CHAPTER 4.2.2 -:Planning Tools

Without planning it is difficult to measure progress. As phases are crystallized, crises should begin to disappear. A project manager must plan the life cycle to the project and delegate authority for its implementation.

Project planning involves plotting project activities against a time frame. One of the first steps in planning is developing a road map structure or a network based on analysis of the tasks that must be performed to complete the project. In the early 1900s, formal planning used a Gantt chart or a milestone chart.

By plotting activities on the Y-axis and time on the X-axis, the analyst laid out on overall network specifying interrelationships among actions. Later on, formal planning techniques such as the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) was introduces. Other operations research techniques such as linear programming and queuing theory have also been introduced in allocating resources. In the early 1980s software packages became available for project planning.