TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL TEACHERS’ COLLEGE

PROGRAMME: DIPLOMA IN ICT FOR TEACHERS

COURSE: PAM 230 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

UNIT 4.2: BAR CHARTS

Aims and objectives

The aims of this lecture are to:

• Explain the use of bar charts.

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Another widely used planning tool is the bar chart. Bar charts provide a highly visual way of
illustrating the sequence of activities in a project but, because they do not show dependencies
very readily, they are less useful for managing progress on a project.

Gantt charts provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing
project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format.

▪ Symbols include:
▪ Black diamonds: Milestones
▪ Thick black bars: Summary tasks
▪ Lighter horizontal bars: Durations of tasks
▪ Arrows: Dependencies between tasks

4.2 ADDING MILESTONES TO GANTT CHARTS

▪ Many people like to focus on meeting milestones, especially for large projects.
▪ Milestones emphasize important events or accomplishments in projects.
▪ You typically create milestone by entering tasks that have a zero duration, or you can
mark any task as a milestone.

In order to make Milestones understandable, SMART Criteria was proposed

▪ Milestones should be:
▪ Specific
▪ Measurable
▪ Assignable
▪ Realistic
▪ Time-framed

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Figure 1 below shows a bar chart of a feasibility study project.

We have drawn it on the assumption that one analyst will be performing all the work and that
therefore the activities are arranged in a simple linear sequence. In fact, of course, we know from
our network diagrams that some activities can proceed in parallel and this is shown in Figure 2,
along with the float for each activity which is indicated by the dashed lines.

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This illustrates well why bar charts are so poor for indicating dependencies. Although the bar
chart seems to indicate that Analyze requirements cannot start until Conduct interviews is
complete, this may not in fact be the case; the chart might just be reflecting the fact that the
person who is to carry out Analyze requirements is not available for a few days.

Some project planning software tools try to show dependencies on bar charts but the result
usually ends up looking messy, as in Figure 3.

Generally, it is much better to construct a network diagram to indicate dependencies and to use
bar charts for what they are most suited for: as a means of indicating to those involved in the
project the overall sequence of activities.

4.3 USING PLANNING TOOLS

It will probably have occurred to you by now that creating the various diagrams and charts for a
project is likely to be a time-consuming business. In addition, as we have said, plans are not
produced at the start of a project and then engraved in stone; they will require constant
adjustment and revision as the project progresses. All of this points towards the use of
computerized planning tools to take the hard work out of the planning work and to make
replanning less of a chore.

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4.3.1 Advantages of planning tools

• Ease of replanning: Plans are generally created iteratively. We produce a project

breakdown, create estimates and produce a schedule. This does not work, so we
reschedule. We go back and review our estimates and produce another schedule. And so
on. If we are drawing our plans by hand each time, we will soon run out of patience and
settle, perhaps, for a less than optimal solution. With a planning tool, however, there
should be no such reluctance and we can make minor or major adjustments to our plan at
will. The result should be that we plan more thoroughly and produce a much better end-
product.

• Quality of presentation: A plan is a means of communication from the project manager

to the project team, to the users, to senior management and to customers. Planning tools
generally have flexible presentation and reporting facilities capable of producing high-
quality output in a variety of formats. Although presentation is not everything, the fact is
that a well presented plan is both easy for its audience to assimilate and has greater
credibility than a hand-drawn plan.

• Tracking progress: Most planning tools have facilities to track progress on a project.
The data may have to be input manually by the project manager or support staff or, if they
are lucky, it may be possible to link the tool to a time recording system and capture the
input that way. In either case, though, the project manager will be able to compare the
actual progress with the plan, to identify where problems seem to be arising and to
investigate them and decide how to respond to them.

4.3.2 Disadvantages of planning tools:

Planning tools have some disadvantages too, of which we would mention two.

• Hard to use: Although very powerful, some project planning tools can be difficult to use.
Indeed, there is the usual trade-off between ease of use and functionality. Some products,
too, are rather finicky about the sequence in which the plan is set up: if you start out the
wrong way, it can involve a lot of hard work to reshape the plan later. The answers to this
are to read the manuals thoroughly, get properly trained and, best of all, find a local
‘expert’ who can help you out when you get stuck.