gantt chart
Learning Goal: I’m working on a business question and need guidance to help me learn.
Gantt charts are presented as an alternative to PERT, and Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) networks as an alternative to AON. Additional task relationships include Finish to Start, Finish to Finish, Start to Start, and Start to Finish. Methods to accelerate a project that is falling behind schedule include adding resources, fast-tracking, compromising quality, reducing the project’s scope, and using overtime. Crashing links activities to their respective cost to determine the time/cost trade-off to accelerating the schedule. While activity networks are useful for planning the schedule, they can become too large or complex to be meaningful, they can be incorrect due to human errors or oversimplification, they are not suited for all tasks, and they can be problematic when used with subcontractors. Given the following information, answer the questions about this project:
| Activity | Expected Duration | Predecessors |
| A | 4 days | — |
| B | 9 days | A |
| C | 11 days. | A |
| D | 5 days | B |
| E | 3 days | B |
| F | 7 days | C |
| G | 3 days | D, F |
| H | 2 days | E, G |
| I | 1 day | H |
- Draw the network as a Gantt chart.
- What is the critical path? Which activities have slack time?
- What would happen if activities B and D each took 5 extra days to complete instead of the expected duration? How would the critical path change?