PROJECT GRAPHICS

OUTLINE

 Introduction
 Customer Reporting
 Bar (Gantt) Chart
 Other Conventional Presentation Techniques
 Logic Diagrams/Networks
 Studying Tips for the PMI Project Management Certification Exam
INTRODUCTION

3 vital control parameters:

• Time

• Cost

• Performance

4 methods for Information to ensure proper project evaluation:

• Firsthand observation

• Oral and written reports

• Review and technical interchange meetings

• Graphical displays
PROPER GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS CAN RESULT IN:

Cutting project costs and Coordinating and

reducing the time scale expediting planning

Obtaining better
Eliminating idle time scheduling and control of
subcontractor activities

Cutting time for routine

Developing better decisions, but allowing
troubleshooting procedures more time for decision-
making
Diverse Visual • Over 30 methods available for activity representation.
Methods:

• Upper-level management: Interested in cost and

Audience- integration; summary charts suffice.
Dependent • Daily practitioners: Require detailed information.
• Customers: Presentation includes cost and performance
Choices: data.

CUSTOMER
Clarity in Data
Presentation:
• Use figures and graphs for easily understood cost and
performance data.
• Diagrams should swiftly convey the intended message.
REPORTING

• Each department may have its own scheduling

Departmental representation method.
• Research and development organizations prefer logic over
Variances: integration.

Communication • Essential for successful program management.

in Program • Different forms (bar charts, graphs, tables, bubble charts,
logic diagrams) for various meetings.
Management:
BAR (GANTT) CHART

 Bar or Gantt Charts Overview:

 Common type of display for activities, named after Henry Gantt.
 Used for plotting simple activities or events against time or dollars.
 Purpose of Bar Charts:
 Display program progress or define specific work required for objectives.
 Include listings of activities, duration, schedule dates, and progress-to-date.
 Advantages of Bar Charts:
 Simple to understand and easy to change.
 Suitable for portraying progress and identifying schedule variations.
 Limitations of Bar Charts:
 Lack of representation of interdependencies among activities.
 Do not illustrate the entire program or project as a system.
 Limited predictive value without showcasing activity interrelationships.
OTHER CONVENTIONAL PRESENTATION
TECHNIQUES
Block Diagrams:
 Describe the flow of activities.
 Illustrate how information is distributed or how a process is assembled.

Schematics Diagrams:
 Provide a visual representation of interrelationships.
 Often used to depict connections between individuals, organizations, or functions.

Pictorials Diagrams:
 Utilize symbolic or pictorial representations to describe activity sequences.
 Add colour and quality to proposals, enhancing understanding.

Logic Flows:
 Represent the sequence of events required to complete an activity.
 Serve as a valuable tool for decision-making in program management.
Logic diagrams are developed to illustrate the
inductive and deductive reasoning necessary to
achieve some objective within a given time frame.

The major difficulty in developing logic diagrams is

the inability to answer such key questions as:
LOGIC DIAGRAMS/NETWORKS
(i). What happens if something goes wrong?

(ii).Can I quantify any part of the diagram's major

elements?
 FOLLOWING QUESTIONS WOULD BE
REPRESENTATIVE OF THOSE ASKED FOR AN R&D
PROJECT:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

• What • What prior • What are the • What are the • What other • What other • What are the • What • What
documentation activities must completion, or alternatives for activities are activities or key decision documentation management
is released to be completed, success, criteria each phase of directly inputs are points, if any, signifies approval is
start the work designed, for the activity? the program if dependent on required to during the completion of required for final
described studies finalized, success is not the result of this perform this activity? the activity (i.e., documentation?
activity and etc? achieved? activity? activity? report, drawing,
possibly the etc.)?
elements within
each activity?
 STUDYING TIPS FOR THE PMI PROJECT MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION EXAM

Time Communication
Executing Controlling
Management Management
BENEFICIAL PRINCIPLES :

How to identify the different Different types of graphical

ways that information can reporting techniques and
be displayed for reporting their advantages and
purposes disadvantages
 PRECEDENCE
NETWORKS
REGARDLESS OF THE SOPHISTICATION
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS, PRINTERS AND
PLOTTERS PREFER TO DRAW STRAIGHT
LINES RATHER THAN CIRCLES.

MOST SOFTWARE SYSTEMS TODAY USE

PRECEDENCE NETWORKS, AS SHOWN IN
FIGURE, WHICH ATTEMPT TO SHOW
INTERRELATIONSHIPS ON BAR CHARTS.

IN THE FIGURE , TASK 1 AND TASK 2 ARE

RELATED BECAUSE OF THE SOLID LINE
BETWEEN THEM.

TASK 3 AND TASK 4 CAN BEGIN WHEN

TASK 2 IS HALF FINISHED. (THIS CANNOT
BE SHOWN EASILY ON PERT WITHOUT
SPLITTING ACTIVITIES.)

THE DOTTED LINES INDICATE SLACK.

THE CRITICAL PATH CAN BE IDENTIFIED

Diagram 2 BY PUTTING AN ASTERISK (*) BESIDE THE
CRITICAL ELEMENTS, OR BY PUTTING
THE CRITICAL CONNECTIONS IN A
DIFFERENT COLOR OR BOLDFACE.
 TYPICAL PRECEDENCE
RELATIONSHIPS

 Diagram (A) illustrates a finish-to-start

constraint. In this figure, activity 2 can start no
earlier than the completion of activity 1. All
PERT charts are finish-to-start constraints.
 Diagram (B) illustrates a start-to-start
constraint. Activity 2 cannot start prior to the
start of activity 1.
 Diagram(C) illustrates a finish-to-finish
constraint. In this figure, activity 2 cannot finish
until activity 1 finishes.
 Diagram (D) illustrates a start-to-finish
constraint. This is the least common type of
precedence chart.
 Diagram (E) illustrates a percent complete
constraint. In this figure, the last 20 percent of
activity 2 cannot be started until 50 percent of
activity 1 has been completed.

Diagram 3
COMPUTERIZED
INFORMATION FLOW
 Diagram 4 shows the typical information that
appears in each of the activity boxes shown in
diagram 3.
 The box identified as “responsibility cost Diagram 4
center” could also have been identified as the
name, initials, or badge number of the person
responsible for this activity.
 Diagram 5 shows the comparison of three of
the network techniques.

Diagram 5
PRECEDENCE
CHARTS WITH LAG
SLACK IS MEASURED WITHIN ACTIVITIES WHEREAS LAG IS
MEASURED BETWEEN ACTIVITIES.

IN THE DIAGRAM, SUPPOSE THAT ACTIVITY A ENDS AT THE

END OF THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH. SINCE IT IS A FINISH-TO-
START PRECEDENCE CHART, ONE WOULD EXPECT THE
START OF ACTIVITY B TO BE THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND
WEEK IN MARCH. BUT IF ACTIVITY B CANNOT START UNTIL
THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD WEEK OF MARCH, THAT
WOULD INDICATE A WEEK OF LAG BETWEEN ACTIVITY A AND
ACTIVITY B EVEN THOUGH BOTH ACTIVITIES CAN HAVE
SLACK WITHIN THE ACTIVITY.

SIMPLY STATED, SLACK IS MEASURED WITHIN THE

ACTIVITIES WHEREAS LAG IS MEASURED BETWEEN THE
ACTIVITIES. THE LAG MAY BE THE RESULT OF RESOURCE
CONSTRAINTS.

SUPPOSE THAT ACTIVITY A FINISHES ON MARCH 15 BUT THE

PRECEDENCE CHART SHOWS ACTIVITY B STARTING ON
MARCH 8, SEVEN DAYS PRIOR TO THE COMPLETION OF
ACTIVITY A. IN THIS CASE, L 7, A NEGATIVE VALUE,
INDICATING THAT THE START OF ACTIVITY B LEADS THE
COMPLETION OF ACTIVITY A BY SEVEN DAYS.
THE MORE SOPHISTICATED PACKAGES CAN
PROVIDE ANSWERS TO SCHEDULE AND COST
BASED ON:

Adverse weather conditions

Weekend activities
Unleveled manpower requirements
Variable crew size
Splitting of activities
Assignment of unused resources
LAG

 Definition: The time period between the early start or finish of one activity and the early start or
finish of another activity in the sequential chain is called lag.
 Use: Lag is most commonly used in conjunction with precedence networks.