The Dissertation/Management

Project
Paula Stephens
2015/2016

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Methods

What are you practically going to do for the Client?

• You need to be able to show the specific activities that would need to
be completed in order to the project to be done successfully.
• Each Method or Tool identified in Section 3 will need tasks to enable
the data to be gathered and analysed.

A way of making sense of these activities is through Gantt Charts

• Main advantage of Gantt charts – they are a useful communication tool
& easy to understand – “a picture paints a thousand words”;
• Provides a compact overview of responsibilities & progress on
the project;
• Helps to calculate the start and finish times of each activity on the
Gantt chart.

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Methods

• What is a Gantt Chart?

– Henry Gantt a pioneer of scientific management – work
study
• Gantt Charts highlights the “critical path” in a project.
• Gantt charts are simple representation of a project from the view of the
TIME taken for each activity and the RESOURCES required at any point in
time;
• Used to monitor actual progress against a plan e.g. on a month-by-month,
week-by-week or day-by-day basis;
• Gantt charts can be produced separately for each
person or parts of projects to show their total workload;
• Arrows can be added to show the interrelationships and interdependencies
of different activities;
• Any slack or float time can be shown in each activity;

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Gantt Chart Method

• Main advantage of Gantt charts – they are a

useful communication tool & easy to
understand;
• Provides a compact overview of responsibilities & progress on
the project;
• Henry Gantt a pioneer of scientific management – work
study
• Gantt charts are simple representation of a project from the
view of the TIME taken for each activity and the
RESOURCES required at any point in time;
• Used to monitor actual progress against a plan on a week-by-
week or day-by-day basis;

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Gantt chart for job progress

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Gantt Chart showing resource requirements

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How to complete a Gantt Chart

• Starting at the end date of the research / project and work backwards to: -
– Identify all of the specific activities needed for the total project – i.e. compile
an ‘activity list’;
– Avoid general headings e.g. Data gathering, PESTLE analysis, etc
– What are the start and end dates of these activities?
– Understand each activities dependencies & interdependencies
– E.G. Some activities can only start when a previous activity has
completed – it is therefore dependant upon that earlier activity!
» These activities are likely to be on the projects “critical path” – i.e.
the longest duration through the project and MUST always be
completed on time;
– E.G. Some activities can take place simultaneously, i.e. at the same
time as other activities!
» These activities are likely to have “slack” or “float” times
attached to them and will not be activities on the projects critical
path
– Identify these key milestones between the end date and today
– Map the activities onto your Gantt Chart
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Thank you!

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