| 73 | | It often includes a "today" line to show where a project stands. (Need an example.) |
| | 73 | The following illustrations use a gross simplification of a project to design a new electronic device which is inaccurate in many ways. |
| | 74 | |
| | 75 | == Dependency and Duration == |
| | 76 | |
| | 77 | There is some benefit to very basic Gantt that showed just tasks and their dependencies and the resultant schedule. |
| | 78 | |
| | 79 | [[Image(simple-gantt.PNG)]] |
| | 80 | |
| | 81 | Disregarding any resource constraints, this chart shows |
| | 82 | |
| | 83 | * circuit board design and firmware development follow schematic design |
| | 84 | * package design can proceed independently |
| | 85 | * assembly can't be done until the circuit boards and packaging are ready |
| | 86 | * the product can't ship until it's assembled and has firmware. |
| | 87 | * the overall project will take 9 calendar days |
| | 88 | |
| | 89 | This requires only that the ticket have some information about estimated effort or duration of the task and simple FS task dependency. |
| | 90 | |
| | 91 | == Progress == |
| | 92 | |
| | 93 | If we also track work on tasks, we can monitor project progress at a glance. |
| | 94 | |
| | 95 | [[Image(gantt-progress.PNG)]] |
| | 96 | |
| | 97 | == Resource Allocation == |
| | 98 | |
| | 99 | When a resource is not available 100% of the time, tasks take longer than the work suggests. By assigning effort to resources, we can chart this time dialation. |
| | 100 | |
| | 101 | [[Image(gantt-resource.PNG)]] |
| | 102 | |
| | 103 | When the hardware and software engineers are only available half time, the project gets delayed. |
| | 104 | |
| | 105 | == Critical Path == |
| | 106 | |
| | 107 | Some tasks affect project schedule and some do not. The tasks which affect the schedule are on the ''critical path''. |
| | 108 | |
| | 109 | [[Image(critical-path.PNG)]] |
| | 110 | |
| | 111 | Packaging design and circuit board layout are so short -- relative to other activities -- that speeding them up doesn't really help the project. But if we could shorten schematic design or firmware, every day we take out of one of those activities we also take out of the project schedule. |
| | 112 | |
| | 113 | == Sub-tasks == |
| | 114 | |
| | 115 | To manage the complexity of the chart, we can break tasks down into sub-tasks and show various levels of detail. |
| | 116 | |
| | 117 | [[Image(roll-up-1.PNG)]] |
| | 118 | |
| | 119 | [[Image(roll-up-2.PNG)]] |
| | 120 | |
| | 121 | |
| | 122 | A Gantt chart often includes a "today" line to show where a project stands. (Need an example.) |
| 160 | | == Dependency and Duration == |
| 161 | | |
| 162 | | There is some benefit to very basic Gantt that showed just tasks and their dependencies and the resultant schedule. |
| 163 | | |
| 164 | | [[Image(simple-gantt.PNG)]] |
| 165 | | |
| 166 | | Disregarding any resource constraints, this chart shows |
| 167 | | |
| 168 | | * circuit board design and firmware development follow schematic design |
| 169 | | * package design can proceed independently |
| 170 | | * assembly can't be done until the circuit boards and packaging are ready |
| 171 | | * the product can't ship until it's assembled and has firmware. |
| 172 | | * the overall project will take 9 calendar days |
| 173 | | |
| 174 | | (Clearly this is a gross simplification and likely not accurate in many ways.) |
| 175 | | |
| 176 | | This requires only that the ticket have some information about estimated effort or duration of the task and simple FS task dependency. |
| 177 | | |
| 178 | | == Progress == |
| 179 | | |
| 180 | | If we also track work on tasks, we can monitor project progress at a glance. |
| 181 | | |
| 182 | | [[Image(gantt-progress.PNG)]] |
| 183 | | |
| 184 | | == Resource Allocation == |
| 185 | | |
| 186 | | When a resource is not available 100% of the time, tasks take longer than the work suggests. By assigning effort to resources, we can chart this time dialation. |
| 187 | | |
| 188 | | [[Image(gantt-resource.PNG)]] |
| 189 | | |
| 190 | | When the hardware and software engineers are only available half time, the project gets delayed. |
| 191 | | |
| 192 | | == Critical Path == |
| 193 | | |
| 194 | | Some tasks affect project schedule and some do not. The tasks which affect the schedule are on the ''critical path''. |
| 195 | | |
| 196 | | [[Image(critical-path.PNG)]] |
| 197 | | |
| 198 | | Packaging design and circuit board layout are so short -- relative to other activities -- they speeding them up doesn't really help the project. But if we could shorten schematic design or firmware, every day we take out of one of those activities we also take out of the project schedule. |
| 199 | | |
| 200 | | == Sub-tasks == |
| 201 | | |
| 202 | | To manage the complexity of the chart, we can break tasks down into sub-tasks and show various levels of detail. |
| 203 | | |
| 204 | | [[Image(roll-up-1.PNG)]] |
| 205 | | |
| 206 | | [[Image(roll-up-2.PNG)]] |
| 207 | | |
