Gannt Charts Task

This task will introduce you to Gannt charts. We will create a simple Gannt chart that includes the
key tasks and milestones for this module.

You will be expected to update chart as the module progresses. You will be graded on the overall
Gannt chart for completeness of tasks, key milestones and your creation of the project planning
items for your coding. Note that this is an overall project plan that, in real world scenarios, will
include hardware builds, fitment checks, customer meetings etc – everything to ensure a successful
project completion. Project are much more than sitting in a dark room, eating pizza and writing
clever code!

Setup
1. Install GanntProject from AppsAnywhere
2. Run GanntProject

Add our first tasks

3. To add a new task:
a. Menu Task -> new task or ctrl-T
b. Type in the name of the task
c. Double click begin date and enter the date
d. Double click the end date and enter the date
e. Add in all your weeks for the module
f. You should now see something like this:

g. By default, each week has 5 working days. If you want to plan to work weekends, go
to Project -> properties, select calendar and deselect the ‘weekend’ days or use the
drop-down box to allow task to run as normal on weekends.
h. If your dates don’t match up you may find that adjusting the start date, moves the
end date and vice-versa. If this happened, open the task properties and adjust the
duration.

Adding Sub-Tasks
4. Each week will have a lecture session, let’s add these
a. Ctrl-T will add a new task immediately below the currently selected task. If you have
‘Week 1’ selected, then you will see this:
 b. If you have week 3 selected, you will see this:

c. Drag and drop to keep it near the associated tasks, i.e. ‘Week 1’. You will then see
this:

d. Lecture 1 is now a ‘sub-task’ of week 1

5. Each lecture session will have associated work to be completed before the next lecture. Now
add in a task to carry out the module task during that week. Make the task duration 3 days
and ensure it ends the day before the next lecture. It should now look like this:
 a. You now have two sub-tasks for week 1!
b. Do the same for the remaining weeks and you should see this:

6. We now have a plan for all our tasks!

Adding Predecessors
7. We are aware that things change, what if we, or the lecturer are ill and the class is delayed?
It would be a pain to change everything manually. What we need to do is link our tasks in
order. We do this by creating ‘predecessors’. We can’t carry out our tasks from week 1 if we
didn’t attend the lecture!
a. Right click ‘week 1 task’ and select properties
b. Select the predecessors tab
c. Click ‘add’
d. Under ‘task name’ select ‘Lecture 1’ from the drop down box.
e. Go back to the ‘general’ tab.
f. Click OK
g. You will now see a small arrow linking the two tasks.
 h. Notice that if we start our task immediately after the lecture, we have free time
before the next lecture!

Delaying Tasks
8. We can’t always start tasks as soon as they are possible.
a. Assume we won’t be able to start the task for 3 days after the lecture. Right click the
task and select properties.
b. Select ‘Earliest begin’ from the ‘Additional constraint’ drop down menu.
c. Delay the start date by 3 days and save, you should now see:

d. You have time between the lecture and the task

e. All lecture release dates are fixed, so go through all of these and change the start
time constraint.

Critical Path
9. If we have a complex project, we want to know the risk associated with completing the
project on time. Depending on how you have set up your tasks so far, your screen may look
different for the following steps, but the overall effect should be the recognisable. I will be
starting from here:
a. I have 3 lectures, each with a gap before I carry out the tasks and all linked together
with predecessors. The lectures have a fixed start date.
b. Add a new task, this will be a ‘milestone’ so tick the milestone check box. To make it
clear to see, change the colour to red. Name it ‘module end’. Set the predecessor to
the last task.
c. In this case, all the previous tasks are linked, so we only need a single predecessor. It
is not necessary to join every task.
d. You should now see this, not the milestone label at the top:

e. From your start date, add enough new tasks that each take a week to complete to
extend past the module end date.

f. You will see that these new tasks extend beyond the milestone, but that milestone is
fixed in our project. The tasks that join to effect the final data are know as the
‘critical path’. AT the top of the time plot you will see a button marked ‘show critical
path’, click this and the critical path will be highlighted by shading as shown:
g. We now know which tasks we have to complete more quickly to achieve the project
on time. Try shortening one of your task durations to 1 day, I will choose the middle
task.

h. You will now see that the critical path has changed. But why is only the last task
shaded?
i. This is because the preceding tasks can all over run without the project becoming
‘critical’. Try extending one of your module tasks by 1 day. I have chosen ‘lecture 2’:

j. The end date has not changed because this task was not on the critical path.
k. Now extend another task by a long period. I chose ‘Week1 Task 1 and extended it to
9 days. The first thing that happened is that the start date moved earlier to the
earliest date it can begin, then the following tasks are moved later.
l. Notice the critical path still hasn’t changed! We have enough spare time in our
project to move other tasks later.
Overlapping tasks
m. But you should notice that the lecture in week 2 has moved! This is automated to fit
the project in, but we know the lecture can’t be moved, so unlink the lecture from
its predecessor and changed the start date back.
n. Now you see that you are continuing to work on the task from week 1 while
attending the lecture for week 2
o. But the work for week 2 cannot begin until the work from week 1 is completed, so
link these together with a predecessor. Week 2 task 2 now has two predecessors!

More Critical Paths

What if you’re a lazy student? I know, this never happens!

a. You’ve already taken 9 days to do task 1, what if you do the same for task 2? Make the
necessary adjustment to your Gannt chart. (This will be easier if you unlink Lecture 3 first!)
b. You will notice that Task 2 now finishes after you need to start task 3! If you use task 2 as a
predecessor to task 3 the end date will move – and we can’t have that!
c. Make the connection and you will see the tasks that lie on your critical path. Now you know
which ones to adjust to keep your project on time.

You Task
Your task, following on from this session is to start a detailed Gannt chart for your work throughout
this module. Don’t forget that you are required to write a report and a presentation / VIVA within
the timeframe, so these are important tasks!

You will be expected to keep your Gannt chart up to date, adding tasks, adjusting timescales and
keeping an eye on your critical path at all times.

Your Gannt chart will form part of your submission and grading.

Summary
We have only scratched the surface of Gannt charts and project software. GanntProject is similar in
many ways to Microsoft Project but, as a free software, you might expect that it has some
limitations but remains very similar.

Note that this is not necessarily a replacement for Agile methods, but rather it is complementary.
Agile may be useful for some projects, but deadlines are fixed by the customer, requirements are
fixed by the customer and sometimes non-software issues affect what software you can write,
debug and test.
If you want to explore, take a look at the PERT chart, or the resources and resources chart. These are
not required for your assessment but will give you an idea of how complex a Gannt chart and project
can become. To give you an idea of how powerful and useful it can be, I have run a project for a new
production line. The project lasted around 8 months and included:

1. Customer and 3 staff

2. 3 suppliers with multiple equipment design, programmers and project managers
3. Re-designing 5 machines
4. 5 brand new machines
5. 6 Electrical and mechanical fitters
6. 3 line operators per shift on two shifts.
7. Parts suppliers for test and ‘run at rate’ production runs
8. Linking all production machines together through a network with full fault detection, no
fault forward control, in process measurement, statistical process control, user interfaces for
line operators, engineering, maintenance sales and customers
9. Time management for installation and production schedules to ensure supply of other parts
made on the line

I’m sure you can imagine the complexity of coordinating all of these people and sub-projects so all
the equipment and computer control systems could be tested before production.

How important was it to get it right? After commencement of normal production a failure to supply
correct part, tat held up our customers production incurred a cost of £20,000 per minute!