management, Henry Gantt and Taylor cooperated in adapting the system for use in the construction management. The resulting system for construction management was the Gantt Chart. The Gantt Chart was the predecessor of the bar charts, which were later used extensively in construction management project control. These charts remained in use as construction project control procedures for many years--as the principal control techniques in use.
Although the Gantt Charts/bar charts and the later bar graphs were simple to construct and easy to use, the proved to be inadequate and inefficient for use in very large construction projects. Although it was evident that improved project scheduling and control procedures were required for construction management, radically new approaches did not begin to be developed until the post-Second World War time period.
In the mid-1950s, the concept of a construction project as a network of interrelated and coordinated activities began to emerge. In order for the network concept to be effectively applied in construction management, it is necessary for a project to have four quite specific characteristics. The four specific characteristics which a construction project must possess to effectively employ the network concept in scheduling and control are (1) a clearly recognizable endpoint or a clearly recognizable objective, (2) a series of events, (3) a specific time for each event, and (4) a specific starting point. Although the events in a series must be interrelated, they must also be separate and clearly definable. If events cannot be effectively separated from one another, they are not amenable to scheduling and control through application of the network concept. It must be possible to both estimate and measure the time required for the completion of each event in a series, before the network concept may be used effectively in the scheduling and control of a project. The sta...