Online Project Management solutions / products have inundated the PM community the past 10 years. An online search quickly results in a mind-boggling number of hits and leads us to reflect on the rapid ascent of solutions and how the humble Gantt chart appears to underpin their solutions and is readily understood by a wide audience.
That’s right, with all the new software solutions available one of the most common functions available in Project Management software is the ability to produce a Gantt chart. The internationally accepted, PMI definition of a Gantt Chart is: a graphic display of the schedule for the planning and controlling of activities for your project.
The Gantt Chart is the legacy of Henry Gantt, one of the forefathers of modern-day Project Management, created in the 1910’s, pre-World War 1 and has stood the test of time. It could be said that in most recent years with more ways of creating the gantt chart, it may even be having a renaissance of sorts. Technology has enabled automatic critical path calculations, costs, earned value, resource allocation, share activity progress/ comments and even store project documents.
Gone are the days of manually calculating forward and backwards passes and version control issues with cloud-based solutions sharing and collaborating more easily. Having celebrated over a century of existence, the Gantt chart continues to be applied across different industries, not just defence or construction and even across nations with common lexicon and understanding, proving the value of a well-tested and developed project plan with a Gantt chart.
This raises the question of what methods will be developed next that can be so widely applied in any context and add value to shift the way we engage in programs and projects? Whatever form it takes, PSA looks forward to providing the best valued program, project and programme management into the future.
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