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| Gantt Charts - Free Online Tutorial |
| The information in this free Gantt Charts tutorial is taken from "GetAhead in Project Management" . GetAhead in project management distils a 4-day class-based course into a highly focused self-study course. Delivered direct to you, each course installs in under one minute and provides you with unlimited training for a lifetime - it's like having your very own project management training library. |
| The Project Management self-development program is available in the following formats... |
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| eBook 3 Multimedia CD-Roms eBook & 3 Multimedia CD-Roms |
Free Gantt Charts Tutorial |
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Gantt Charts – Introduction Gantt Charts - named after their inventor Henry Gantt, are the preferred information media of senior managers, who usually find that the information portrayed in PERT charts is overly detailed. |
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| Gantt charts are simple to understand and easy to change, however they only provide a vague description of how the whole project is reacting as a system. | |
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The PERT chart is an excellent start point for the production of a bar
chart or Gantt chart, which is required in order to clearly show the start
and finish dates for the major activities. PERT is an acronym for Program
Evaluation Review Technique and is one of the most widely used graphical
representations for project planning and control purposes. Modern software planning packages are able to present the project data in a wide variety of formats including numerical sequence, alphabetical and date order. In the example shown, the network information has been sorted and presented in date order using the early start values. When producing Gantt charts care should be taken that each distinct area is clearly definable - by applying an appropriate color or shading regime. The challenge to project management is to accurately identify and quantify the activities, or tasks, that are necessary in order to deliver the end-product on time and within budget. Various planning charts are used in practice, depending on the size and complexity of the project. Whilst the PERT chart is one of the most useful aids to effective project management, senior managers will not usually want to see this level of detail. When project management staff need to communicate information to senior management, Gantt charts, histograms and other graphical techniques are the preferred presentation format. Any plan, schedule or specification that will be circulated should be represented in a clear and unambiguous format. The notation used should be clear to both an in-house and an external audience. In order to do this, the three vital planning and control parameters - time, cost and performance should be summarized at an appropriate level of detail. |
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The Gantt Chart’s Limitations The chart has three important limitations: Firstly, the sequencing and inter-relationships between the activities are not shown. Therefore, they do not represent a network of the activities. If one activity is accelerated or delayed it will be difficult to see the effect that this may have on associated activities. Secondly, the Gantt chart cannot show the results of either an early or a late start in the activities. It does not reflect true project status because elements behind schedule do not mean that the project is behind schedule. Finally the Gantt chart does not show the uncertainty involved in performing the activity, therefore questions concerning the minimum or maximum duration of the activity are not represented. |
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The logical bar-chart shows the logical relationships between the
activities. Whilst this technique is useful, be aware that on larger
projects the volume of activities may result in a cluttered presentation.
Many variations of Gantt chart can be used to represent a broad spectrum of project information and in spite of its limitations the Gantt chart remains the most common presentation format for senior management. |
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Resource Planning Resource planning addresses the effective scheduling of the skills and resources necessary in order to deliver the products required by the project. Resource aggregation, leveling and smoothing refer to techniques that together should ensure that the project makes optimum use of the resources available. In project management terms all of the staffing requirements, money and physical objects that the project will consume or require are termed resources. Resource planning aims to ensure that the project is run efficiently, by keeping all of the dedicated project resources as fully utilized as possible. It also aims to facilitate the accurate prediction of the demands that will be placed on the project and enables the accurate identification of important issues such as potential bottlenecks. Resource planning is concerned with the effective scheduling of skills, experience, financial and technical resources necessary in order to deliver the products required. It is crucial technique to the success of the project and the work involved grows rapidly in complexity as the number of individuals and the required skills increase. Resource planning should be an iterative process, helping to refine the PERT chart by optimizing the use of resources throughout the project life cycle. The overall planning process involves a number of iterative steps beginning with the identification of the products that are required to deliver the overall end-product. This should be followed by identification of the resources needed and the sequencing of the activities required. The PERT chart should then be updated to reflect the resources and activities as they are identified. This is followed by assigning the activities and responsibilities to suitably qualified staff. With the shape and size of the project now visible, the total cost of staff and other resources for each planning period can now be calculated. Costs should be itemized by resource type, identifying the number of staff at each skill, or cost, level. Up to this point the planning process would normally have assumed one-hundred percent availability of staff to work on project related tasks. Thus a full-time person is scheduled for five full days each week - whilst in reality, they may not be available on this basis. |
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Gantt Charts – Resource Definitions & Allocation
Resources can be broadly divided into consumables and non-consumables. A consumable resource is consumed as it goes into a task, for example, when money is spent on paying contractors it cannot be used again. Non-consumable resources can be used over and over again - manpower and equipment used on a project are obvious examples of non-consumable resources. It is often helpful to consider resource definitions, in order to define the capabilities, cost and productivity of different worker groups. This classification is normally conducted with reference to the skill profiles of staff. It is important to define the effort that each group can produce per unit of time in order to accurately match the task needs with the allocated resources. The various resource definitions may be supported by estimates of the quantity of each resource that will be available throughout the projects life cycle. This information is called a resource availability profile and these are often shown as graphs of the level of availability against time. With reference to the tasks, or activities, identified in the plans; the next job is to allocate resources to these tasks. At this stage each task should be dealt with in isolation - it would be premature to attempt to optimize the overall efficiency of matching tasks to the resources allocated. The allocation of resources to tasks should be carried out on a 'best estimate' of how to address the workload requirements. Three techniques can then be applied to ensure the practical and efficient use of resources. |
| Gantt Charts - Free Online Tutorial |
| The information in this free Gantt Charts tutorial is taken from "GetAhead in Project Management" . GetAhead project management courses distil a 2-day class-based course into a highly focused self-study course. Delivered direct to you, each course installs in under one minute and provides you with unlimited training for a lifetime - it's like having your very own project management training library. |
| The Project Management self-development program is available in the following formats... |
|
|
| eBook 3 Multimedia CD-Roms eBook & 3 Multimedia CD-Roms |
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