Project Timeline Management - Gantt

How to make a Gantt chart

A Gannt chart, 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 are columns drawn, to indicate the dates that may be in increments of days, weeks or months. Depending on the total length of the project, we may decide on which granularity of the date is comfortable for us - 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.

After 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.

Complex projects

What has been described above is for simple 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 WBS, or "Work Breakdown Structure". This process enables the 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

Achieving 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 Gantt chart 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 p roject design by the customer, or completion of project prototype, to delivery of individual modules by different teams.

Conclusion

After Henry Gantt showed the way, quite a wealth of management literature has evolved on how to manage 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 Gantt chart continues to be used in some avatar or the other in all such models. And for simple projects, Gantt chart is the solution.

Addendum: Gantt Spelling

Widely discussed, but difficult to spell, and far more than a buzzword, Gantt's unusual surname gives rise to much dismay as people search for information on Gannt Charts, Ghant Charts, and Gannt Charts. As such, I have included these common misspellings so that when your boss tells you to create a Gannt Chart, Ghant Chart, or Gannt Chart - this resource will be readily located, and your life as a project manager can soar to new heights.