In my previous article, I stressed that Gantt charts can be very useful in improving time management. Gantt charts are not a panacea, however. On the other hand, failing to follow the results of Gantt charts can lead to lost money and even bankruptcy. One major firm went under recently because it failed to maintain a Gantt chart to track the progress of a substantial contract.



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.

In order to argue the penalty assessed, it was necessary for the business organization to demonstrate:

1-That the initially agreed upon timetable for handover specified in the first contract could potentially have been met.

2-The extensions and extra duties to be performed due to amendments suggested by the client needed to lead to slippage of the deadline.

There were a few spreadsheets used to capture the tasks underway. As changes occurred a new spreadsheet was set up. There was a gap in this method in that the impact of the changes on the original plan and on the completion date were not captured.

How do Gantt Charts help a business

As we know, a Gantt chart basically shows us task and schedule information, it is always appropriate to create a chart at the start of a contract. There is the possibility of adding tasks as the contracted work proceeds, thereby, changing the final schedules and changing the specifications itself according to the customer's requirements. Therefore, in order to not fall in receivership problems, the Gantt Charts could have helped such companies in showing the customer the reschedule of events and agree mutually for the revised end dates of the 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.