A Gantt chart showing three kinds of schedule dependencies (in red) and percent complete indications.

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 as shown here.

Historical development

The first Gantt Chart was developed in 1896 by Karol Adamiecki, who called it a harmonogram. Because Adamiecki did not publish his chart until 1931 - and in any case his works were published in either Polish or Russian, languages not popular in the West - the chart now bears the name of Henry Gantt (1861–1919), who designed his chart around the years 1910-1915 and popularized it in the West.^[1][2][3]

In the 1980s, personal computers eased the creation and editing of elaborate Gantt charts. These desktop applications were intended mainly for project managers and project schedulers. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gantt charts became a common feature of web-based applications, including collaborative groupware.

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.

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.

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 easily comprehended 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 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. 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.

See also

• List of project management software
• Henry Gantt
• Karol Adamiecki
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• Event Chain Diagrams

References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Category:Gantt charts

• Create a Gantt chart in Excel
• Create a Gantt chart in Open Office Calc
• Long-running discussion regarding limitations of the Gantt chart format, and alternatives, on Edward Tufte’s website
• GanttProject Homepage - Open Source Software
• Gantt Chart Template for Microsoft Excel

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Treating a set of projects as a portfolio would be, in most cases, an improvement on the ad hoc, one-off analysis of individual project proposals. The relationship between PPM techniques and existing investment analysis methods is a matter of debate. While many are represented as “rigorous” and “quantitative”, few PPM tools attempt to incorporate established portfolio optimization methods like modern portfolio theory or Applied Information Economics, which have been applied to project portfolios, including even non-financial issues.^[1][2][3][4]

Controversy over the “investment discipline” of PPM

Developers of PPM tools see their solutions as borrowing from the financial investment world. However, other than using the word “portfolio”, few can point to any specific portfolio optimization methods implemented in their tools.

A project can be viewed as a composite of resource investments such as skilled labour and associated salaries, IT hardware and software, and the opportunity cost of deferring other project work. As project resources are constrained, business management can derive greatest value by allocating these resources towards project work that is objectively and relatively determined to meet business objectives more so than other project opportunities. Thus, the decision to invest in a project can be made based upon criteria that measures the relative benefits (eg. supporting business objectives) and its relative costs and risks to the organization.

In principle, PPM attempts to address issues of resource allocation, e.g., money, time, people, capacity, etc. In order for it to truly borrow concepts from the financial investment world, the portfolio of projects and hence the PPM movement should be grounded in some financial objective such as increasing shareholder value, top line growth, etc. Equally important, risks must be computed in a statistically, actuarially meaningful sense. Optimizing resources and projects without these in mind fails to consider the most important resource any organization has and which is easily understood by people throughout the organization whether they be IT, finance, marketing, etc and that resource is money.

While being tied largely to IT and fairly synonymous with IT portfolio management, PPM is ultimately a subset of corporate portfolio management and should be exportable/utilized by any group selecting and managing discretionary projects. However, most PPM methods and tools opt for various subjective weighted scoring methods, not quantitatively rigorous methods based on options theory, modern portfolio theory, Applied Information Economics or operations research.

Beyond the project investment decision, PPM aims to support ongoing measurement of the project portfolio so each project can be monitored for its relative contribution to business goals. If a project is either performing below expectations (cost overruns, benefit erosion) or is no longer highly aligned to business objectives (which change with natural market and statutory evolution), management can choose to decommit from a project and redirect its resources elsewhere. This analysis, done periodically, will “refresh” the portfolio to better align with current states and needs.

Historically, many organizations were criticized for focusing on “doing the wrong things well.” PPM attempts to focus on a fundamental question: “Should we be doing this project or this portfolio of projects at all?” One litmus test for PPM success is to ask “Have you ever canceled a project that was on time and on budget?” With a true PPM approach in place, it is much more likely that the answer is “yes.” As goals change so should the portfolio mix of what projects are funded or not funded no matter where they are in their individual lifecycles. Making these portfolio level business investment decisions allows the organization to free up resources, even those on what were before considered “successful” projects, to then work on what is really important to the organization.

Optimizing for payoff

One method PPM tools or consultants might use is the use of decision trees with decision nodes that allow for multiple options and optimize against a constraint. The organization in the following example has options for 7 projects but the portfolio budget is limited to $10,000,000. The selection made are the projects 1, 3, 6 and 7 with a total investment of $7,740,000 - the optimum under these conditions. The portfolio’s payoff is $2,710,000.

Presumably, all other combinations of projects would either exceed the budget or yield a lower payoff. However, this is an extremely simplified representation of risk and is unlikely to be realistic. Risk is usually a major differentiator among projects but it is difficult to quantify risk in a statistically and actuarially meaningful manner (with probability theory, Monte Carlo Method, statistical analysis, etc.). This places limits on the deterministic nature of the results of a tool such as a decision tree (as predicted by modern portfolio theory.

Resource allocation

Resource allocation is a critical component of PPM. Once it is determined that one or many projects meet defined objectives, the available resources of an organization must be evaluated for its ability to meet this project demand (aka as a demand “pipeline” discussed below). Effective resource allocation typically requires an understanding of existing labor or funding resource commitments (in either business operations or other projects) as well as the skills available in the resource pool. Project investment should only be made in projects where the necessary resources are available during a specified period of time.

Resources may be subject to physical constraints. For example, IT hardware may not be readily available to support technology changes associated with ideal implementation timeframe for a project. Thus, a holistic understanding of all project resources and their availability must be conjoined with the decision to make initial investment or else projects may encounter substantial risk during their lifecycle when unplanned resource constraints arise to delay achieving project objectives.

Beyond the project investment decision, PPM involves ongoing analysis of the project portfolio so each investment can be monitored for its relative contribution to business goals versus other portfolio investments. If a project is either performing below expectations (cost overruns, benefit erosion) or is no longer aligned to business objectives (which change with natural market and statutory evolution), management can choose to decommit from a project to stem further investment and redirect resources towards other projects that better fit business objectives. This analysis can typically be performed on a periodic basis (eg. quarterly or semi-annually) to “refresh” the portfolio for optimal business performance. In this way both new and existing projects are continually monitored for their contributions to overall portfolio health. If PPM is applied in this manner, management can more clearly and transparently demonstrate its effectiveness to its shareholders or owners.

Implementing PPM at the enterprise level faces a challenge in gaining enterprise support because investment decision criteria and weights must be agreed to by the key stakeholders of the organization, each of whom may be incentivised to meet specific goals that may not necessarily align with those of the entire organization. But if enterprise business objectives can be manifested in and aligned with the objectives of its distinct business unit sub-organizations, portfolio criteria agreement can be achieved more easily. (Assadourian 2005)

From a requirements management perspective Project Portfolio Management can be viewed as the upper-most level of business requirements management in the company, seeking to understand the business requirements of the company and what portfolio of projects should be undertaken to achieve them. It is through portfolio management that each individual project should receive its allotted business requirements (Denney 2005).

Pipeline management

In addition to managing the mix of projects in a company, Project Portfolio Management must also determine whether (and how) a set of projects in the portfolio can be executed by a company in a specified time, given finite development resources in the company. This is called pipeline management. Fundamental to pipeline management is the ability to measure the planned allocation of development resources according to some strategic plan. To do this, a company must be able to estimate the effort planned for each project in the portfolio, and then roll the results up by one or more strategic project types e.g., effort planned for research projects. (Cooper et.al. 1998); (Denney 2005) discusses project portfolio and pipeline management in the context of use case driven development.

Organizational applicability

The complexity of PPM and other approaches to IT projects (e.g., treating them as a capital investment) may render them not suitable for smaller or younger organizations. An obvious reason for this is that a few IT projects doesn’t make for much of a portfolio selection. Other reasons include the cost of doing PPM — the data collection, the analysis, the documentation, the education, and the change to decision-making processes.

References

1. ^ Douglas Hubbard “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business” John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
2. ^ US Government Study on AIE [1]
3. ^ Federal CIO Council comparison of AIE and balanced scorecard[2]
4. ^ Environmental Protection Agency AIE study about optimizing desktop replacement [3]

• Cooper, Robert G.; Scott J. Edgett, and Elko J. Kleinschmidt (1998). Portfolio Management for New Products. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-32814-3. 
• Denney, Richard (2005). Succeeding with Use Cases: Working Smart to Deliver Quality. Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-321-31643-6. 
• Rajegopal, Shan; Philip McGuin, and James Waller (2007). Project Portfolio Management: Leading the Corporate Vision. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-50716-6. 
• Sanwal, Anand (2007). Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-12688-2. 

External links

• Corporate Portfolio Management Association

Categories: Articles needing more viewpoints | Information technology management | Project management

© This material from Wikipedia is licensed under the GFDL.

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The reasons for this growth are simple. Project management is about managing “projects,” that is, unique pieces of work (as opposed to ongoing operations). Downsizing, outsourcing, and the accelerating pace of change have meant that, increasingly, work is carried out on an ad-hoc, one-off project basis.

The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is designed as an advanced textbook for businesspeople with a grasp of the basics and insufficient time (or inclination) to go back to school to learn more. Written by Eric Verzuh, president of the Versatile Company, a leading project-management consultancy, this is not a heavy academic text.

Like the rest of the Fast Forward series, this book is designed to let the reader extract maximum information in minimum time. There is a strong use of graphics with tables, charts cross-heads, and bullet points. Important passages are flagged in bold and/or emblazoned with the words key concept.

When you read it, you realize that there is nothing magical about project management, just the application of careful common sense. The book covers all the basic stuff like planning, time-tabling, quantity and price estimation, resource allocation, and scheduling. But it also acknowledges that there is inevitably a political dimension to every project, no matter how small. So it has important sections on how to ensure that all the stakeholders in the project are kept “on board” and the importance of communication.

As Verzuh states in his introduction, “Every project participant from part-time team member to executive sponsor, becomes more effective once he or she understands the basics of project management.” Really, this is a book about management that every manager should read, whether he or she has a project or not. –Alex Benady

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• “I have been doing project management for over 30 years and am considered a subject matter expert in the PMBOK(r) Guide -Third Edition primarily because I am the Project Manager who led the team that developed this edition. As a consultant I was hired to review and evaluate eight of the top selling PMP Exam Preparation books for their accuracy in following the PMBOK® Guide - Third Edition. I have developed and taught a PMP Exam Prep course for a leading R.E.P., and taught PMP Exam preparation classes for PMI Chapters. I can honestly say that Head First PMP is by far the best PMP Exam Preparation book of all I have reviewed in depth. It is the very best basic education and training book that I have read that presents the processes for managing a project, which makes it a great resource for a basic project management class for beginners as well as a tool for practitioners who want to pass the PMP exam. The graphical story format is unique, as project management books go, which makes it both fun and easy to read while driving home the basics that are necessary for preparing someone is just getting started and those who want to take the exam.”
  –Dennis Bolles, PMP DLB Associates, LLC and co-author of The Power of Enterprise-Wide Project Management
• “This looks like too much fun to be a PMP study guide! Behind the quirky humor and nutty graphics lies an excellent explanation of the project management processes. Not only will this book make it easier to pass the exam, you’ll learn a lot of good stuff to use on the job too.”
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• “I love this format! Head First PMP covers everything you need to know to pass your PMP exam. The sound-bite format combined with the whimsical images turns a dry subject into entertainment. The organization starts with the basics then drills into the details. The in-depth coverage of complex topics like Earned Value and Quality Control are presented in an easy to understand format with descriptions, pictures, and examples. This book will not only help you pass the PMP, it should be used as an daily reference for practicing project managers. I sure wish I had this when I was studying for the exam.”
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• “I think that under the fonts and formalized goofiness, the book has a good heart (intending to cover basic principles in an honest way rather than just to pass the test). Head First PMP attempts to educate potential project managers instead of being a mere “how to pass the PMP exam” book filled with test taking tips. This is truly something which sets it apart from the other PMP certification exam books.”
  –Jack Dahlgren, Project Management Consultant
• “Head First PMP is a great tool to help make sense of the Project Management Body of Knowledge for the everyday Project Manager.”
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About the Book

A PMP certification is more than just passing a test. It means that you have the knowledge to solve most common project problems, and proves that you know your stuff. Once you’re certified, your projects are more likely to succeed because you have the skills and knowledge to make them successful. Not only that, it can mean a better job, more money, and greater respect from your peers.

But studying for a difficult four-hour exam on project management isn’t easy, even for experienced project managers. You want to remember everything that you’re learning about project management, but your brain is working against you! Your brain craves novelty, and most PMP certification prep books are anything but novel. When you keep putting down a boring book instead of studying, it’s because your brain doesn’t think the information in it is worth learning. Your brain has more important stuff to think about, like how to keep you alive and out of danger-and it doesn’t think that failing the PMP exam qualifies as life-threatening!

So how do you trick your brain into thinking that your life does depend on learning everything you need to know to pass the PMP Exam? Head First PMP is the answer! Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science and learning theory, Head First PMP has a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works-a multi-sensory experience that helps the material stick, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.

Head First PMP offers 100% coverage of The PMBOK® Guide principles and certification objectives in a way that’s engaging, not tedious. This book helps you prepare for the PMP certification exam with a unique method that goes beyond answers to specific questions and makes you think about the big picture of project management. By putting project management concepts into context, you will be able to understand, remember, and apply them-not just on the exam, but also on the job.

With Head First PMP, you get the best of both worlds: a thorough and effective preparation guide for the PMP certification exam with hundreds of practice questions and exam strategies, along with puzzles, games, problems, exercises and the unique Head First approach that makes learning easy and entertaining. When you’re done with Head First PMP, you’ll know your stuff, you’ll pass the exam, and you’ll be able to bring everything you’ve learned to your job.

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