Project planning milestone charts

An overview of the project plan, with timeline and delineated critical path, may be conveniently presented as a Gantt chart. A decision tree is another visual aid which can serve to clarify the critical information required for each milestone decision. 

The students used the Gantt chart to plan and monitor the project progress. Each team prepared a detailed list of tasks, milestones and deliverables. A timeline was constructed based on the completion time, delivery schedule and estimated time needed to complete each tasks. The Gantt chart enabled the students to identify dependency between various tasks and recognize potential bottlenecks in the project. The critical tasks, scheduled tasks, completion dates and delivery time were clearly labeled. Each week the teams met to discuss and update the Gantt chart, as old tasks were completed and new one started. 

Horizontalbar charts (Figure 27.10) are used to view (1) the length (duration) of each task/ activity/ and objective/ (2) the temporal relationship between various activities/ and (3) the actual progress vs the original plan that has been made on each task/ activity/ and objective. A number of project-tracking software systems are available and provide the ability to view the whole project as well as just the high-level objectives (milestones and decisions). 

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