Project Planning – Two Primary Diagrams Frequently Used in Project Planning

Program evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) chart and GANTT chart are the two
most common charts frequently used in project planning. The PERT chart is used to plan,
organize, and coordinate project activity. It gives project managers a graphical depiction of the
project chronology, allowing them to categorize and analyze each activity in the project. Nodes
(designed as circles or rectangles) reflect activities and progress throughout a project in the
PERT chart template. At the same time, vectors created with lines denoting multiple operations
connect the nodes (Evdokimov et al., 2022). The PERT chart gives project managers an
indication of how long a project will take to conclude. Managers can also examine the division
of labor relating to the project and assess project risks. By illustrating the relationships between
each process step, the taxonomy framework makes it simple to organize complicated projects
with many moving pieces (Evdokimov et al., 2022).
The Gantt Chart, on the other hand, is based on Henry Gantt’s initial design, which was
inspired by Carol Adamecki’s harmonica. It comprises the project’s planned schedule and
horizontal columns that reflect activities or events that happen between the commencement and
conclusion dates. Each work is represented by a bar on the Gantt chart, and the schedules are
horizontally aligned (Evdokimov et al., 2022). Task relations can also be displayed on modern
Gantt charts. A simple Gantt chart provides a clear picture of a project’s dates, milestones, and
performance. Each team member understands what they should do, when they should do it, and
how it will affect the results or end product.

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References

Evdokimov, I. V., Tsarev, R. Y., Yamskikh, T. N., & Pupkov, A. N. (2018, September). Using
PERT and Gantt charts for planning software projects on the basis of distributed digital
ecosystems. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1074, No. 1, p. 012127). IOP
Publishing.