Necessary Steps with Gantt Charts for Time-Bound Projects

Not maintaining any Gantt charts for its project indirectly led to a construction company's failure and untimely demise.  It had incurred extensive charges in penalties and eventually had to close down its construction which had run nearly 15 months behind schedule.

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule from the start to the finish. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships between activities for a smooth work flow to take effect. Hence, I strongly propose the use of Gantt Charts for better management and effective leadership. There are practical examples of how companies even today are falling into receivership, partially due to not inculcating such helpful techniques as Gantt Charts.

Penalty Charges

The contract failed to reflect a time schedule plan for a project explaining the various procedures involved in the construction of the apartment block. Some alterations were introduced by the client which were a deviation from the original plan. In the absence of the time schedule plan, a revised plan could not be produced specifying as to how the alteration would affect the timely completion of the project. This culminated in a delay in handing over by good 15 months from the original date agreed upon, leading to avoidable penalty.

The company needed to prove it was not responsible for the project delay and therefore avoid fines by the customer. It had to demonstrate the following:

1. It was on schedule to meet the original expectation as detailed in the contract
2. The delays were caused by customer initiated specification changes that resulted in additional work and expense.

They only possessed a couple of spreadsheets assigning duties performed: for each amendment there was another excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheets did not reflect the contrasts from the initial plan or the effect on the final date due to the amendments demonstrated.

Would A Gantt Chart Have Helped?

A Gantt Chart would have performed as a gauge for keeping track of the progress if one had been established at the contract phase. The additional jobs which needed to be completed by the company could have been factored in and the length of the existing jobs could have been altered if and when the client asked for changes in the provisions; the slippage in the surrender date would have been plainly evidenced by this. The client might have been asked to consent to an adjusted finish date and then sign a revision to the existing contract.

In the absence of these tools, the company could not prove that the delays were not as a result of their inefficiencies (it may still be argued that not having appropriate project management software for such complex projects is indicative of inefficiency by itself).

When called upon to supervise a time-bound project on behalf of a customer, there is a need to use of appropriate tools such and Gantt and other charts to monitor the progress and plan out the effect of changes in circumstances will have on the work, and inform all concerned about such changes.