POM

Module 6: Project Management

Unit 2: Project Planning and Scheduling Using Gannt Chart

Overview:

In this Unit, you will learn how to plan and schedule projects using the Gannt Chart.

Module Objective:
After successful completion of this Unit, you should be able to:

• Plan and schedule simple projects using Gannt Chart.

Course Materials:
A. Handout: Project Management: Project Planning & Scheduling with Gannt Chart

Read:

PROJECT PLANNING & SCHEDULING WITH GANNT CHART

GANNT CHART

The Gannt Chart is a popular tool for planning and scheduling simple projects. It
enables a manager to initially schedule project activities and then monitor progress over
time by comparing planned progress to actual progress.

• Data Required in Preparing a Gannt Chart

1. Identify the major activities that need to be performed.

2. Estimate the activity times: the time required to finish each activity.

3. Determine the immediate predecessor/s of each activity: which activity/ies

need to be done immediately prior to each activity.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE

A bank plans to establish a new direct marketing department. The project team
has gathered the following data:

The Gannt Chart may be used to answer 4 basic Project Planning questions:
1. When is the earliest project completion?
2. Which activities are critical (should not be delayed)?
3. Which activities are noncritical (can be delayed)?
4. How long can each of the activities be delayed without delaying the whole
project (slack)?

Step 1. Prepare the chart

• Draw the vertical line to indicate the project start time (Week 0 in this case).
• Draw the timeline, divide it into time increments (in weeks, in this case) and
label each increment.

Weeks after start

Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C

Select and order furniture D

Remodel & install phones E

Receive & set up furniture F

Move in/startup G
Step 2. Draw the Gannt Chart
• Draw the bar corresponding to Activity A; it starts at Week 0, since it has no
immediate predecessor and, therefore, may be started as soon as possible; its
length is 8 weeks, which is the activity time of Activity A.

Weeks after start

Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C

Select and order furniture D

Remodel & install phones E

Receive & set up furniture F

Move in/startup G

• Draw the bar corresponding to Activity B; it starts at Week 0, since it has no

immediate predecessor and, therefore, may be started as soon as possible; its
length is 4 weeks, which is the activity time of Activity B.
 • Draw the bar corresponding to Activity C; it starts at Week 4, since it can only be
started after Activity B is finished; its length is 9 weeks, which is the activity time
of Activity C. Write B just before the bar to indicate its immediate predecessor.

• Draw the bar corresponding to Activity D; it starts at Week 8, since it can only be
started after Activity A is finished; its length is 6 weeks, which is the activity time
of Activity D. Write A just before the bar to indicate its immediate predecessor.

Weeks after start

Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C B

Select and order furniture D A

Remodel & install phones E

Receive & set up furniture F

Move in/startup G
 • Draw the bar corresponding to Activity E; it starts at Week 8, since it can only be
started after Activity A is finished; its length is 11 weeks, which is the activity
time of Activity E. Write A just before the bar to indicate its immediate
predecessor.
Weeks after start
Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C B

Select and order furniture D A

Remodel & install phones E A

Receive & set up furniture F

Move in/startup G

• Draw the bar corresponding to Activity F; it starts at Week 14, since it can only
be started after Activity D is finished; its length is 3 weeks, which is the activity
time of Activity F. Write D just before the bar to indicate its immediate
predecessor.

Weeks after start

Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C B

Select and order furniture D A

Remodel & install phones E A

Receive & set up furniture F D

Move in/startup G
 • Draw the bar corresponding to Activity G; it may be started only after ALL of its
3 immediate predecessors – Activities C, E and F – have been finished, which is
at Week 19; its length is 1 week, which is the activity time of Activity G. Write C,
E, F just before the bar to indicate its immediate predecessors.

Weeks after start

Start 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Locate new facilities A

Interview prospective staff B

Hire and train staff C B

Select and order furniture D A

Remodel & install phones E A

Receive & set up furniture F D

Move in/startup G C, E, F

Step 3. Determine the earliest project completion time

• Identify the activity/ies whose corresponding bar/s reach/es the rightmost
portion of the Gannt chart; in this case, it’s Activity G.
• Whenever this activity ends, it would be the earliest project completion time; in
this case, it’s Week 20.
• Therefore, the earliest project completion time is: 20 weeks after the project
has been started. (Note: Don’t merely say, “This project can be finished on Week
20,” because other project stakeholders such as, say, the client, might
misconstrue it to mean ‘20 weeks from now’, which can only be true if you are
starting today the execution of the project.)
Step 5. Identify the critical activities
• The critical activities are the activities that should not be delayed. If any of these
activities is delayed, the whole project will be delayed accordingly.
• By inspecting the Gannt chart, it can be readily observed that, among the
activities, Activity G should not be delayed; it should be started not later than
Week 19 and must be finished by Week 20; it is one of the critical activities.
• The predecessors of Activity G are Activities C, E and F; at least one of these is
also a critical activity.
• By inspecting the Gannt chart, that other activity would be Activity E; Activity E
should be finished not later than Week 19, which means that it should be started
not later than Week 8; the completion of the two other predecessors of Activity G,
namely, Activities C and F may be delayed, though not beyond Week 19.
• The predecessor of Activity E, which is Activity A, in this case, would also be a
critical activity; if Activity A were delayed, Activity E would be delayed, and so
would Activity G.
• Therefore, the critical activities for this project are:
Activity A: Locate new facilities
Activity E: Remodel and install phones
Activity G: Move in/startup

What’s the significance of knowing the critical activities?

• Once you’ve determined the critical activities, you would be wise to:

 Make sure that your most dependable people are assigned to do the critical
activities (A, E, and G);

 Make sure that the resources (manpower, materials, machines/equipment)

required to do the critical activities (A, E, and G) are ready before these are
to be started; and

 Make sure that the progress of A, E, and G are closely monitored from start
to completion.
Step 6. Identify the noncritical activities
• The noncritical activities are the activities that may be delayed.
• In this case, since among the Activities A through G the critical activities are A,
E and G, it follows that the noncritical activities are B, C, D and F.

What’s the significance of knowing the noncritical activities?

• If we could delay a noncritical activity, we’d better delay it IF, by doing so, we
could temporarily shift some resources from that noncritical activity to a critical
activity, thereby speeding up the completion of that critical activity.

Observe the chart below:

Notice that both Activities A & B can be started ASAP, but A is critical while B is
noncritical. What if we delay the start of B by, say, 4 days and temporarily assign
the interviewer in B to help those assigned to do A?

Delaying B by 4 days would, of course, result in the delay of its successor, C, by 4

days, but this may not result in the delay of the project; instead, this might result in
A being finished sooner, say, by 2 days earlier, which in turn will result in Activities
D, E, F, & G to be started and finished 2 days earlier; thus, also finishing the whole
project 2 days earlier; i.e., 18 weeks after it has been started.
 Thus, by temporarily shifting some resources from the noncritical activity (B) to the
critical activity (A), we are able to crash (speed up the completion of) the critical
activity and of the whole project.
However, the noncritical activities cannot be delayed beyond their maximum slack;
i.e., the maximum amount of time that each of the activities can be delayed without
delaying the whole project.

Step 7. Determine the maximum slack of each activity

• The critical activities – A, E and G – cannot be delayed; therefore, their maximum
slack is zero; so, we only need to find the maximum slack of each of the
noncritical activities: B, C, D and F.
• As can be observed in the chart below, F may only be delayed for a maximum of
2 weeks; if the completion of F is delayed beyond Week 19, G would be delayed
and so would the whole project.
• Since D is an immediate predecessor of F, the maximum slack of D would also
be 2 weeks; however, if D has already been delayed by 2 weeks, F cannot be
delayed anymore; on the other hand, if D has only been delayed by 1 week, F may
still be delayed by another 1 week without delaying the whole project.
• Referring to the chart, C may only be delayed for a maximum of 6 weeks; if the
completion of C is delayed beyond Week 19, G would be delayed and so would
the whole project.
• Since B is an immediate predecessor of C, the maximum slack of B would also
be 6 weeks; however, if B has already been delayed by 6 weeks, C cannot be
delayed anymore; on the other hand, if B has only been delayed by, say, 4 weeks,
C may still be delayed by 2 weeks without delaying the whole project.

Thus, the maximum slack, in weeks, of each of the activities are:

A: 0
B: 6
C: 6
D: 2
E: 0
F: 2
G: 0
Activities/Assessments:
Activity 14: Individual

Given the activities of a project, their time estimates, and their immediate
predecessors shown below:

1. Draw the Gannt chart for this project.

2. What’s the earliest expected time to finish the project?
3. Which activities should not be delayed?
4. Which activities can be delayed?
5. What’s the maximum amount of time that each of the activities can be delayed
without delaying the whole project?

Activities Activity Times, Immediate Maximum Slack,

months Predecessors months
A 2 -
B 3 -
C 2 A
D 4 B
E 4 C
F 3 C
G 5 D, E
H 2 F, G