Common Project Management Charts

There are many useful tools for project management. One of the most useful tools is the chart. There are several different types of charts for project management, and all are intended to help you to visualize the project. You may have already heard of the Gantt Chart or the PERT Chart, but have you heard of the process control chart? How about the Network Diagram or the Pareto Chart? Read on to find out what the most common charts used in project management are, and when they should be used for your project planning success.

The Gantt chart is often hailed as being the project management staple. This chart for project management is a useful tool for scheduling your project. Gantt charts depict task dependencies, start times and stop times for project tasks, and provide a visual frame of reference for everyone on the project team. Gantt charts help project managers to plan activities, work out a critical path, and communicate activities with team members. They work best on smaller projects, when projects are large or complex, their usefulness wanes due to the limitations of the Gantt chart.

Another project management chart you are likely to have heard of before is the PERT chart. The PERT chart, also sometimes known as a network diagram, depicts more complex projects and the relationships between activities. A PERT chart, unlike a Gantt chart, can depict activities that are parallel, activities that must follow one another, and complex task dependencies. This chart can help your team to visualize not only the whole project, but a part of the project you are managing that is particularly complex.

Another type of chart is the work breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS depicts the hierarchy of tasks that comprise a project. To create a work breakdown structure you must first decompose your project into the component tasks. Next, begin at the top with the project name. Each item of the next level will be the tasks involved in the project (or milestones). The levels under that will contain subtasks and work items. Work items are the smallest, completable actions that will move the project towards completion. The WBS is a helpful tool for you to use in planning your project, because it allows you to visualize the component parts and how they relate before they are entered into your project management software.

Other common charts used in project management are discussed on the next page.