5.2. Project Implementation: Tools

What are some proven strategies for managing eco-centric peacebuilding initiatives?

Module Outline:

You’ve analysed the problem, identified a solution, and designed an intervention. It’s time to make it happen! Careful management of project implementation is about making sure your carefully planned community environmental action can actually happen.

As with any complex project, things will go wrong. Module 5.1 emphasised the importance of adaptation, flexibility, and collaboration in project implementation; this module highlights a few hands-on ways to ensure things are moving forward in the right direction. See Modules 5.3 and 5.4 for worksheets and tips about how to keep team members on track during throughout project lifecycle.

Module Objectives:

- understand why Gantt charts are a popular tool in project management
- explain why it is important for everyone involved to have a shared sense of the project timeline

Gantt Chart

WHAT IS A GANTT CHART?

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart used in project management to visually represent a project schedule. It shows the start and end dates of tasks, their durations, and their relationships to one another. Gantt charts are widely used to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks or activities within a project.

WHY USE A GANTT CHART?

A Gantt chart is a powerful tool for planning and managing projects because it provides a clear and visual way to organize tasks, track progress, and identify potential bottlenecks. By breaking down a project into individual tasks and plotting them on a timeline, implementing team members can see what needs to be done, who is responsible, and when each task is scheduled to start and finish.

Gantt charts can be updated as a project progresses, making it easy to monitor progress and adjust schedules if delays occur. Because Gantt charts also help identify dependencies between tasks, they can be particularly useful in (1) knowing what else might be impacted by a delay in one part of a project and (2) ensuring that critical steps are completed in the correct order.

The structure and transparency of a Gantt chart can motivate diverse teams by coordinating efforts across the group, encouraging everyone to stay on track, and highlighting how each action contributes to the overall project.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF A GANTT CHART?

Tracking a large, complex project on a Gantt chart can be a challenge. As the number of tasks increases, the chart may become cluttered and difficult to read, especially if there are many dependencies. Similarly, representing and managing complex task dependencies can be cumbersome, particularly in projects where tasks have multiple overlapping relationships. It may be helpful to break a project into several sub-projects, each with their own (slightly more simple) Gantt chart.

Gantt charts are organised according to time, and visually emphasise deadlines. While this may be helpful, it can also lead to unrealistic or unproductive time pressures, particularly if the chart doesn't account for uncertainties or changes in the project's scope.

Because Gantt charts don’t inherently account for how resources (including people, materials, and budgets) are distributed, used, or overburdened, it is important to use them in combination with other project management tools.

Project Timeline

WHAT IS A PROJECT TIMELINE?

A project timeline provides the big-picture overview of what an intervention will do and who will be involved. Where a Gantt chart is task-specific and includes particular details relevant to their accomplishment, a project timeline is about quickly summarising and communicating the key stages of a potential solution.

There are a number of ways to present project timelines. Thinking of them as a cross between a timeline (which may or may not include specific dates) and a directional route may be helpful. A project timeline should visually showcase key activities, and how they will build on each other to get to the desired destination. The route (i.e., the order of activities) will depend on their urgency, inter-activity dependencies, resource and personnel availability, and other factors. (Metaphorically, for example, a trip to the gas station may not be particularly scenic, but is going to be a necessary stop during a long journey. Large-scale projects may well require 2-3 gas station detours.)

WHY USE A PROJECT TIMELINE?

A timeline provides an easy-to-read summary of the project, and can be especially useful for external communications.

The process of creating a project timeline is a useful tool for transitioning between program design and project implementation, as having to simplistically represent the order of project activities and describe the intended destination can help ensure that everyone involved in the project has a shared understanding of its trajectory.

Throughout the implementation of project activities, the timeline can serve as a grounding tool and provide direction in the event of roadblocks. If a particular activity looks like it is being 'derailed' (e.g., taking longer than expected, having to be completed with fewer resources than promised, or moving forward without the participation of a key actor), the project timeline can be a useful framework for considering what else might need to change. Responses to project roadblocks might involve trying to get back to the planned route as quickly as possible, or finding a new trajectory to the same final destination.

WHAT ARE SOME LIMITATIONS OF A PROJECT TIMELINE?

It is difficult to foresee the entirety of a project. Reshaping conflict contexts and environmental management, by its very nature, involves creating new territory - and mapping territory that doesn't yet exist is fundamentally a speculative exercise. A timeline is informed by experience and expertise, but involves assumptions about activity outcomes and cause-and-effect relationships that are difficult to fully predict. It is important to understand that additional 'pitstops' may need to be built into the project.

A timeline is a guide, not an absolute manifesto. Project implementation requires flexibility. Timelines are useful tools, but being able to re-route - and communicate the change of direction to everyone involved - is equally important.

Remember: A map is not the territory, and a route is not the journey.

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