A visual representation system for the scheduling and management of projects (1992)

A VISUAL SCHEDULING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (VSMS) This work proposes a new system for the visual representation of projects that displays the quantities of work, resources and cost. This new system, called Visual Scheduling and Management System, has a built-in hierarchical system to provide different levels of schedules, and visually superimposes planned and actual data to become a control device. It is also designed to schedule and manage projects with repeating tasks at various locations. The system's visual identity makes it powerful for communication. The building block of the Visual Scheduling and Management System is the quantified bar that represents a single task of a project. The quantified bar is defined in Chapter 2 as an object th at displays a task with an associated quantity in time. This quantity can be the work of the task, a resource for the task, the cost associated to that resource or the total co st of the task. These alternative displays allow the user to see the task from different points of view. The actual execution of a task is monitored by superimposing two quantified bars: the quantified bar for the original scheduling of the task and its mate quantified bar that depicts the actual data from the field. Based on the actual data, the schedule for the still non-executed part of the task is updated, using the properties of the quantified bar. The quantified bar chart is introduced in Chapter 3 as the first quantified chart of the Visual Scheduling and Management System. A quantified bar chart displays a group of tasks, where each task is represented by a quantified bar. The permissible types of precedences are defined and the time interdependency of tasks is explicitly defined by their relative position on the chart. The quantified bar chart schedules tasks with well-defined precedences as weil as projects composed of tasks with loose time interdependencies. The allowable operations on the quantified bars are described as shift, expansion or compression, addition of continuous tasks and addition of parallel tasks. Finally, the introduction of constraints through specific operations is explained. The template is introduced in Chapter 4 as the next representation level of the Visual Scheduling and Management System. A template embodies a dual presentation of the information, both in graphic and alphanumeric forms. So, the input and output of information are interchangeable, either through text or through graphics. A temp late is employed to level the resources visually, using constraints on the summation of the intensities of the group of displayed tasks. Finally, a template is designed to monitor the actual execution of the tasks by superimposing scheduled and actual data with mate quantified bars. The matrix-balanced chart, the higher level of representation in the Visual Scheduling and Management System, is introduced in Chapter 5. The matrixbalanced chart inc1udes the additional dimension of location in a project, necessary for the scheduling of repeating tasks. It can also display the effect of the learning curve from location to location. A re-arrangement of the tasks along the vertical axis allows the user to study the scheduling according to the constituency of the tasks rather than their location. Finally, a suppression of the intensity of the quantified bars, transforming them to connoting bars, produces a Gantt chart from this rearranged matrix-balanced chart. Chapter 6 conc1udes the presentation of the new system. The components, presented in the previous chapters, are linked to assembie the Visual Scheduling and Management System for the scheduling and management of entire projects. Folding-up provides the link of the different charts by aggregating visually a group of tasks to a folded-up task. So, microtemplate schedules, template schedules, matrix-balanced schedules and the master schedule are linked together with foldedup tasks to make a rigorous hierarchical structure. Changes are permitted at the different levels of this hierarchical structure. These changes can be introduced both upwards and downwards in the hierarchy. The entire system is used for monitoring the execution of projects by coordinating the display of the filed data on the various charts. Chapter 7 presents the state-of-practice representation techniques for project scheduling and project management: the Milestone chart, the simplest and most widely used form of project scheduling; the Cantt chart, acknowledged as the most easily understood representation of project scheduling; and the network diagrams incorporating the concept of the critical path. The line of balance method is also presented for scheduling repeating tasks at different locations. Finally, the state-ofart computer graphics are briefly evaluated, to ob serve th at no major advancement has occurred in the representation of project scheduling, despite the proliferation of personal computers. In Chapter 8, the Visual Scheduling and Management System is compared to the state-of-practice representations. First, the comparison focuses on the preparation of the initial schedule and addresses the advantages of the proposed system. At this level the comparison refers to the visual display of the work; the visual display of the resources; the visual display of the repeating tasks; the hierarchical structure; the visual identification of the critical path; and finally the interactive feasibility studies during scheduling. Then, the comparison shifts to the fields of control and management. At this level the comparison focuses on the visual monitoring and forecasting capabilities of each system and their potential as a communication device. While the proposed system provides excellent quantitative displays and has built-in monitoring and forecasting capabilities, the Gantt chart, the network diagrams and the line-of-balance chart have a deficiency to juxtapose graphically the planned and the actual data. The concepts of the new system have been patented to Professor Spiro N. Pollalis and Mr. Yasuo Ueda with the U.S. Patent No. 5,016,170 of May 14, 1991. This is the first patent granted to research carried at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, as weil as the first patent awarded at Harvard University on a computer software related subject.