Burning Up Construction Projects: Why Not?

Massimo is a project manager in Italy with strong expericence in project and program management in the fields of construction and facility management.

  Agile   Construction   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)  

In the world of civil construction projects, the Gantt chart is the most commonly used communication tool for project stakeholders. Depending on the stakeholders’ communication requirements about project progress, the Gantt chart can take the form of a summary schedule or a project schedule network diagram.

Is this the only effective way to inform stakeholders about the progress of a project, as well as give other important information about the status of a project? Because building construction companies are asking managers to improve their effectiveness--and because of my studies and research around agile methodologies--I have been asking myself this question for a long time.

This has helped me reach a conclusion--the Gantt chart is not the only way to give a global vision of the project and provide valuable information about its progress. There is something that can be more effective and more efficient.

What is a Gantt chart, and why is it used?
The Gantt chart is a tool that allows people to show the project as a whole through the definition and representation of the activities of the project itself. The father of the Gantt chart is the late Henry Laurence Gantt. He worked together with Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of the “management” concept.

In The Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor focused on efficiency--but more so…

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