0.40
Conflict Intensity
0.35
0.30
Schedules
0.25
Average
Total Conflict
0.20
Priorities
Manpower
Technical opinions
Procedures
0.15
Cost
Personality conflicts
0.10
0.05
0.00
Project
Formation
Early Phases
Middle Phases
1
End Phases
Henry Laurence Gantt, A.B., M.E. (1861-23 November
1919) was a mechanical engineer and management consultant
who is most famous for developing the Gantt chart in 1917,
besides a number of others charts. The first Gantt charts were
employed on major infrastructure projects including the
Hoover Dam.
The special type of horizontal bar chart that provides a
graphical overview and schedule of all activities, elements and
dependencies of a project or program.
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.
Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent the sequences,
timing, and time span for each task.
Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project
Symbols include:
3
◦
Black diamonds: Milestones
◦
Thick black bars: Summary tasks
◦
Lighter horizontal bars:
Durations of tasks
◦
Arrows: Dependencies between
tasks
Information Technology Project
Management, Fourth Edition
Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
4
Information Technology Project
Management, Fourth Edition
SMART Criteria

Milestones should be:
◦ Specific
◦ Measurable
◦ Assignable
◦ Realistic
◦ Time-framed
5
Information Technology Project
Management, Fourth Edition
Usage of a Gantt Chart:
Display an overview of project activities.
Plan project activities.
Work out the critical path.
Give you a basis to schedule when the tasks should be
carried out.
Allocate resources.
Communicate project activities.
Coordinate and manage project activities.
Monitor the progress of project activities.
Strengths of the Gantt Chart. Benefits
Good graphical overview. Common technique. Easy to
understand.
Small to medium size projects with no more than about 30
activities.
Can be supported by special project planning software to
facilitate complex calculations and complex dependencies and
conduct what-if analyses.
Limitations of the Gantt Chart. Disadvantages
Projects are often considerably more complex than can be
communicated effectively with a Gantt chart.
Gantt charts only represent part of the triple constraints (time, cost
and scope) of projects, because they focus primarily on schedule
management (time). Compare: Cost-Benefit Analysis.
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 misunderstood.
Software. 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. Avoid using
(heavy) grids in Gantt software as they distract the attention.
Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT)

The Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review
Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool,
used in project management, that is designed to analyze and
represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. First
developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it is commonly
used in conjunction with the critical path method or CPM

PERT is a network analysis technique used to estimate project
duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the
individual activity duration estimates.

PERT uses probabilistic time estimates:
◦ Duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic
estimates of activity durations, or a three-point estimate.
9
PERT was developed primarily to simplify the planning and scheduling of
large and complex projects. It was developed for the U.S. Navy Special
Projects Office in 1957 to support the U.S. Navy's Polaris nuclear
submarine project It was able to incorporate uncertainty by making it
possible to schedule a project while not knowing precisely the details and
durations of all the activities.
It is more of an event-oriented technique rather than start- and
completion-oriented, and is used more in projects where time, rather
than cost, is the major factor. It is applied to very large-scale, one-time,
complex, non-routine infrastructure and Research and Development
projects
PERT Formula and Example

PERT weighted average =
optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
6

Example:
PERT weighted average =
8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days
6
where:
optimistic time= 8 days
most likely time = 10 days
pessimistic time = 24 days
Therefore, you’d use 12 days on the network diagram instead of
Information Technology Project
10 when using PERT for the above example.
11
Management, Fourth Edition
Determining the Critical Path for
Project X
12
Information Technology Project
Management, Fourth Edition
Advantages
•PERT chart explicitly defines and makes visible dependencies
•PERT facilitates identification of the critical path and makes this visible
•PERT facilitates identification of early start, late start, and slack for
each activity,
•PERT provides for potentially reduced project duration due to better
understanding of dependencies leading to improved overlapping of
activities and tasks where feasible.
•The large amount of project data can be organized & presented in
diagram for use in decision making.
Disadvantages
•There can be potentially hundreds or thousands of activities and
individual dependency relationships
•The network charts tend to be large and unwieldy requiring several
pages to print and requiring special size paper
•The lack of a timeframe on most PERT/CPM charts makes it harder to
show status although colours can help (e.g., specific colour for
completed nodes)
•When the PERT/CPM charts become unwieldy, they are no longer
used to manage the project.
Gantt Chart versus PERT
Unlike the Gantt Chart, the Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT) has no calendar, so you can not see precisely
when the activities should be performed.
On the other hand, the dependencies between the activities in
PERT are easier to follow. This is why for larger projects, usually
PERT is preferable.
Actually PERT uses multiple time estimates for each activity to
allow for variation in activity times. The activity times are assumed
to be random, with assumed probability distribution
("probabilistic").
They are represented by arrowed lines between nodes or circles.