Application of Gantt Chart as a Strategy for Improving Performance of Community Based Projects in Bugoma County, Kenya

The main objective of this paper was to investigate the extent to which application of Gantt chart influences performance of community-based projects in Kenya County. The paper used the descriptive research design. Out of the targeted population of 192 respondents, 128 of them were considered in this study as the desired sample obtained through a stratified random sampling process from a number of community-based organisations within the country. The data collection was performed through a structured questionnaire and an interview guide. Qualitative data was analysed and grouped into similar themes and patterns then summarised and linked to the study objective and hypothesis. Equally, quantitative data was first cleaned and checked for consistency before analysis using descriptive and infrential statistics. The study findings were then presented in tables showing means and standard deviations. The relationship between the study variables were then shown through the carl pearson moment of correlation (r) and the regression statistics. The Fishers -F -test was then used to test the study hypothesis. A detailed test of the statistical assumptions was first performed before carrying out any further analysis. The study results indicate that coefficient was R 2 = 0.112, F (4.177) at p=0.03<0.05. This signified that H0 was rejected and it was concluded that application of Gantt chart has a statistically significant influence on the performance of community-based projects. This paper concluded that the indicators for Gantt chart were project resources, work accomplished and time taken. The most dominant indicator was project time taken followed by project work accomplished and project resources. The results indicate that project resources had no statistically significant influence on the performance of community-based projects. Work accomplished had no statistically significant influence on the performance of community-based projects. Time taken had statistically significant influence on the performance of community-based projects. Overall, application of Gantt chart had a statistically significant influence on the performance of community-based projects. It was recommended that owing to the fact that project management is a challenging task with many complex responsibilities and relevantly project design tools and techniques, project managers should choose a project management tool that best suits their management style. If the Gantt chart is drawn up along with suitable milestones of work accomplished by using some special symbol such as brightly coloured diamonds, and the chart is kept in some centrally visible place, it would motivate all the people to achieve them. Finally, the results of this paper supplement the Project Management Body of Knowledge by providing valuable informative notes to the project practitioners on the relevance of the application of Gantt chart as a project design tool with more emphasis on the performance of community -based projects.