There are many books on the use of PERT and Gantt charts to manage incremental type projects. The trick to success for these projects is to push them through to completion in short periods of time and with little overhead. One of the most elegant methods of managing and visualizing such project progress was developed by Clark Campbell and his One-Page Project Manager. The “The One-Page Project Manager Spreadsheet” figure shows how the one-page Project manager tracking system is laid out. It covers the five basic elements of a project. Those are the tasks; the how of a project. The objectives; the what and why of the project. The timeline; the when of a project. The cost; the how much of a project. And finally the owners; who’s responsible and accountable.

Filling in the five parts of the template creates an elaborate integrated PERT and Gantt chart that quickly shows the project leader, project team members, and management the status of all the elements they need to know about the project. Color coding of elements that are ahead and behind schedule, or above or below cost targets, makes opportunities and threats to the project quickly visible. The “An Example One Page Project Manager Project” figure shows an example project as displayed on the one-page template. Clark Campell’s book is a quick easy read and walks through all elements of incremental project management.