[technoL]

For the first time we have incorporated the use of a gantt chart into our team. They are great because they display tasks to be accomplished, the time duration of the tasks, and then progress, so you can see all in one chart if you are on schedule and what needs to be done next. Each object in the chart is color coded and dependent of other objects preceding it. There are some programs out there to create fancier gantt charts, but one can be generated quickly with excel.

You can also use a gantt chart for long or short term task to be completed, such as for an individual subteam, the whole 6 week build season, for the whole year, or just combine them all into one massive chart.

I like to use gantt charts because you don't have to know exactly what you want to do when creating the initial chart, but you can simply see that you should be a certain point along by a certain point in time, and they can be further detailed as time goes on. Its nice to be able to show the team the day of kickoff exactly what needs to be done and when, even though we haven't the slightest idea of what our robot will look like.

**One downside of the gantt chart, as with any scheduling system, is that you cannot compensate for all possible setbacks, but as a general scheduling tip, if you add extra time for mishaps or setbacks, it won't be as difficult to pull it all together in the end.

PM if you would like to see some samples that I have created.