What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately?

5 Responses to “What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately?”

1. Chet Frame Says:
   January 8th, 2007 at 10:42 am

   I think that the Gantt Chart is a pretty good communication device between the Project Manager and his team and the Steering Committee. It does provide some meaure of a “to do” list, but it is a fairly clear representation of what you thought you were going to do, what you’ve done, and what more has to be done to meet your original plan.

2. Dr. Jerry Mulenburg Says:
   January 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm

   I’m sure others have found and probably mentioned the same experience that I have in relating project information. This is, the higer up you go, the simpler the communication must be.

   In discussing a project with your peers (e.g. other project managers) you need to provide technical detail and can show them the project plan, the schedule, WBS, risk list, etc. and they get a good sense of what you are talking about. First level management needs, and wants, much less detail: how far you are ahead of or behind on schedule, cost, and what problems you are having. As you go further up the chain, the detail must be shredded out until, when you talk to the highest management levels, a cartoon will usually do just fine.

   The Gantt chart is not much more than a cartoon for management and other stakeholders to understand what you’re doing and how you’re progressing. In this sense, it may be one of the most valuable tools in your kit.

3. Diana Hutchinson Says:
   January 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am

   A Gantt chart is a valuable tool for giving the team and management a big picture view. On projects when I haven’t used one starting out, I find the team members struggle without a framework, and this helps get in sync.
   The other benefit is using the critical path to identify for the project manager and the team which part of the tasks need to be done as soon as possible in order to minimize overall project time, and which ones could be slipped to accommodate other project needs or resource limitations.
   I have also found the Visio timeline to be a useful tool in showing the big picture project phases for the team and management.

4. Glen B Alleman Says:
   January 9th, 2007 at 10:36 am

   Hal,

   The Gantt chart is useful IIF it can show the right things to the right people

   1. There are no widows or orphans in the underlying network and there are not hard constraints - this provides confidence that the Gannt chart represents the underlying work in a credible manner - not fixed starts or end. If there are such things, then the Gantt is noting more than a Power Point presentation of the plan
   2. Same goes for the resource loading

   What I’ve found most useful is a Gannt that represents the increasing maturity of the project through Work Packages that show deliverables. The IMP/IMS style is another approach but is sometimes too complex.

   In both cases the Gantt should be seen or read as a Statement of Work for the project, with past tense verbs at the summary bars and present tense verbs at the lowest task level.

   Style seems to be important, so using color and bar styles to draw attention to the important activities helps. Tuftes (sic) has a hanging Gantt style which is very similar to the Critical Tools PERT Chart Expert style used in aerospace and large construction.

   The Gantt though is just a representation of the underlying network. The integrity of the Gantt starts with the network integrity.

   Other tools we use include FastTrack 9.0 and Visio at times

5. Glen John-Lewis Says:
   January 13th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

   I agree with Diane H, the gantt provides the team with the bigger picture, but also they can read how crucial and important their responsibility is to the delivery of their tasks. I understand that to be able to recognise the urgency of the tasks they need to be able to understand and analyise a gantt. This is where the PM comes in, delivering updates and progress reports at team briefings and discussing where at crucial points they fit in.
   Glen.

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