Survey Training Pack Session 17 – Budgeting and timelines for survey design and implementation

Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to Explain what is a Gantt chart Describe the main activities that should be listed in a Gantt chart for a survey Be able to use a Gantt chart as a planning and monitoring tool for the implementation of the survey List the main elements that should be included in a survey budget Use the budget checklist as a tool to check if you have not missed any important lines in your budget Explain how the survey budget can be used to create incentives, positive and negative, that improve quality of the survey

Gantt Chart A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt in the 1910s, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. GANTT charts have become a common technique for representing the phases and activities of a project work breakdown structure. It was introduced by Henry Gantt around 1910 – 1915.

Gantt Chart - characteristics Characteristics: –The bar in each row identifies the corresponding task –The horizontal position of the bar identifies start and end times of the task –Bar length represents the duration of the task –Task durations can be compared easily –Good for allocating resources and re-scheduling –Precedence relationships can be represented using arrows –Critical activities are usually highlighted –Slack times are represented using bars with doted lines –The bar of each activity begins at the activity earliest start time (ES) –The bar of each activity ends at the activity latest finish time (LF).

Gantt Chart - Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages –Simple –Good visual communication to others –Task durations can be compared easily –Good for scheduling resources Disadvantages –Dependencies are more difficult to visualise –Minor changes in data can cause major changes in the chart

Gantt chart – general example

Gantt Chart – in survey work Open the file “Gantt chart for a survey - example.xlsx”