Unit 3- Planning in Projects 2:

GANTT CHARTS AND NETWORK DIAGRAMS

References:
 Recommended Reading
 Pinto, J. K. (2013) Project Management: Achieving
Competitive Advantage. Harlow: Pearson Education
 Study Guide: (pp. 15-63)
 Additional Reading:
 Maylor, H. (2010) Project Management 4th ed. Edinburgh:
Pearson Education Limited (pp. 130-173)
 chwalbe, K. (2009) An Introduction to Project
Management. 2nd Ed. Boston: Cengage Learning (pp.
105-146; 161- 204)
Planning and Monitoring tools and techniques

 Project Objectives

 Project Feasibility

 Project Charter

 Planning the Project

 Sequencing Activities

 PCs and Project Management Software

 Activity planning

 Activity Sequencing

Predecessors

successors

 Activity Resourcing

 Activity Durations and Effort

Durations

Effort
Gantt Chart
 Gantt charts are bar charts that display a schedule of all the
activities.
 Named after Henry Gantt who invented them around 1917.
 Useful for small to medium sized projects, commonly used
due to their simplicity.
 Easy to see the relationships between the activities and time.
Gantt Chart

 List of tasks logically sequenced in LH column

 Duration is left to right, hours, days, weeks etc.
 Bars represent duration of activities and timing
 Precedence indicated by links between tasks
Gantt Chart

Exercise 1: Draw the following Gantt chart

Tasks Precedence Time

a - 5 days
b - 4 days
c a 6 days
d b 2 days
e b 5 days
f c 8 days
Exercise 1: Draw the Gantt chart

WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4

Task a
Task b
Task c
Task d
Task e
Task f
Exercise 2: Draw the following Gantt chart
Lags in Precedence relationships

 Relationships between tasks/activities

1. Finish to Start (most common)
2. Finish to Finish
3. Start to Start
4. Start to Finish
 The term lag refers to the logical relationship
between the start and finish of one activity and the
start and finish of another
dependencies
Exercise 3: activities with dependencies

3a 3b

3c 3d
Exercise 4: Draw the Gantt chart
 Gantt chart

Advantages Disadvantages
 Easy to understand  Out of control when there
 Effective communication are too many activities
tool  Don’t clearly show the
 Identify resource predecessor relationship
requirement  Difficult to see on one sheet
of paper
Question???

Difference between WBS and Gantt chart ???

Net work diagrams
 A network diagram shows the activities and the logical
relationship among those activities
 The method used to determine this relationship is called
PDM
 PDM: precedence diagramming method/ AON: Activity
on node method
Sequencing Activities

 Serial activities: those that flow from one to the

next, in sequence

 Concurrent activities: more than one activity to be

accomplish at the same time
 Sequencing Activities
 Merge activities:  Burst activities:
those with two or more those with two or more
immediate predecessors immediate successor
Exercise 1: draw a PDM network diagram
Exercise 2: draw a PDM network diagram
Exercise 3 : draw a PDM network diagram
CPM- Critical Path Method
CPM (Critical Path Method) is used to assist the project
manager in scheduling the activities. It assumes that
activity durations are known with certainty.

network critical
diagram; Forward activities, Backward
network Pass float, and the Pass
paths critical path.
 concepts

 Milestones: events that mark significant progress

 Network: diagram of nodes and arcs used to illustrate

technological relationships

 Path: series of connected activities between two events

 Critical Path: set of activities on a path that if delayed will

delay completion of project

 Critical Time: time required to complete all activities on

the critical path

 Forward and Backward Pass
 There are two terms related to Critical Path that one may
encounter - Forward Pass and Backward Pass.
 These terms are related to ways of determining the early or
late start [forward pass] or early or late finish [backward
pass] for an activity.
 Forward pass is a technique to move forward through a
diagram to calculate activity duration. Backward pass is its
opposite.
 Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF) use the forward pass
technique.
 Network Diagrams

 Activity: Any task , job or operation that must be performed

to complete the Work package.
 Early Start (ES): The earliest date by which an activity can
start assuming all the preceding activities are completed as
planned.
 Duration (D): Duration of activity, how long it takes to
complete.
 Early Finish (EF): The earliest date by which an activity can
be completed assuming all the preceding activities are
completed as planned.
 Network Diagrams
 Critical Activities: activities in the critical path, A critical
activity cannot be delayed without impacting the finish date
of the project
 Late Start (LS) :The latest date an activity can start to meet
the planned completion date.
 Latest Finish (LF) : The latest date an activity can finish to
meet the planned completion date.

Always draw the Legend onto Network Diagrams.

 Network Diagrams
 Activity float (F) , also called slack, is a measure of flexibility,
or inherent surplus time in an activity’s scheduling. This
indicates how many working days the activity can be delayed
or extended before it will extend the completion date of the
project or any target finish dates.
 Float is calculated by either of the two equations,
 Float = Late Start –Early start.
 Float = Late Finish –Early Finish.
 Where an activity has Zero float this indicates it is on the
critical path.
 Project float
Exercise 1: creating a network diagram
Forward and Backward Pass
summary
 Feasibility study helps us identify whether the proposed
project is likely to be successful.
 Project planning starts with the project lifecycle and
project feasibility to test whether the project is feasible or
not.
 The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) breaks the project
down into manageable chunks.
 Critical Path Analysis (CPA) gives us a structure approach to
planning.
 Project planning can be likened to a modeling exercise