OmniGroup just let the world know that OmniPlan 1.5 RC 1 is now available for download.

I’ve learned to despise all of the idiosyncracies of Micro$oft Project, and am always on the lookout for a management software.  I need something that lets me easily add tasks, resources, baseline, compare schedules vs. actuals and as so frequently happens — allow people to book more time in a single work day than an 8 hour shift without rearranging my entire project plan for me.  Jeez, that annoys the living crap out of me. </rant>

Okay, so I’m definitely going to pick up the demo version.  I use a Wintel machine, but I also work with graphic artists who almost always work on their Mac.  So, another great thing about OmniPlan is that there’s a Mac version available.  I’ll keep you posted on how exciting the OmniPlan 1.51 release is, but let me tell ya… from the screenshots online, this is one super-sexy piece of project management software.

How do you handle working with a company full of people who don’t understand what it takes to truly manage a project?  When they want to manage a project, but couldn’t tell you when you’d use a PERT chart versus a Gantt Chart? When they don’t want to resource load and distribute shared assets across the organization (and don’t want to pay $1,000 a seat for features they’ll never use…) AEC Software has a solution that fits just such a need: FastTrack Schedule 9.0.

Since 50% of FastTrack Schedule’s users are not very experienced with project management software, they designed their project management software with ease-of-use as a paramount concern.  Since every project manager, whether one by training or by task, needs to show project estimates and project completion to the stakeholders and project sponsors. AEC’s FastTrack has a reporting module that works perfectly for this.  It also integrates with other mainstream project management tools like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project.

Their project management software handles project consolidation as well - empowering you to manage several projects within a single project file.  The resources layout tool enables you to track the contributions of project participants over time, including scheduling project personnel and resolving conflicts which undoubtedly arise when you have someone who’s 250% allocated.  The reporting piece allows you to archive a snapshot of the project and drop it into a PowerPoint presentation so you can mail that off to all of the stakeholders..

But here’s something you don’t frequently get with other project management software — It’s cross-platform.  This means that your back-office team can see the share project files with the creative team so devoted to their Macs.  Now, finding Mac Project Management Software is frequently hard enough, but here you get a solution that works all around.  I know people will be excited to hear that there are more choices when looking for Project Management Software for the Mac.

The price of FastTrack Schedule is $350 per license. You can learn more about their product at AEC Software.

Project Management - Timelines

What is the definition of a Carta Gantt?

A Gantt diagram is a first-rate tool when used by PM’s that seek to envision, prepare, and track estimated and true progress of projects. Its graphical way of showing data lts C-levels and front line staff alike to readily recognize the flow of a project, without necessitating a full tutorial about project administration.

Each occasion we, in our project management careers, go through the efforts of our working lives, toiling to meet and exceed the self-set targets, a quiet moment of appreciation extends onward to HL Gantt for innovating this easy-to-use diagram to communicate project schedules, as the timeline makes it possible for us to excel as project managers.

Project Timeline Sample Gantt Chart

Background

Henry L. Gantt

Henry Laurence Gantt was a management consultant and engineer. Henry L. Gantt came up with Gantt diagrams in the 1910’s. At that time, Gantt Charts were quite innovative and unheard of. Huge construction projects like like the Hoover Dam and the Eisenhower National Defense Interstate Highway System necessitated a tool such as the Gantt diagram,

Now, a staple project management tool and buzzword in the repertoire of modern project administration tools today, Gantt Charts are routinely deployed in the by PM’s, planners, and system developers. Working on projects without them is unthinkable, except in the rare case when the inherent nature of the work does not require them.

The Gantt Chart has found universal status, known in French as diagramme de Gantt and Spanish as carta Gantt, graficas de Gantt, and diagrama de Gantt], indeed the whole world speaks this common language of project representation.

HL Gantt’s global contribution to the modern project management is honored today through the Henry Gantt Medal. This medal, established in 1929, is awarded for distinguished achievement in management and service to the community.

Practical Application

So, how does someone use a project plan? These charts are generally introduced during the planning and scheduling stages of projects. A visual tool, the charts allow us to obtain a bird’s eye view of the project in its totality. From beginning to the end, the charts force us to:

1. Make a realistic assessment of the end-time of the project.
2. Align the effort (or phases) - in sequential order, as well as in parallel.
3. Think in terms of task dependencies - which task is dependent on what.
4. Concentrate on the necessary resources, both when and where, throughout the run of the project.

After the project timeline charts are drawn, and project execution begins, we start comparing our actual, ground-level performance against what was planned. This comparison is possible by checking the field reports against the project Gantt charts. Thus, we get to benefit from them in two immediate ways:

1. To observe work in progress. At the minimum, a percentage of completion can be worked out, by taking a snapshot of the progress “right-now”, and comparing it with the chart, for the “right-now” point of time. If there are any slip-ups in terms of time or cost, we are forced to question our optimism (or hope?) that the tasks would get completed earlier then they actually did, at the planning stage. This introspection helps in more realistic planning for a now more matured manager in their future projects.
2. To also think in terms of speeding up future tasks, while there is still time, to redeem the total project’s deadline. Perhaps resources (better manpower, more funds, or additional material) need to be allocated much in advance for a task that is going to be initiated later down the line? Perhaps some tasks may be rescheduled in a more efficient manner, in order to meet some unforeseen contingencies that have occurred after the project started?

How to make a project schedule

A Carta de Gantt, after all this mess, is just a chart with rows and columns. One simply writes all the tasks, one below the other, so that each task occupies a single row. Alongside the names, columns are drawn to indicate the dates. The dates may be in increments of days, weeks or months. Depending on the total length of the project, we may decide the granularity of the date increments which is appropriate - days, weeks or months.

Now, for each task in a row, we draw a horizontal (preferably hollow) bar alongside, with its start point in the column representing the date when it is scheduled to begin, and the end point in the column of the date when it is expected to end. Once these horizontal bars are drawn, we step back and get to observe the tasks that are going to run sequentially, in parallel, or overlap.

After the project has started, PM’s just fill in the hollow bars to a length that is in proportion to the fraction of the work that has been completed, for every task. In order to judge where we stand on any given date - say today, we can draw an imaginary vertical line through the chart at the current date - this is a “snapshot line”. The tasks that are supposed to have completed fully shall be to the left of this snapshot line. If they are indeed completed, their hollow bars shall have been completely filled. Partial filling indicates slip-ups. Tasks that are crossing the snapshot line are current tasks in hand; well, at the least they are tasks that were scheduled to have begun before today. If the horizontal bar on such tasks is filled in to the left of the line, then the current tasks are behind schedule; if they are filled in to the right of the line, then they are ahead of schedule. Future tasks, of course, will lie completely on the right of the snapshot line.

Complex projects

The aforementioned description is for simpler projects. Ideally, tasks in simple projects would not go beyond a single page, which makes them manageable. Often, and especially in complex projects, each task may be broken into smaller and more easily manageable subtasks. These subtasks may be moved to subordinate charts, with their own timelines. In management terminology, the process - of breaking up of these tasks into independent unit-tasks that can be completed on their own - has been given an exotic name of Work Breakdown Structure. The Work Breakdown Structure enables the project coordinator’s mind to grasp the project in its entirety as well as to think in terms of allocating resources, assign responsibilities, and measure and control the project, for every task and sub-task.

Further, in team-oriented projects, where each task is to be handled by different personnel, there might be an additional column against each task, where initials of these personnel may be entered, to identify who is supposed to be doing what.

Project Milestones

Finishing milestones are occasions for celebration, to pop the champagne. They help to boost the morale of personnel involved in making the project a success. If the project timeline is drawn up along with suitable (and achievable!) milestones, by using some special symbol such as brightly-colored diamonds, and the chart is kept in some centrally visible place, it would motivate all the people to achieve them. These milestones could range from perhaps the approval of project design by the customer, or completion of project prototype, to delivery of individual modules by different teams.

Conclusion

Since HL Gantt guided us toward enlightenment, such a library of books about management have been written on managing projects. Indeed, Project Management is a full-fledged discipline in itself, deserving of a separate academic degree for those who pursue it as a career and profession. More powerful models have evolved in the past few decades, which strive to capture the complexity of human endeavor and track and monitor its progress. The schedule continues to be used in some avatar or the other in all such models. And for simple projects, The project timeline is the solution.

A Gantt Diagram is a graphical demonstration of work effort as segments of work across time. It aids planing and tracking of project development and resource allotment. On the left-hand section of the Gantt Diagram flows a column with the WBS (essentially, a series of tasks). The chart component shows time progression, conveyed either in absolute or relative time.

When building a Gantt Diagram, each unit of work consumes one row. Dates go across the top, staggered as appropriate to the enormity of the project under review. Bars are shown as rows in the Gantt Diagram depict the beginning and end times of every piece of work in the project. Tasks may happen concurrently, one after the other, and overlap.

Practically every planning and scheduling of projects software (like Basecamp) allows project management through Gantt diagram representation of project workflow. These tools provide managerial toolsets to start, track and report projects.

Sample Gantt Diagram

Gantt Chart History

The Gantt Diagram was invented by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer, in 1917. Henry Laurence Gantt came up with the prototype of the Gantt chart tp around World War I. The chart proved to be so powerful and useful that it has remain unchanged for practically a century. Ultimately, in the 1990’s when Gantt Charts were modified to include linkage lines between tasks.

Henry L. Gantt Achievements

Henry Gantt

Henry Laurence Gantt enjoyed working as a mechanical engineer and management consultant.  Henry Gantt is known for innovating his self-named easily-viewed scheduling and monitoring diagram. Gantt Charts are drawn to reveal planned and actual project progress.  A commonly accepted project management instrument these days, it was an innovation of world-wide significance in 1920, founded on Mr. Gantt’s work while ship building during WWI. Gantt charts were subsequently used to schedule and monitor large construction projects like the Hoover Dam started in 1931 and the Eisenhower highway network launched in 1956.

Henry Gantt Biography

Henry Laurence Gantt was born in Calvert County, Maryland, USA. He graduated from McDonogh School in 1878 and Johns Hopkins College. After working as a teacher and draftsman, he pursued mechanical engineering. In 1887, he joined Frederick W. Taylor in the scientific management of Midvale Steel and Bethlehem Steel, working together there until 1893. Later in his career as a management consultant, in addition to the Gantt charts, he devised the ‘task and bonus’ method of wage payment and created methods of monitoring worker efficiency and productivity.