Comments on: Hating the Gantt Chart

By: gantt chart

gantt chart — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:48:44 +0000

Calm down my friend.. i think that u still not found out the grate one perfect. I found many solutions and many skins and there s a lot of templates for us to use.

By: Karateka

Karateka — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:22:52 +0000

Just a comment on the Gannt chart being invented by the Polaris Missile Project by Dave Smith. Google “Henry Gannt,” and you will find in multiple places that he is credited with the invention/popularization of the Gannt chart, and that he died in 1919. The Polaris project may have used Gannt charts, but it was in use well before that time. Further, if Wikipedia is accurate, he also wrote two books and has a prize named in his honor.

I currently use the very excellent open-source program GanntProject. It helps me to see what I need to do, so from a personal management perspective it is helpful for me. Also, in creating a chart it helps me think of what needs to be done, and clarify the project. Of course, when you have many people and many different tasks, I can see that the complexity would make it meaningless for accurate prediction of completion.

By: John Crowley

John Crowley — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:40:41 +0000

Yes, Gantt charts are difficult to use with clients who do not understand them.

That said…
1) make a best case schedule
2) copy best case schedule, change durations (maybe some logic, if concurrence is in question) now this is the worst case.
3) Using ‘worst’ as Target, calculate against ‘best’ to see Total Float and Free Float by Activity.

This has helped me illustrate the uncertainty in project work, and assign ownership to the stakeholders by using their durations. It won’t solve every problem, but hopefully this will be useful to someone.

By: Lucian Ioan

Lucian Ioan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:38:15 +0000

Rob if you have these feelings towards Gantt Charts then it is more likely that you do not know how to use them. First as
Steve and Emily mentioned the planning step is very important. You do not dive into a Gantt without a prior good planning. Second a Gantt should be seen as a detailed plan only at a given moment of time. The rest of time it is only an approximation of the project evolution where all time related data (duration, dates, etc.) are almost meaningless.
Third you can always use an optimistic and pessimistic estimate.

By: Dave Smith

Dave Smith — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:53:46 +0000

Gantt started life as a bit of creative misdirection.

The original Gantt technique came out of the Polaris Missile Project. The project was throwing a lot of money around on a tight schedule in Cold War days. The project heads knew that Congress people would often meddle when lots of money was involved, sometimes out of a desire to ensure that taxpayer money was being well-spent. To protect a tight schedule, project heads needed a way to avoid any meddling. Out of that need, the Gantt technique with its chart was born. The idea was simple: Project enough of an air of scientific management and certainty, and Congress would go away happy. The Polaris Project itself didn’t use Gantt for real work.

The Polaris Project was successful, and Gantt got undeserved credit. It was, after all, the scientific management technique that helped the a very large, very successful project succeed. Gantt was promptly picked up by consultants who needed a new technique to peddle. Adoption became a cycle of “we’re using it because they’re using it, and it’s scientific!”

(Source: “Polaris System Development: Bureaucratic and Programmatic Success In Government”, Harvey M. Sapolsky, Harvard University Press, 1972).

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:57:35 +0000

My experience with Gantt charts is that usually the crux lies in the planner, not the Gantt chart. Good planning involves taking all those things, such as vacations, overtime, weekends, and other resources into account. All of these things can be accounted for in the Gantt chart and in the Microsoft Project software. Unfortunately, no software package or scheduling format can replace a poor planner or a poor manager (a crux in the American corporate world these days).

For this reason, Gantt charts are generally overused by management and have very little benefit for projects that can be planned in a simpler format. They are trendy and managers use them more because it is what everyone is familiar with, but few know how to put them to good use when planning projects and project phases. In the right context and the proper application, however, Gantt charts are invaluable.

By: Primavera Consultant

Primavera Consultant — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:11:35 +0000

Most scheduling is done using a deterministic (exact estimates for durations). There are several tools (I do not know of a web application) that use Monte Carlo simulation to create probabilistic schedules. Monte Carlo methods have been used for many decision tree based processes, including options pricing. So short answer, there are methods and tools to achieve the goal you are describing.

In my experience the issue with CPM schedules and Gantt charts is that they are mis-applied. Project plans are just that, frankly know different than a business plan. Anyone who has been involved in the joy of starting a new company will tell you their first business plan was WRONG- but having it as a basis of measruement allowed them to identify risks and monitor progress and variance from plan. The problem with schedules as typically used is people are asked to justify missed dates and explain what are simply normal deviations from plans. Optimal value in scheduling comes from updating the schedule regularly and talking about your best estimate of the future NOT justifying what happened in the past. But good luck making a client or manager understand this.

By: Adam Sanderson

Adam Sanderson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:46:54 +0000

I think Steve and Jesse bring up a good point. A lot of times a gantt chart is just used up front to plan something, but then people assume everything will just roll along those lines.

Of course everyone knows that the minute you print out a gantt chart, and tack it up on the wall like some kind of big game planning trophy, it’s almost guaranteed to be out of date.

Things come up, I think that’s a really compelling reason to use something like LiquidPlanner, or other online collaborative planning apps. We really try to keep our plans up to date, so we always know where everyone stands. It makes it a lot easy to know who’s slipping, or who needs some help.

By: Jesse McNelis

Jesse McNelis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:40:05 +0000

I see a Gnatt chart as less about showing the time individual tasks should take, and more about how changes in the schedule of tasks effect other tasks.

It’s not about showing task A taking 3 days, it’s about showing that if task A is now going to take 5 days, this is going to effect task B,C,D,E,F in various ways.
Eg. task A taking 2 extra days means that task B going in to fred’s vacation time, thus a 2 day delay in task A might mean a 10 day delay in the project.

Gnatt charts should be updated constantly to show how a project is progressing.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:15:18 +0000

The main problem I see with Gantt charts is that people use them as a starting point for a project when they should actually come along fairly late in the scheduling process. In formal PM methodology, there are a lot of other steps that occur first (Work Breakdown Structures, Network Diagrams, etc.) that allow the work to be more fully understood before a baseline Gantt is developed. If someone just sits down in front of a blank MS Project/Primavera document to create a schedule without the appropriate planning, the resulting schedule will be hopelessly unrealistic.