Gantt and Pert Charts Essay Example For Students

Gantt and Pert Charts Essay We think in pictures. Therefore, if can e complex ideas as picture, this will help our understanding. 6. It organizes your thoughts. A big problem is conquered by dividing it into component parts. A Giant chart will force you to do this. 7. It demonstrates that you know what youre doing. When you produce a nicely presented Giant chart with high level tasks properly organized and resources allocated to those tasks, it speaks volumes about whether you are on top of the needs of the project and whether the project will be successful, 8. It (should) help you to set realistic time frames. The bars on the chart indicate in which period a particular task or set of tasks ill be completed, This can help you to get things in perspective properly. And when PU do this, make sure that you think about events in your organization that have nothing to do with this project that might consume resources and time. 9. It can be highly visible. It can be useful to place the chart, or a large version of it, where everyone can see it, This helps to remind people of the objectives and when certain things are going to happen. It is useful it everyone in your enterprise can have a basic level of understanding of what is happening with the project even if they may not be directly involved with it Disadvantages of Giant Charts. They can become extraordinarily complex. Except for the simplest projects, there Will be large numbers Of tasks undertaken and resources employed to complete the project. There are some very good software programs that can cope With all this complexity (e. G. Microsoft Project). However, when the project gets to this level, it must be managed by a small number of people (perhaps one) who manages all of the details. Sometimes this does not work so well in a business that is not used to this type of management. Big businesses will frequently employ one or more project managers who are very skilled in this. For a range of reasons, this may not work so well in a smaller enterprise. The size of the bar does not indicate the amount of work. Each bar on the chart indicates the time period over which a particular set of tasks will be completed, However, by looking at the bar for a particular set of tasks, you cannot tell what level of resources are required to achieve those tasks, So, a short bar might take 500 man hours while a longer bar may only take 20 man hours. The longer bar may indicate to the uninformed that it is a bigger task, when in fact it is not. They need to he instantly updated. As you get into a project, things will change. If youre going to use a Giant chart you must have the ability to change the chart easily and frequently. If you dont do this, it will be ignored. Again, you will probably need software to do this unless youre keeping your project management at a high level. Difficult to see on one sheet of paper. The software products that produce these charts need to be viewed on a computer screen, usually in segments, to be able to see the whole project. It then becomes difficult to show the details Of the plan to an audience. Blether, you can print out the chart, but this will normally entail quite a large cut and paste exercise. If you are going to do this frequently, it can be very time-consuming. Advantages Of PERT Large Project Planning: A PERT chart makes planning large projects easier. It answers three key questions about each activity that help managers identify relationships between tasks and task dependencies. These questions involve how long it will take to complete an activity, and which other activities must occur immediately before and immediately after this activity for effective reject completion. PERT is a good way of making these relationships visible in a diagram.