When managing a project, it’s important to understand both what activities you will undertake as well as the order in which they will be undertaken. A good way to visualize this is what is known as a network diagram. In project management, a network diagram is best described as “a graph that shows the activities, duration, and interdependencies of tasks within your project” (Wrike)..
Why networking diagrams?
When managing a project, it’s important to be able to visualize what order tasks will be undertaken, and to be able to develop a clear, definite, and obvious sequence of activities. To begin with, this ensures efficiency, ensuring that resources are not expended towards activities that cannot be completed at this current venture. When a project diagram is in place, team members will understand at a glance what, exactly, the current priorities are. This also allows for project managers to track progress and communicate the project’s current status with stakeholders and team members. It is also useful for scheduling purposes, allowing a manager to more easily understand how long the project will take to complete and what the team’s current status is.
This also makes it easier to handle project bottlenecks and other delays. When one activity is disrupted, it becomes easier to plan around this than in a traditional gantt chart, as the team will understand where the disruption is. It also ensures that it is easier to schedule projects, as a manager will be able to estimate the length of time each activity will take while also factoring in any dependencies that may arise, as opposed to a strictly linear which cannot factor in dependencies.
That said, network diagrams take considerably more time and money to develop. They tend to work best for projects with a limited number of dependencies or else they risk becoming virtually unreadable as the diagram becomes too complex to understand at a glance, defeating the entire purpose. For complex projects, this also means that the diagram itself may become costly to develop. Additionally, any errors in planning may prove disastrous for the project, meaning that it must be diagrammed carefully. Human errors can frequently result in disastrous consequences, forcing the project manager to have to redo the entire diagram and alter the project’s schedule accordingly. As a result, if the length of time for certain tasks are unknown, or if dependencies are unknown, this can result in a diagram becoming all but useless. If you still believe that a diagram is right for your project, there are two different standards that one could undertake.
Types of network diagrams
There are a few different approaches one could take to a project diagram. One of these is what is known as an arrow diagram.
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(source: Wrike)
Arrow diagrams are one of the simpler forms of project management diagrams. As a result they are less commonly used than other, more sophisticated forms, but still worth going over. In an arrow diagram, tasks are laid out and connected via arrows, with each representing which tasks need to be completed. Each arrow represents a “finish to start” model, which means that each task must be completed before undertaking the next one. Each diagram begins at an “i-node” before progressing left to right. Each node corresponds to an activity the project will need to undergo, ‘activity ‘here meaning a series of tasks and actions.that must be completed. Typically, the length of the arrows corresponds to the length of the task that must be undertaken before moving on to the next one.
A somewhat interesting quirk of this system is that you may need to include ‘dummy activities’ which are arrows that do not show a direct relationship.
Precedence diagram
(Source: acqnotes)
An alternative to this is what is known as the precedence diagram. An advantage of precedence diagrams is that rather than simply charting ‘finish-start’ activities, a precedence diagram can be used to chart other sorts of relationships. Generally speaking, there are four different types of relationships that can be charted in a precedence diagram.
Finish Start: The most common form, this involves activities that cannot be undertaken until another is completed.
Start-Start: An activity that cannot be started until another activity has already begun.
Finish-Finish: An activity cannot be finished until another is.
Start-Finish- Charts a relationship between the start of one activity and the finishing of another.
Additionally, there are several different types of dependencies that a manager can chart.
Mandatory Dependency- A dependency based on simple logic and core requirements
Discretionary Dependency- A dependency based on requirements that can be altered at discretion
External Dependency- Dependency based on external factors that cannot be directly controlled, such as laws or funding
Internal dependency- A dependency based on internal factors such as other projects within an organization.
Keeping track of all these dependencies is key to keeping a project well organized and to ensure that team members all understand what a project’s current status is, how the tasks relate to one another, and to focus on what must be taken care of.
Developing a project diagram
Regardless of which diagram you wish to make, the process of making one is relatively the same. Define both the start and end points of the project and place them at the left and right side, respectively. Identify each activity you wish to add, and add them to a table with each column representing activities and related tasks. Begin drawing arrows, draft it in rough form, and then clean it up. Note that while it’s tempting to use the length of an arrow to correspond to the length of time each activity takes, it’s more useful to simply label each arrow the amount of time estimated. It’s crucial to ensure that the network diagram is readable at a glance, so if a diagram is crowded with arrows or cannot be understood immediately, this may be a sign to do it over, or that perhaps a network diagram isn’t suited to your project in the first place.
In conclusion, network diagrams are an extremely useful tool for anyone looking to manage a successful project, but it requires extensive planning and may come with a number of caveats. It is especially important to understand both the benefits and limitations of a network diagram in an agile project where priorities may frequently change. However, there are still plenty of occasions where they’re a helpful tool. Ultimately, whether to use a network diagram should be based on the current needs of the project . If you feel it’s more helpful to visualize a project’s progress as a series of nodes, then a network diagram may be right for you.
References:
What is a network diagram in project management?. Versatile & Robust Project Management Software. (n.d.). https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-a-network-diagram-in-project-management/
Precedence diagram method (PDM). AcqNotes. (2024, February 3). https://acqnotes.com/acqnote/tasks/precedence-diagram-method-pdm
Network diagrams in project management — definition, types, and ... (n.d.). https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/project-network-diagram
Understanding Network Diagram in project management - techcanvass. Business Analysis Blog. (2022, September 23). https://techcanvass.com/blogs/network-diagram-in-project-management.aspx
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