Business

8 Key Components Of A Gantt Chart

Published

2 weeks ago

August 2, 2022

Construction project management can be defined as the process of planning, measuring, leading, and overseeing specific workflows, resources, and tasks within a construction company. The goal of construction project management is to achieve the economic consumption of resources within a stipulated timeline for successful completion and value delivery.

‘Construction’ is not exclusively reserved for materials, workforce, and machinery—rather, it encompasses a multitude of activities ranging from project conception to realization and delivery.

A Gantt chart is an incredible tool that assists project managers in construction project management. It’s a graphical representation of construction project schedules, including the start and finish timelines of a project, resources, planning and dependencies. If you want to know more about Gantt charts, check out this link.

Definition of Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart is a stacked bar graphical representation or chart consisting of two axes.

The vertical axis represents construction project tasks, such as roof repair, electrical wiring within a building, interior design, and more. Meanwhile, the horizontal axis represents the associated timelines and task duration.

With a Gantt chart, you can visualize achieved milestones in construction project schedules, project summaries, and task dependency relationships. The Gantt chart was conceptualized and popularized by Henry Gantt, hence the name.

Gantt charts find their application in the following types of construction projects:

Public and government construction projects, usually economic buildings, government structures, public educational institutions, museums, hospital and healthcare infrastructure, government-sanctioned manufacturing plants, and transportation infrastructure.
Residential development, including apartments, single houses, cottages, row houses, and multi-dwellings.
Commercial buildings, including trade centers, government business infrastructures, private banks, corporate facilities, and hotels.

What is the function of Gantt charts in construction project management?

In construction project management, Gantt charts can be incredibly helpful. The applications of the Gantt chart include:

Planning and scheduling construction projects.
Strategizing workflows and scheduling construction tasks.
Providing an overview and comprehensive visualization of tasks with a timeline.
Team communication and collaboration.
Efficient resource management, including workers, materials, and machinery.
Understanding planned vs. actual timelines on a construction project.
Scheduling administrative and management work.

8 components of a Gantt chart

A simple to-do list can be useful for small projects. However, you’ll need a sophisticated management system if you’re in the construction business, which is where Gantt charts come in handy.

The technical components of a Gantt chart include:

Dates and timelines: Every person involved in the project can visualize when the project will be initiated, the closing date, and when each task needs to be executed.
Tasks and workflows: On the left side of the chart, tasks, sub-tasks, and even the most minor workflows are listed for easy tracking.
Bars: Bars represent the timeline in which a particular task needs to be completed. This prevents missing out on important deadlines.
Achieved milestones: Milestones can be defined as tasks or process completions instrumental to a construction project. Milestone completions keep the team motivated and ensure major tasks are never skipped.
Directional arrows: There are certain processes in construction projects that need to be sequential. Small directional arrows located between taskbars denote these sequential interdependencies.
Taskbars: Project managers must constantly evaluate how a construction project is coming along. You can visualize the progress of a specific construction project or several projects through shaded taskbars. The shaded portion signifies tasks that are already completed.
Task number: If you’re associated with a medium or large-sized construction business enterprise, your teams may be working on several projects and sub-tasks at a specific time. Task identification numbers help in quick identification and smooth management, eliminating confusion.
Resources: Naming the resources involved in a project, especially the people and any significant machinery, can be incredibly helpful. Management can quickly understand who is working on which tasks and which machineries are engaged on the field. This overview helps in smooth and efficient resource assignment.

Use Gantt chart software

Initially, when the Gantt chart was conceptualized and used, project managers used pen and paper for drawing and creating the graph. Later, with the introduction of Excel and smart worksheets, creating Gantt charts became much easier.

However, Excel wasn’t a feasible option for intricate and large projects involving several projects and a huge amount of resources. That’s when construction software platforms supporting Gantt charts were developed to streamline complicated construction projects.

Gantt charts were transformed into a project scheduling software to manage critical construction processes. Although many project managers work with conventional local desktop programs, Gantt chart software has now become cloud-based. You can easily develop shareable Gantt charts for seamless collaboration.

Types of Gantt chart software

Desktop-based Gantt charts such as Microsoft Excel were ideally suited for small projects involving one or two managers. Sharing desktop-based Gantt charts was a complex task and required complicated integration of a file-sharing hub, leading to increased expenses.

Cloud-based Gantt chart software enables collaborative project planning to easily share and control accessories. You can simply invite your team members or stakeholders to get an overview of the construction project plan, assign tasks, or attach relevant files for real-time updates.

Additionally, with cloud-based software, you don’t require costly server installations or complicated integrations for every individual user. Therefore, software-based Gantt charts can markedly improve your team’s productivity and enhance business outcomes.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Gantt chart software isn’t just reserved for construction project managers. It can be utilized by the entire project team, from those working on the field to stakeholders for enhanced productivity, efficient management and smooth transition within projects.

Find an ideal Gantt chart software with relevant features to help you manage your construction business successfully and effectively. Bid farewell to stubborn bottlenecks—there’s so much you can do with Gantt charts.

Business

Mozilla report found more than a dozen TikTok influencers who had undisclosed paid relationships to post political messages; TikTok banned political ads in 2019 (Mozilla Tiktokzakrzewski Washingtonpost)

Published

29 mins ago

August 16, 2022

Leonardo

Mozilla Tiktokzakrzewski Washingtonpost: A recent report conducted by Mozilla found that more than a dozen TikTok influencers had undisclosed paid relationships to post political messages on their videos, the company banned political ads in 2019. This decision has been applauded by various activist groups and has been seen as a “victory for free speech”.

Not everyone is happy about this. As of now, it’s not known whether the TikTok app will still be able to use third-party content from content creators with undisclosed paid relationships. It’s also not clear what the ban on political ads means for the app.

The report was released by Mozilla, a major free web browser provider and anti-privacy organization. The report argued that political messages were being spread through the video platform without users knowing that they were paid promotion of propaganda. Specifically, 7 Indian political parties allegedly used TikTok to influence voters ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. TikTok has been widely used in India because it is unable to detect political content and is mostly used by young people in India. TikTok is an app that allows users to post and share videos with one another.

The CEO of Mozilla, Mark Surman, claimed that the platform had been used for “political propaganda” for a long time. He claimed this was not only a problem in India, but globally as well. He also claimed that such incidents are not unique to India and are happening all over the world. The report also stated that many of these political influencers have more than 100,000 followers on the app. Allegedly, these users were able to get their political messages across without anyone knowing that they were paid promotions.

At the same time as the report was released, Mozilla CEO Mark Surman said that TikTok has removed all of these videos from its platform and banned political advertising on its app. He said, “It shows a clear desire from TikTok to address this problem, so we’ve decided to temporarily suspend our work with them. We will resume engagement with TikTok when we know they’ve solved this problem.”

Mozilla has decided to stop working with TikTok for an undisclosed amount of time. Mozilla also announced that it would work with other companies to make sure that political messages would not be able to be spread on their platforms for the next 4 months. The company also announced that it would work with Google, a major search engine, YouTube, a popular video streaming platform, and Facebook in order to address the issue.

Business

Facebook will announce a suite of audio products on Monday, including a Clubhouse-like app, a podcast discovery product connected to Spotify, and more (Sources Monday Clubhouselike Spotifykafkavox)

Published

1 day ago

August 15, 2022

Leonardo

Sources Monday Clubhouselike Spotifykafkavox: Facebook will announce a suite of audio products on Monday, including a Clubhouse-like app, a podcast discovery product connected to Spotify, and more.

The announcements are part of Facebook’s efforts to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded social media space dominated by other companies who have fleshed out their audio offerings.

It might seem like Facebook is moving too fast in the media realm, but those who know around here know that it’s just following the rest of tech. A few years ago, the company’s advertising executives were inventing and experimenting with a range of new ad formats. From that came the creation of Timeline, its news feed, and the addition of paid ads to the social network.

On Monday at its F8 developer conference, Facebook will announce a trio of audio products — an updated version of Clubhouse which will be known as “Timeline Chats”, a podcast app called “Podcasts”, and “high quality audio” as part of Instagram.

Clubhouse first launched in 2016 as a private community where Facebook employees post 10-minute audios. It’s sort of like a Facebook-focused version of The Moth, the live storytelling event and podcast. The feature will be open to the public starting Monday (for those willing to signup for one of this thing).

Facebook is also launching a new podcast app called “Podcasts” that will be available on iOS and Android and connected to Spotify — a first for Facebook. The feature could be a competitor to the likes of Apple’s Podcasts app. Facebook is also integrating podcast listening with its main app. So people will be able to listen via their news feed, of course.

The third product is high-quality audio, which is said to be “a new format optimized for sound quality and created with the latest in audio technology”. I’m just going to say that it’s probably a way for Facebook to easily differentiate its audio products from rivals.

Facebook already has a lot of tools for recording and editing audio, especially video. With standalone products, the company can increase user engagement and promote vertical video content over horizontal videos.

Facebook has been investing in several other audio products as well.

Business

Wejo, which collects and analyzes real-time vehicle data, is going public via a SPAC merger to raise $330M, which will value Wejo at $800M including debt (Wejo Spac 330m 800m)

Published

2 days ago

August 14, 2022

Leonardo

Wejo Spac 330m 800m: Wejo is a predictive analytics company that specializes in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting real-time vehicle data. They operate out of the globe’s largest traffic network and have built the world’s largest connected vehicle telematics database.

The company has been privately held since 2006. Wejo plans to enter public markets via an SPAC merger with Criora Health, which will be renamed Wejo Inc with a publicly traded ticker symbol of WJHO. The merger is expected to close in Q3.

The SPAC is a new form of hybrid private/public company that has been gaining popularity in certain industries including healthcare, IT, and cloud-based security services.

Wejo’s real-time software enables consumers to monitor driving patterns and behavior via an on-board telematics device, or log into their account online to review the data. The company has been providing these solutions for more than a decade to consumers, dealers, and auto manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe.

The data that Wejo gathers from its network of connected vehicles is available to a wide range of businesses, including auto insurers, dealerships, finance companies, and auto OEMs. The company also collects data from non-automotive sectors such as delivery fleets and shuttle buses among others.

Wejo has operational headquarters in the U.S., and is listed on the OTC Markets under the ticker symbol WJHO. The company also maintains a research, development, and engineering center in Palo Alto, California. Wejo’s operating headquarters are located on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Wejo operates its largest connected vehicle telematics database, which consists of more than eight billion connected miles of driving data gathered from over three million vehicles. The company currently analyzes data from over seven hundred thousand vehicles in the U.S., fifteen thousand fleets outside the U.S., and twelve thousand transit buses around the world.

The company currently operates five technology platforms. Wejo’s Real-Time platform is a web and mobile portal that allows users to analyze, visualize, and share driving patterns and behaviors. The company’s fleet management platform includes features such as fleet routing optimization and real-time fleet analytics. The Mobilize platform offers a unified user interface for device management systems and connected vehicles.