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 Gannt Chart? 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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Align the work (or activities or phases) - in sequential order, as well as at the same time.
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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 Gannt Charts are finalized, 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 Cartas de Gannt.
Thus, we get to benefit from them in two immediate ways:
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To watch over 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 create a Gannt Chart
A timeline, after all this ruckus, 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 starts, project managers just 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.
Complex projects
The previous description is for simpler projects.
Ideally, tasks in simple projects 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.
The Work Breakdown Structure 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
completing milestones are occasions for celebration, to pop the champagne.
They help to boost the morale of personnel involved in making the project a success.
If the Carta de Gannt 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 Gannt led the way, quite a mass of management literature has 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 project Gannt chart continues to be used in some avatar or the other in all such models.
And for simple projects, The Gannt Chart is the solution.
A Gannt Chart is a pictoral illustration of tasks as pieces of work over time. It facilitates planing and monitoring of project development and resource distribution. the left-most section of the Gannt Diagram flows a series with the work breakdown structure (essentially, a list of tasks). The chart part presents time succession, conveyed either in absolute or relative time.
When building a Gannt Chart, each unit of work occupies one horizontal line of data. Time periods are displayed in the header, staggered as suitable for the enormity of the effort at hand. Bars running horizontally within the Gannt Chart represent the begin and finish times of each piece of work in the project. Tasks could appear in order, in parallel, or staggered.
Nearly all project planning software (like KPlato) allows project management with Gannt chart representation of project workflow.
These tools deliver a number of tools for managers to start, track and report projects.
Example Gannt Chart
Gannt Diagram History
The Gannt Chart was devised by Henry Gannt, an American engineer, in 1917.
Henry devised the prototype of the Gannt diagram for ship-building around World War I.
His eponymous chart became such a useful tool that it has not undergone any changes for 80 years.
It was only in the 1990's when Gannt Diagrams were modified to include task link lines.
Tip drawing Gannt Diagrams:
On significantly sized undertakings, tasks with quite a few internal subtasks can be divided into constituent Gannt Charts to improve usefulness.
