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EXPERIMENT NO. 5
AIM: To study about Gantt chart .
5.1 Introduction

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt
charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and
summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements
comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts
also show the dependency (i.e., precedence network) relationships between
activities. Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule status using
percent-complete shadings and a vertical "TODAY" line .

A Gantt chart, commonly used in project management, is one of the most

popular and useful ways of showing activities (tasks or events) displayed
against time. On the left of the chart is a list of the activities and along the
top is a suitable time scale. Each activity is represented by a bar; the position
and length of the bar reflects the start date, duration and end date of the
activity. This allows you to see at a glance:

• What the various activities are,

• When each activity begins and ends,
• How long each activity is scheduled to last,
• Where activities overlap with other activities, and by how much
• The start and end date of the whole project.

Although now regarded as a common charting technique, Gantt charts were

considered revolutionary when they were introduced. In recognition of
Henry Gantt's contributions, the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal is awarded for
distinguished achievement in management and in community service. This
chart is used also in Information Technology to represent data that have been
collected.

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart developed as a production control tool

in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer and social scientist.
Frequently used in project management, a Gantt chart provides a graphical
illustration of a schedule that helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific
tasks in a project.
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Gantt charts may be simple versions created on graph paper or more

complex automated versions created using project management applications
such as Microsoft Project or Excel.

A Gantt chart is constructed with a horizontal axis representing the total time
span of the project, broken down into increments (for example, days, weeks,
or months) and a vertical axis representing the tasks that make up the project
(for example, if the project is outfitting your computer with new software,
the major tasks involved might be: conduct research, choose software, install
software). Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent the sequences,
timing, and time span for each task. Using the same example, you would put
"conduct research" at the top of the verticle axis and draw a bar on the graph
that represents the amount of time you expect to spend on the research, and
then enter the other tasks below the first one and representative bars at the
points in time when you expect to undertake them. The bar spans may
overlap, as, for example, you may conduct research and choose software
during the same time span. As the project progresses, secondary bars,
arrowheads, or darkened bars may be added to indicate completed tasks, or
the portions of tasks that have been completed. A vertical line is used to
represent the report date.

Gantt charts give a clear illustration of project status, but one problem with
them is that they don't indicate task dependencies - you cannot tell how one
task falling behind schedule affects other tasks. The PERT chart, another
popular project management charting method, is designed to do this.
Automated Gantt charts store more information about tasks, such as the
individuals assigned to specific tasks, and notes about the procedures. They
also offer the benefit of being easy to change, which is helpful. Charts may
be adjusted frequently to reflect the actual status of project tasks as, almost
inevitably, they diverge from the original plan.

5.2 Example

In the following example there are seven tasks, labeled A through G. Some
tasks can be done concurrently (A and B) while others cannot be done until
their predecessor task is complete (C cannot begin until A is complete).
Additionally, each task has three time estimates: the optimistic time estimate
(O), the most likely or normal time estimate (M), and the pessimistic time
estimate (P). The expected time (TE) is computed using the formula (O + 4M
+ P) ÷ 6.
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Time estimates
Activity Predecessor Expected time
Opt. (O) Normal (M) Pess. (P)
A — 2 4 6 4.00
B — 3 5 9 5.33
C A 4 5 7 5.17
D A 4 6 10 6.33
E B, C 4 5 7 5.17
F D 3 4 8 4.50
G E 3 5 8 5.17

Once this step is complete, one can draw a Gantt chart or a network
diagram.

Note (1) the critical path is in upper side, (2) the slack is the black lines
connected to non-critical activities, (3) since Saturday and Sunday are not
work days and are thus excluded from the schedule, some bars on the Gantt
chart are longer if they cut through a weekend.

Fig.5.1

5.3 Advantages and limitations

 Gantt charts have become a common technique for representing the

phases and activities of a project work breakdown structure (WBS), so
they can be understood by a wide audience all over the world.
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 A common error made by those who equate Gantt chart design with
project design is that they attempt to define the project work
breakdown structure at the same time that they define schedule
activities. This practice makes it very difficult to follow the 100%
Rule. Instead the WBS should be fully defined to follow the 100%
Rule, then the project schedule can be designed.
 Although a Gantt chart is useful and valuable for small projects that fit
on a single sheet or screen, they can become quite unwieldy for
projects with more than about 30 activities. Larger Gantt charts may
not be suitable for most computer displays. A related criticism is that
Gantt charts communicate relatively little information per unit area of
display. That is, projects are often considerably more complex than
can be communicated effectively with a Gantt chart.
 Gantt charts only represent part of the triple constraints (cost, time and
scope) of projects, because they focus primarily on schedule
management. Moreover, Gantt charts do not represent the size of a
project or the relative size of work elements, therefore the magnitude
of a behind-schedule condition is easily miscommunicated. If two
projects are the same number of days behind schedule, the larger
project has a larger impact on resource utilization, yet the Gantt does
not represent this difference.
 Although project management software can show schedule
dependencies as lines between activities, displaying a large number of
dependencies may result in a cluttered or unreadable chart.
 Because the horizontal bars of a Gantt chart have a fixed height, they
can misrepresent the time-phased workload (resource requirements) of
a project, which may cause confusion especially in large projects. In
the example shown in this article, Activities E and G appear to be the
same size, but in reality they may be orders of magnitude different. A
related criticism is that all activities of a Gantt chart show planned
workload as constant.
 In practice, many activities (especially summary elements) have front-
loaded or back-loaded work plans, so a Gantt chart with percent-
complete shading may actually miscommunicate the true schedule
performance status.

5.4 Linking tasks in a Gantt chart

Project plans normally require tasks to be performed in a specific order. For

instance, a publication must be written and proofread before it can be
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printed. To achieve this, the Gantt application lets you link tasks so that they
depend on each other. By default, tasks are usually linked in a 'Finish to
Start' relationship (dependency), which means that the first task you select
(the predecessor task) must end before the next task you select (the
successor task) can start, and so on.

This is typically represented on the Gantt chart by lines with arrowheads

joining each task to its successor. The arrowhead indicates the direction of
the link: it goes from the predecessor to the successor.

Fig. 5.2

A task can have more than one predecessor. In this case its start date is
determined by the predecessor link that gives it the latest start date. As dates
and times change during the course of the project, the predecessor link that
determines the start date of the task may also change.

Fig. 5.3

Similarly a task can have several successors. In this case the task determines
the start date of all its successor tasks.

Fig. 5.4

When you are scheduling a project plan from its start date the Gantt
application calculates the end date of the project automatically, on the basis
of the task durations, the task dependencies and the project calendar.

The possibility of linking tasks in this way is what makes project

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management software particularly powerful: you can change the duration of

one or more tasks, add a task or remove a task from a chain of linked tasks,
and all the dates are recalculated automatically so as to maintain the task
dependencies you have defined.

5.5 Other link types

There are four possible relationships (dependencies) between tasks:
 Finish to Start (FS) - the default: The task cannot start before its
predecessor ends, although it may start later. This is the most common
type of relationship, and is described above.
 Start to Start (SS): The task cannot start until the predecessor starts,
although it may start later. This can be useful if you have a task whose
start date depends on the start date of another task.
 Finish to Finish (FF): The task cannot end before the predecessor
ends, although it may end later.
 Start to Finish (SF): The task cannot end before the predecessor starts,
although it may end later. This task relationship is rarely used.

5.6 Example

The following project plan for the preparation of a publication illustrates all
these kinds of relationships.

Fig. 5.5

In this example:
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• The writing task follows on directly from the planning task. If the end
date of planning changes, so will the start of writing. This is the
normal Finish to Start relationship.
• The editing task starts some way through the writing task. The writers
and the editors work together as a team until the text is complete.
Their tasks effectively end at the same time. If the end date of writing
changes, so will the end date of editing. This is a Finish to Finish
relationship.
• The creation of artwork depends on the start of writing. In this case a
lag has been introduced so that it doesn't start exactly when writing
starts. Even so, if the start of writing changes, so will the start of
artwork creation. This is a Start to Start relationship.
• The final changes task depends on the end of artwork creation, but an
overlap is included so that it actually begins two working days before
the end date of artwork creation. If artwork creation is delayed, so will
be the start of final changes. This is the normal Finish to Start
relationship.
• Printing starts after final changes are complete. This is also a Finish to
Start relationship.
• The transferring of paper from the warehouse to the printers must be
complete in order for printing to start, but is not related to any of the
preceding tasks. The printers have limited storage capacity and do not
want the paper to arrive until it is needed ('just in time' or JIT
scheduling), so the start of printing drives the delivery of paper. If the
start of printing changes for some reason, so will the end date for
getting paper to the printers. This is a Start to Finish relationship.

Here each task has a single predecessor, the simplest arrangement. However,
a task can have several predecessors. In such situations you will need to
think carefully about possible undesirable consequences. For example, if you
added another predecessor to the "Paper to printers" task above, it would be
possible for that predecessor to push out "Paper to printers" so that its end
date was later than the start of printing.

5.7 Using lag and lead times in a Gantt chart

When linking tasks you can add a lead or lag time to extend a link
backwards or forwards so that the successor task starts earlier or later
than it otherwise would. For a default 'Finish to Start' link, this either
introduces an overlap (lead time), so that the successor task starts
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before its predecessor ends, or it introduces a delay (lag time) that

makes the successor task start some time after its predecessor ends.

When planning the production of a marketing brochure for instance, you

could use lead time to make the creation of artwork start a few days
before the writing phase is over. The two tasks are however still linked,
which means that a delay of the writing phase will also delay the
creation of the artwork.

5.8 Adding constraints to a Gantt chart

Constraints define the degree of flexibility available to the Gantt application

when scheduling or rescheduling a task by imposing restrictions on its start
or end date. The following task constraint types offer different degrees of
flexibility.
Two "constraints" are actually so flexible that they are not generally
regarded as constraints at all:

• As Soon As Possible (ASAP): This is generally the default constraint

when you schedule your project from its start date, as is normally the
case. You should try to keep this default whenever possible as it gives
the software the most scheduling flexibility. If you apply this
constraint to an unlinked task, the task will be scheduled to start at the
project start date. If you apply it to a linked task, it will start as soon
as the dependencies with its predecessor tasks will allow.
• As Late As Possible (ALAP): This is generally the default constraint
when you schedule your project from its end date. If you apply this
constraint to an unlinked task, the task will be scheduled so that its
end date coincides with the end date of the overall project. If you
apply it to a task linked to a successor task, the task will be scheduled
to end when the successor needs to start. On the whole, you should
avoid this constraint as it does not leave any slack time to deal with
possible problems. Any delay on the task is likely to impact the
overall end date.

The following constraints all restrict the Gantt application's flexibility when
scheduling tasks. Although you might be tempted to use them if you are new
to project management, you need to make sure you understand the
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implications. Keeping their use to a minimum (especially the last two) will
allow you to take full advantage of the automatic scheduling possibilities.

• Start No Earlier Than (SNET): This means that the task, whether
linked or not, may not start before the given date. However, the Gantt
application still has the flexibility to start the task later than the given
date.
• Start No Later Than (SNLT): This means that the task, whether linked
or not, may not start later than the given date. However, the Gantt
application still has the flexibility to start the task earlier than the
given date.
• Finish No Earlier Than (FNET): This means that the task, whether
linked or not, may not end before the given date. However, the Gantt
application still has the flexibility to end the task later than the given
date.
• Finish No Later Than (FNLT): This means that the task, whether
linked or not, may not end later than the given date. However, the
Gantt application still has the flexibility to end the task earlier than the
given date.
• Must Start On (MSO): This rigid constraint means that the task,
whether linked or not, must start on the given date. Even if the
preceding task is completed earlier, the Gantt application cannot pull
in the constrained task to take advantage of the time gained.
• Must Finish On (MFO): This rigid constraint means that the task,
whether linked or not, must end on the given date. As above, even if
the preceding task is completed earlier, the Gantt application cannot
pull in the constrained task to take advantage of the time gained.

If you decide to apply one of these constraints to a task, it is good practice to

attach a note or a comment to the task to explain why you did so. If the
constraint causes scheduling conflicts later on as your project evolves, you
will be able to refer to the note to decide whether to keep the constraint,
change it or remove it altogether. Such notes also allow you to distinguish
easily between the tasks you have constrained yourself deliberately and the
tasks you may have constrained inadvertently by moving their task bar or
editing their start or end date manually.
The effect of a constraint is not always obvious when you schedule your
project plan from its end date, so take care to check that it does give the
result you want.
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5.9 Example

The following example shows some tasks in the preparation of a brochure

for a mail shot. The mail shot is scheduled for September 10th. The tasks are
linked, but we have set a 'Must Finish On' constraint on the printing task for
September 7th, the latest date that will allow the mailing to go ahead on the
following Monday, September 10th. The constraint, as usual, overrides the
link. By setting a 'Must Finish On' constraint for September 7th, we have
effectively moved the task out so that it ends exactly on September 7th,
regardless of whether it could have been completed earlier or not.

Fig. 5.6

The problem with this is that if the printing task takes longer than expected,
the mailing date will be missed. It would be much better to take advantage
of the unused time after the end of the corrections task to get started with
printing. However, we still need to keep an eye on the September 7th
deadline. To do this, we remove the constraint from the printing task, so that
the link will determine its start date, and add a deadline marker instead.

Fig.5.7

Now there is a useful three day gap between the end of printing and the
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deadline, and the deadline is clearly indicated. The deadline indicator will
warn us if the task moves past its deadline.