Time
Management
| Not
a
Member Yet? The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club gives
you the training, coaching and support you need to make a lasting
success of your career. Take our FREE tour, and find out what it can
do for you!
Recent Discussions:
Quick Start
Relevant
Courses & Resources
|
Gantt Charts
|
Task |
possible start | Length | Type | Dependent on... |
1.
High level analysis |
week 1 | 5 days | sequential | |
2.
Selection of hardware platform |
week 1 | 1 day | sequential | 1 |
3.
Installation and commissioning of hardware |
week 3 | 2 weeks | parallel | 2 |
|
4. Detailed analysis of core modules |
week 1 | 2 weeks | sequential | 1 |
5.
Detailed analysis of supporting utilities |
week 1 | 2 weeks | sequential | 4 |
6.
Programming of core modules |
week 4 | 3 weeks | sequential | 4 |
7.
Programming of supporting modules |
week 4 | 3 weeks | sequential | 5 |
8.
Quality assurance of core modules |
week 5 | 1 week | sequential | 6 |
9.
Quality assurance of supporting modules |
week 5 | 1 week | sequential | 7 |
10.Core
module training |
week 7 | 1 day | parallel | 6 |
11.Development
of accounting reporting |
week 6 | 1 week | parallel | 5 |
12.Development
of management reporting |
week 6 | 1 week | parallel | 5 |
13.Development
of management analysis |
week 6 | 2 weeks | sequential | 5 |
14.Detailed
training |
week 7 | 1 week | sequential | 1-13 |
15.Documentation |
week 4 | 2 weeks | parallel | 13 |
2. Head up graph paper with the days or weeks through to task completion
3. Plot the tasks onto the graph paper
Next draw up a rough draft of the Gantt Chart. Plot each task
on the graph paper, showing it starting on the earliest possible
date. Draw it as a bar, with the length of the bar being the
length of the task. Above the task bars, mark the time taken
to complete them. Do not worry about task scheduling yet: All
you are doing is setting up the first draft of the analysis.
This will produce an untidy diagram like the one below:

4. Schedule Activities
Now take the draft Gantt Chart, and use it to schedule actions.
Schedule them in such a way that sequential actions are carried
out in the required sequence. Ensure that dependent activities
do not start until the activities they depend on have been completed.
Where possible, schedule parallel tasks so that they do not interfere with sequential actions on the critical path. While scheduling, ensure that you make best use of the resources you have available, and do not over-commit resource. Also allow some slack time in the schedule for holdups, overruns, quality rejections, failures in delivery, and so on.
A redrawn and scheduled version of the example project is shown below:

By drawing this Gantt Chart, you can see that:
While this section describes how to draw a Gantt Chart manually, in practice project managers tend to use software tools like Microsoft Project to create Gantt Charts.
Not only do these ease the drawing of Gantt Charts, they also make modification of plans easier and provide facilities for monitoring progress against plans.
Gantt charts are useful tools for planning and scheduling projects. They help you to assess how long a project will take to complete, determine the resources needed, and lay out the order in which tasks need to be carried out. They are useful in managing the dependencies between tasks.
When a project is under way, Gantt charts are useful for monitoring its progress. You can immediately see what should have been achieved at a particular point in time, and can therefore take remedial action to bring the project back on course if needed. This can be essential for the successful and profitable implementation of the project.
Most Project Managers use tools such as Microsoft Project to build and manage Gantt Charts.
MindTools.com - Learn Much More in Our Community!
In the next article, we look at Critical Path Analysis, a sophisticated project planning technique. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Extension Resources" list underneath.
| Where to go from here: | Join Mind Tools | |
Newsletter | |
| |
Next Article |
* Shows articles available in full only to Career Excellence Club Premium members.
Costing Your Time
- Understand the real value of your time*
Charts
and Graphs - Choosing the right format
Project Dashboards
- Quickly communicating project progress*
Project Milestone
Reporting - Keeping projects on track by monitoring check
points*
Logframes, and the Logical Framework Approach - Planning
projects robustly
Affinity Diagrams
- Organizing ideas into common themes
Learn to manage the stress in your life with our sister site, stress.mindtools.com.
Mind Tools Store: Mind Tools Ebook, Make Time for Success
Stress Management Masterclass, How to Lead, Design Your Life
Relaxation MP3s
© Mind Tools Ltd, 1995-2008, All Rights Reserved
For requests to reprint or reproduce material from this site, please contact our Permissions Center.
Store · Search · Newsletter · Downloads · Advertisers · Affiliates
MindTools.com is one of the Internet's most-visited career skills resources.
Click here to see analysis.
"I love this newsletter! As a manager I can relate to all topics and use them quite often within myself and my team."
Christina Wall,
Davenport, IA, USA
"I have been receiving your newsletter and using your website as a resource for a while now. I wanted to let you know that you have done a great job at providing useful business tools and explanations on how to use the tools. Before finding your site I used some of the information while consulting with clients. Now I just refer people to your site and it saves me time."
Henry Pellerin,
President,
VantaEdge