Gantt Chart Utilities

The time scale that is used in the displayed Cleaning Machine Gantt chart is one with the major division as months and the subdivision of weeks. It is a scale that enables us to get the chart into this book. It also is a good scale to use when explaining the project to stakeholders outside the project. When building the Gantt chart in the project team meeting, you should use a scale in weeks with the subdivision in days. This arrangement works the best for task discussion purposes. We use this weeks-divided-into-days scale for the Gantt charts that we post on our office walls or in a conference room or hallway for monitoring a project after its launch. Either scale, however, will support good project monitoring. (Note: Project management software will enable you to print out your Gantt chart both ways.)

When this Gantt chart was first developed, two project team members over-scheduled themselves without noticing it. The data entry person only periodically checked the resource table. However, the Resource Table view of the Microsoft Project 2002^® software package caught it immediately. Thus, they quickly rescheduled to avoid a commitment of over 100 percent on two days.