For visualizing location based projects, a
popular alternative to Gantt charts are time location charts. Location based
projects are usually construction projects, such as pipelines, buildings, and
roads. In addition to standard scheduling data (start/finish times, duration,
resources, and costs) each activity has location data.
Time location or linear charts are a way of
visualizing project schedules with linear locations on the horizontal axis, and
dates on the vertical axis. Schedule activities are then plotted onto the chart
according to the locations over which they occur and the start and finish data
that the project schedule determines. This method is extremely effective in
visualizing spatially how actual work will be performed and maximizes resource
efficiency.
While, the appearance of time location
charts is much different than the more common Gantt charts, they still include
the requisite data (start time, finish time, duration, and task relationships)
to allow for schedule risk analysis. When a schedule risk analysis has been
performed, it is possible to generate a location based chart that compares the
original vs a risk adjusted schedule. If you are familiar with RiskyProject,
this type of view would be the equivalent of the Results Gantt, which shows the
results of the simulation compared to the original schedule.
Creating a risk adjusted location based
schedule is quite simple. First, depending upon the software you are using to
generate the location based chart, set up the Simulation Results view which the
specified columns and order of columns. Second, run a simulation. Third, export
the results to Excel. At this point you may have to add the location based data
for each activity. Finally, import the Excel data into the software that you
are using to visualize the location based schedule.
