SC QUALITY GUILDWBS and Gantt chart
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Break the project into numbered pieces of work, link them in order, and see them laid out against time with the finish date checked against the deadline.
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Work breakdown structure
A work breakdown structure (WBS) breaks a project into smaller pieces until each one is a task someone can own and estimate. It is numbered like an outline: 1 is a phase, 1.1 and 1.2 are the pieces of work inside it. For a DMAIC project the top level is usually the five phases. The rule of thumb is that the pieces together make up the whole scope and nothing outside it.
Gantt chart
A Gantt chart, after Henry Gantt, draws each task as a bar against a timeline, so you can see what runs when, what overlaps and when the project ends. Top-level rows show gold; their sub-tasks show navy. Milestones (zero-length events, such as a phase review) show as diamonds.
Dependencies
Put a task's WBS number in another task's After column and the second task starts the day after the first finishes. Change the first, and everything after it moves. The longest chain of dependent tasks sets the finish date; this is the critical path. Speeding up a task that is not on it does not bring the finish date forward.
Choose working days if your estimates are in working days; weekends are then skipped.
Other project management tools
Other project management tools you will meet include the RACI chart (here), the risk register and the network or PERT diagram, which shows the dependencies as a flow rather than as bars. A Gantt chart with dependencies drawn carries most of the same information as a network diagram.
On the Yellow Belt exam
Project planning (II.B.3) and project management tools (II.B.4) are in the 2022 CSSYB Body of Knowledge.