By Linky van der Merwe
Most existing project managers would know that Gantt Charts are popular tools to use for a visual presentation of a project schedule. Although numerous software tools make provision for Gantt Charts, the most widely used tool remains Microsoft Project.
For new or aspiring project managers, it’s important to understand that Gantt Charts come about as a result of the Time Management activities in the Planning process on a project.
Schedule Creation
When creating a project schedule, the order of the planning activities is important as explained below:
- Define activities by identifying all the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
- Sequence activities by identifying the relationships among project activities.
- Estimate activity resources by identifying the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment etc to perform each activity.
- Estimate activity durations by analysing the work effort needed to complete each activity with the estimated resources.
- Develop the schedule – this is where activities are documented in a schedule (gantt chart) in the right sequence, with durations, resource assignments and constraints
History of the Gantt Chart
Wrike has created an interesting Infographic to display the origins or timeline of the Gantt Chart, the anatomy and how it’s used, as well as the benefits of using Gantt Charts on projects.
