Project Scheduling:

Gantt Chart
JQY (Adapted)
 Project Scheduling
• A project is a collection of tasks that must be completed
in minimum time or at a minimal cost.
• Steps in Project Scheduling:
• Establishing objectives
• Determining available resources
• Sequencing activities
• Identifying precedence relationships
• Determining activity times and costs
• Estimating material and worker requirements
• Determining critical activities
 Objectives of Project Scheduling
• Completing a project as early as possible by determining
the earliest start and finish of each activity.
• Calculating the likelihood that a project will be completed
within a certain time period.
• Finding the minimum cost schedule needed to complete
the project by a certain date.
• Investigating the results of possible delays in activity’s
completion time.
• Progress control.
• Smoothing out resource allocation over the duration of
the project.
 Project Scheduling: Designating Tasks
• Tasks are called activities.
• Estimated completion time (and sometimes costs) are
associated with each activity.
• Activity completion time is related to the amount of resources
committed to it.
• The degree of activity details depend on the application and
the level of specificity of data.
• To determine the optimal schedules, we need to:
• Identify all the project’s activities.
• Determine the precedence relations among activities.
 Example: Klone Computers
• Klone Computers manufactures personal computers
• It is about to design, manufacture, and market the
Klonepalm 2000 palmbook computer.
• Tasks to perform
• Manufacture the new computer.
• Train the staff and vendor representatives.
• Advertise the new computer.
• Klone needs to develop a precedence relations chart which
gives a concise set of tasks and their immediate
predecessors.
 Klone Computers Activities
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
A Prototype model design
B Purchase of materials
Manufacturing
C Manufacture of prototype model
Activities
D Revision of design
E Initial production run
F Staff training
Training
G Staff input on prototype models
Activities
H Sales training
Advertising I Pre-production advertising campaign
Activities J Post-redesign advertising campaign
 Klone Computers
Precedence Relationships Chart
Immediate Estimated Completion
ACTIVITY
Predecessor Time (in days)
A None 90
B A 15
C B 5
D G 20
E D 21
F A 25
G C, F 14
H D 28
I A 30
J D, I 45
 Project Scheduling Techniques:
• Gantt Chart
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT)
 Gantt Chart
• First devised in the mid 1890s by Karol Adamiecki, a Polish engineer
who ran a steelworks in southern Poland and had become interested
in management ideas and techniques.
• Further developed and popularized by Henry Laurence Gantt, an
American engineer and project management consultant around 1910-
1915. The Gantt Chart is named after him.
• It is also known as “Harmonogram”
• A type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.
• Each bar is a project activity
• The horizontal axis corresponds to time (usually in weeks or months)
• Length of each bar indicates time allocated to each activity
• Positioning of each bar indicates timing – start and end times for the activity.
• In an earliest Gantt Chart, each bar begins and ends at the earliest start/finish
the activity can take place.
• Gantt charts can be broken down into sub-activities. But the more
detailed you get, the more crowded and useless the chart becomes.
• Additional details can be added into Gantt charts:
• Colors might indicate the owner of the activity (who performs it)
• Shading (or space for shading) might indicate percentage of completion.
 Gantt Chart
• Gantt Charts can be prepared in the Computer using
Microsoft Excel, but can be prepared more appropriately
using Microsoft Visio.
• Gantt Charts allow you to see:
• What the various activities are
• When each activity begins and ends
• How long each activity is scheduled to last
• Where activities overlap with other activities, and by how
much
• The start and end date of the whole project
 A Simple Gantt Chart

Time Period
Activity
J F M A M J J
Design
Build
Test
A Complex Gantt Chart
Build an Earliest Time Gantt Chart based on the
table below and determine how long will the
project will be completed at the earliest:
Immediate Estimated Completion
ACTIVITY
Predecessor Time (in days)
A None 90
B A 15
C B 5
D G 20
E D 21
F A 25
G C, F 14
H D 28
I A 30
J D, I 45
Gantt Chart Answer Page
 Advantages and Disadvantages:
• Advantages:
• Easy to construct.
• Gives the earliest completion date.
• Provides a schedule of earliest possible start and finish
times of activities.
• Disadvantages:
• Gives only one possible schedule (the earliest).
• Does not show whether the project is behind schedule.
• Does not demonstrate the effects of the delays in any
one activity on the start of another activity, thus on the
project completion time.