GANTT CHART

• The Gant chart was developed by Henry L. Gant in 1918 and remains a popular tool in
production and project scheduling.

• Each activity is listed on the vertical axis. The horizontal axis is time, and the
anticipated as well as actual duration of each activity is represented by a bar of the
appropriate length.

• The chart also indicates the earliest possible starting time for each activity.

• For example, activity C cannot start before time 5 since, according to Table 14.1,
activity B must be completed before activity C can begin.

• As each activity or part thereof is completed, the appropriate bar is shaded. At any
point in time, then, if is clear which activities are on schedule and which are not. The
Gant chart in Figure 14.1 shows that as of week 13 activities D, E, and H are behind
schedule, while G has actually been completed (because it is all shaded) and hence is
ahead of schedule.

Gantt chart is mainly used as a record-keeping device for following the progression in
time of the subtasks of a project.
• We can see which individual tasks are on or behind schedule.
• It seems important to note at this point that in the Gantt chart context the phrase "on
schedule" means "it has been completed no later than the earliest possible completion
time."

Who was Henry Gantt?

• Henry Gantt was a social scientist and management consultant who also held a
degree in mechanical engineering. He worked in the field of scientific management,
developing methods to streamline and increase the productivity of corporations and their
workforce. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s to help supervisors understand the
progress of their labor force and to ensure tasks were on schedule.
Parts of a Gantt Chart
As a minimum, to be considered a Gantt chart it must contain the following two things:
1. A listing of tasks
2. A bar representing start and end dates for each task.
Other items that can be used are:
• Phases: The tasks can be grouped into phases. This is core functionality for any strong gantt charting
software, because most projects have more than about 10 tasks, at which point it gets unwieldy and
difficult to manage when all tasks are on the same level.
• Task dependencies: The relationships between tasks are displayed as arrows from one task to the next.
This makes it clear how the tasks are related to each other, and allows for easy analysis of different
scenarios on the project. There are 4 types of task dependencies:

Critical Path: Defined as those tasks that define the completion date of the project, the tasks that are
on the critical path must receive a favorable share of the project manager's attention because of their
larger influence on the overall project completion date. Thus it is important that those tasks are
highlighted in some way. Common ways to show the critical path tasks on a Gantt chart include:
• Different color bars
• Bold face font
• Any simple identification of a task on the chart will work.

The chart depicts things like:

task slack time or additional time for completion of a task that shouldn't delay the project;
noncritical activities that may be delayed;
and critical activities that must be executed on time.

• Gantt charts can be used in managing projects of all sizes and types. These may include building
infrastructure like dams, bridges, and highways. They may also include software development and other
technologies.
PERT-CPM
Introduction
• The task in managing major projects is an ancient and honorable art.. In about 2600 B.C., the Egyptians
built the Great Pyramid for King Khufu. The Greek historian Herodotus claimed that 400,000 men worked
for 20 years to build this structure. Although these figures are now in doubt, there is no question about the
enormity of the project. The Book of Genesis reports that the Tower of Babel was not completed because
God made it impossible for the builders to communicate. This project is especially important, since it
establishes a historical precedent for the ever-popular practice of citing divine intervention as a rationale
for failure.

• Modern projects ranging from building a suburban shopping center to putting a man on the moon are
amazingly large, complex, and costly. Completing such projects on time and within the budget is not an
easy task. In particular, we shall see that the complicated problems of scheduling such projects are often
structured by the interdependence of activities.

Some of the key questions to be answered in this chapter are:

1. What is the expected project completion date?
2. What is the potential "variability" in this date?
3. What are the scheduled start and completion dates for each specific activity?
3. What are the scheduled start and completion dates for each specific activity?
• 4. What activities are critical in the sense that they must be completed exactly as scheduled in order to
meet the target for overall project completion?
• 5. How long can noncritical activities be delayed before a delay in the overall completion date is
incurred?
• 6. How might resources be concentrated most effectively on activities in order to speed up project
completion?
• 7. What controls can be exercised on the flows of expenditures for the various activities throughout the
duration of the project in order that the overall budget can be adhered to?

PERT and CPM, acronyms for Program Evaluation Review Technique and Critical Path Method.

• Each of these approaches to scheduling represents a project as a network.

• PERT was developed in the late 1950s by the Navy Special Projects Office in cooperation with the
management consulting firm of Booz, Allen, and Hamilton. The technique received substantial favorable
publicity for its use in the engineering and development program of the Polaris missile, a complicated
project that had 250 prime contractors and over 9,000 subcontractors.

• CPM was developed in 1957 by J. E. Kelly of Remington Rand and M. R. Walker of Du Pont. It differs
from PERT primarily in the details of how time and cost are treated. Indeed, in actual implementation, the
distinctions between PERI and CPM have become blurred as firms have integrated the best features of
both systems into their own efforts to manage projects effectively. The implementation of PERT and CPM
had an immediate impact on scheduling projects because it allowed the practice of "management by
exception.
Basic Steps in PERT/CPM
Project scheduling by PERT / CPM consists of four main steps:
1) Planning
• The planning phase is started by splitting the total project into small projects.
• These smaller projects in turn are divided into activities and are analyzed by the department or
section.
• The relationship of each activity with respect to other activities is defined and established and the
corresponding responsibilities and the authority are also stated.
• Thus the possibility of overlooking any task necessary for the completion of the project is reduced
substantially.

2. Scheduling
• The ultimate objective of the scheduling phase is to prepare a time chart showing the start and finish
times for each activity as well as its relationship to other activities of the project.
• Moreover the schedule must pinpoint the critical path activities which require special attention if the
project is to be completed in time.
• For non-critical activities, the schedule must show the amount of slack or float times which can be used
advantageously when such activities are delayed or when limited resources are to be utilized effectively.

3. Allocation of resources
• Allocation of resources is performed to achieve the desired objective. A resource is a physical variable
such as labour, finance, equipment and space which will impose a limitation on time for the project.
• When resources are limited and conflicting, demands are made for the same type of resources a
systematic method for allocation of resources become essential.
• Resource allocation usually incurs a compromise and the choice of this compromise depends on the
judgment of managers.

4. The final phase in project management is controlling. Critical path methods facilitate the application of
the principle of management by expectation to identify areas that are critical to the completion of the project.
• By having progress reports from time to time and updating the network continuously, a better financial as
well as technical control over the project is exercised.
• Arrow diagrams and time charts are used for making periodie progress reports. If required, a new
course of action is determined for the remaining portion of the project.

BASIC COMPONENTS:
• EVENT: An event or node is a specific physical accomplishment in a project plan. It is a particular instant of
time and does not consume time or resource.
• ACTIVITY: It is a task or item of work to be done, that consumes time, effort, money or other resources. It
lies between two events called the preceding and succeeding ones.

Allocating Resources
Planning Assign materials, money, workers, and equipment based on
Break down the project into smaller tasks. availability.
Identify how these tasks relate to each other. Balance conflicts when multiple tasks need the same
Assign responsibilities to make sure nothing is missed. resources.
Managers decide the best way to compromise when
Scheduling resources are limited.
Create a timeline showing when each task starts and ends.
Identify the critical path (the most important tasks that must be Controlling
done on time).
Find tasks that have extra time (float/slack), so they can be Regularly track progress using charts and reports.
adjusted if needed. Adjust the plan if needed to stay on schedule.
Identify critical issues early to avoid delays.
THE FRAMEWORK FOR PERT AND CPM
Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed
below:
I. Define the Project and all of its significant activities or tasks. The Project (made
up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity.
Il. Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must
precede and which must follow others.
III. Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event
numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities.
IV. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity
V. Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path.

NETWORK DIAGRAM REPRESENTATION

• In a network representation of a project certain definitions are used
1. Activity
Any individual operation which utilizes resources and has an end and a beginning is called activity. An
arrow is commonly used to represent an activity with its head indicating the direction of progress in the
project.
These are classified into four categories

1. Predecessor activity - Activities that must be completed immediately prior to the start of
another activity are called predecessor activities.

2. Successor activity - Activities that cannot be started until one or more of other activities are
completed but immediately succeed them are called successor activities.

3. Concurrent activity - Activities which can be accomplished concurrently are known as

concurrent activities. It may be noted that an activity can be a predecessor or a successor to an event
or it may be concurrent with one or more of other activities.

4. Dummy activity - An activity which does not consume any kind of resource but merely depicts
the technological dependence is called a dummy activity.
The dummy activity is inserted in the network to clarify the activity pattern in the following two
situations
• To make activities with common starting and finishing points distinguishable
• To identify and maintain the proper precedence relationship between activities that is not
connected by events.

For example, consider a situation where A and B are concurrent activities. C is dependent on A and
D is dependent on A and B both. Such a situation can be handled by using a dummy activity as
shown in the figure.

2. Event
An event represents a point in time signifying the completion of some activities and the
beginning of new ones. This is usually represented by a circle in a network which is also called
a node or connector.
The events are classified in to three categories

1. Merge event - When more than one activity comes and joins an event such an event is known as
merge event.

2. Burst event - When more than one activity leaves an event such an event is known as burst
event.

3. Merge and Burst event - An activity may be merge and burst event at the same time as with
respect to some activities it can be a merge event and with respect to some other activities it may be
a burst event.

If two activities have same tail event and same head event with different consumption of time, then in
order to maintain the relation we should introduce dummy activity.
3. Sequencing
The first prerequisite in the development of network is to maintain the precedence relationships. In
order to make a network, the following points should be taken into considerations
• What job or jobs precede it?
• What job or jobs could run concurrently?
• What job or jobs follow it?
• What controls the start and finish of a job?

RULES FOR DRAWING NETWORK DIAGRAM

Rule 1
Each activity is represented by one and only one arrow in the network

Rule 2
No two activities can be identified by the same end events

Rule 3
In order to ensure the correct precedence relationship in the arrow diagram, following questions must
be checked whenever any activity is added to the network
• What activity must be completed immediately before this activity can start?
• What activities must follow this activity?
• What activities must occur simultaneously with this activity?

RULES FOR NETWORK CONSTRUCTION:

• Each activity is represented by one and only one arrow in the network.
• All the arrows must run from left to right.
• Dotted line arrows represent dummy activities.
• A circle represents an event.
• Every activity starts and ends with an event.
• No two activities can be identified by the same head and tail event7. Do not use dummy activity
unless required to reflect the logic.
• Do not use dummy activity unless required to reflect the logic.
• Avoid Looping and crossing of activity arrows by repositioning.
• Every Activity, except the first and the last, must have at least one preceding and one succeeding
activity.
• Danglers, isolated activities must be avoided.
• For coding use alphabets for all activities including the dummy activity and numbers for events.
 DETERMINATION OF EARLIEST TIME (EJ): FORWARD PASS COMPUTATION

Backward Pass computation (for latest allowable time)

DETERMINATION OF FLOATS AND SLACK

 Event slack - It is defined as the difference between the latest event and earliest
event times.

DETERMINATION OF CRITICAL PATH

• Critical event - The events with zero slack times are called critical events. In
other words the event i is said to be critical if E, = Li

• Critical activity - The activities with zero total float are known as critical activities. In other
words an activity is said to be critical if a delay in its start will cause a further delay in the
completion date of the entire project.

• Critical path - The sequence of critical activities in a network is called critical path. The
critical path is the longest path in the network from the starting event to ending event and
defines the minimum time required to complete the project.
THE NETWORK DIAGRAM
• In a PERT network diagram each activity is represented by an arrow that is called a branch or an arc.
• The beginning and end of each activity is indicated by a circle that is called a node.
• The term event is also used in connection with the nodes. An event represents the completion of the
activities that lead into a node.
• Referring to the activity list in Table 14.1, we see that "select office site" is termed activity A. When this
activity is completed, the event "office site selected" occurs.
THE USE OF DUMMY ACTIVITIES
This diagramming dilemma is solved by introducing a dummy activity, which 1s represented by a dashed line
in the network diagram in Figure 14.4. This dummy activity is fictitious in the sense that it requires no
time or resources. It merely provides a pedagogical device that enables us to draw a network
representation that correctly maintains the appropriate precedence relationships. Thus, Figure 14.4 indicates
that activity D can begin only after both activities A and C have been completed. Similarly, activity F can
occur only after activity C is completed

S-CURVE
The S-curve is a graphical representation commonly used in project management to track cumulative
costs or progress over time. The steeper the slope of the S-Curve, the less risk, or width, of the
distribution. The longer or wider the S-Curve, and the flatter the S-Curve, the higher the standard
deviation (second moment, measuring risk, dispersion, and range of possible outcomes). You can track
and control the cumulative costs associated with a project. The S-curve graph shows how costs are
expected to accumulate over the project's lifecycle, allowing managers to plan finances accurately.
Using an S-curve helps optimize resource utilization. One of the many uses of the S-curve is to reduce
the cost. This tool is also used to monitor and control other resources such as work hours or man-hours
of work. The S-Curve can be used to plot the consumption of project resources against time.