Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Antrobus.

Welcome to Computing.

I'm so glad you decided to join the lesson today.

Today we're going to be learning about planning tools and how we can use them.

Welcome to today's lesson from the unit, "IT and the World of Work." Today's lesson is called "Tools for Planning," and by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to identify and evaluate various digital tools used to plan tasks and projects and manage time efficiently.

During this lesson, we'll use these key words.

Let's have a look at them together.

Scheduling, scheduling, planning a time for something to take place.

Gantt chart.

Gantt chart.

A Gantt chart shows how much of a business's planned work has been completed within a given timescale using a series of horizontal lines.

Today's lesson is split into two parts.

The first section is identify key digital tools used for planning, and in the second section we'll look at evaluating the effectiveness of planning tools.

Let's get started.

Businesses need to plan their day-to-day operations carefully to ensure they function effectively and meet their objectives.

Businesses often use digital tools to support their planning.

Businesses use digital planning tools to, set realistic aims and objectives, organise schedules and deliverables, track progress and deadlines, make informed decisions and manage resources.

There are many different digital tools to aid planning in the workplace.

Let's take a look at the type of tools available.

Calendars and scheduling tools allow stakeholders to plan their time, set reminders and schedule events or deadlines.

Calendar tools can often be synced with project or task management tools to ensure a cohesive schedule.

That means that everything works together.

Task management software allows users to create, prioritise, and manage tasks.

These tools help individuals and teams track their to-do lists, set deadlines, and monitor progress.

Task management software often offers the ability to create Gantt charts or Kanban boards.

A Gantt chart is a visual tool that maps a project schedule across a timeline.

To create a Gantt chart, the business first needs to decide what tasks need to be completed, who will complete the tasks, when do the tasks need to be completed, and which tasks need to be completed first? Okay, let's check your understanding.

Which task is dependent on another task finishing first, Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, how did you get on? Let's have a look at what the response should be.

Some tasks are dependent on other tasks being completed.

In this example, task two needs to be completed before task four can start, and we can see that's been indicated by the blue line.

You can see that for example, in January and February, the task both started at the same time.

And on task three, it overlaps with task two, but with task four.

Task four needs to be completed after task two has been completed.

Does that make sense? Gantt charts can help businesses to, track the progress of a project, focus on key deadlines, share the project status with stakeholders, check task dependencies, and identify potential challenges and make adaptations along the way to ensure the project stays on track.

Kanban boards are a type of visual task management tool to track the progress of projects within a business.

You can create Kanban board without a computer, for example, using Post-it notes like this picture illustrates.

This can be helpful when all team members are working in the same location.

However, businesses often to use digital versions of these tools, especially if teams are working remotely.

Cloud-based Kanban boards increase accessibility.

People can access them from any location with an internet connection.

To create a Kanban board, the business needs to, consider the work that needs to be completed for the project to be a success.

You needs to identify the different stages of the project.

For example, to do or in progress or done, You needs to create columns for each stage of the project.

And create cards to represent tasks to be completed.

Finally, plot the cards on the Kanban board.

Kanban boards use columns to define the stages of the project.

For example, to do, in progress, testing and done.

Task cards are placed on the board to show their status.

So for example, here to do task three, the status is to do.

It was created on the 21st of the 5th 2025, and it's assigned to somebody with the initials JM.

In the in progress column, we have task four, so the status is in progress.

It's created on the 29th of the 5th, '25, and it was assigned to LW.

Also another task in progress.

That's task two.

The status is testing.

It was created on the 21st of May, 2025, and it's assigned to SS.

Task five is done.

Task one, the status is done.

It was created on the 16th of March, 2025, and it was assigned to the initials AB.

Once the Kanban board is created, the business can move the cards across the boards as task move through stages of the project.

So for example, task four could move into testing.

The business will regularly review the progress of tasks.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Which two of these things does a business need to do when creating a Kanban board? A, identify the different stages of the project, for example, to do, in progress, done.

B, identify the time period for each task.

C, create cards to represent tasks to be completed.

Or D, create a column to represent each month have a look at the question and the responses and give this some thought and we'll come back in a moment.

Don't forget to pause the video.

Okay.

How did you get on? Let's have a look at the answer.

So if you put A and C, then you will be correct.

Both A and C are key things that a business needs to do when creating a Kanban board.

They need to A, identify the different stages of the project, for example, to do, in progress and done.

And they need to C create cards to represent individual tasks to be completed.

How did you get on? Well done for having a go.

Okay, let's compare Gantt charts or Kanban boards.

Gantt charts are great for showing the timescale of a project and highlighting which tasks depend on others being completed.

Kanban boards focus on workflows.

They highlight which stage of a project tasks are at, for example, which tasks are in progress or which ones have been completed.

Some tasks management software offers both Gantt charts and Kanban board views.

Updates to both views can be made simultaneously.

You are now going to have a go at task A, Part one, name two examples of digital tools that can support businesses in the planning process.

Part two, explain how businesses use these tools.

Pause the video, have a go at the task and we'll come back for some feedback.

Okay, how did you get on? Let's have a look at an example.

Name two examples of digital tools that can support businesses in the planning process and explain how businesses use these tools.

Calendars can be used to support people in organising their time effectively.

They can be used to set reminders and recurring meeting times can be scheduled at the click of a button.

Multiple people can be given permission to view or edit calendars, which can help a business to organise teams of people.

How did you get on? How did your response compare? Well done for having a go.

If you feel like you didn't have enough information or detail in your response, maybe go back and look at the content of the lesson so far.

Okay, let's have a look at your next example.

Gantt charts.

Gantt charts can be used to check the progress of a project.

A business will think about the aims of the project and how it can be broken up into manageable tasks.

These tasks are then plotted against a timeline to show when each task should be completed.

Some tasks can't be completed before other tasks have been.

If you're getting a T-shirt printed, the T-shirt would need to be made before the design was printed on it.

Okay, how was that example? Well done for having a go at this task.

Let's move on.

Okay, we're moving on to the second section of the lesson, which is evaluate the effectiveness of planning tools.

To evaluate the effectiveness of planning tools.

It's important to consider the pros and cons of each tool, so let's move on and do that now.

Advantages of digital calendars.

Digital calendars can be used from anywhere with an internet connection.

This means they can be viewed by anyone who has permission and they can't get lost like a paper diary.

They can be used to set reminders.

This can be helpful for busy employees who have lots to think about during their working week.

A reminder will make sure they don't miss any important tasks.

Recurring meetings can be set up easily.

This means that weekly, monthly, or annual meetings, can be booked well in advance, increasing the likelihood of people attending.

Calendars can be used on multiple devices.

If employees synchronise their work calendar with their own personal calendar.

This can aid time management.

Calendars can be shared with multiple people.

Using shared calendars means that people can see when their colleagues are available for a meeting, which can aid scheduling.

Use of digital calendars can lead to distractions.

Checking a calendar on a device may mean employees are distracted by other notifications such as email, text messages, or social media posts, leading to decreased productivity.

There can be technical issues.

If there's a technical issue with the calendar, events may be scheduled on incorrect dates or not scheduled at all, which could have a huge impact on the day-to-day working and productivity of a business.

Having calendars available on work or personal devices can lead to privacy concerns.

If devices are stolen or staff don't use sufficient passwords on their devices, someone may be able to gain access to the calendar, which could be detrimental for the business.

Advantages of Gantt charts.

Gantt charts give a high level overview of the project.

You can clearly see the project time sales as a glance, as we've already looked at during this lesson.

Cloud-based systems ensure all stakeholders can see how the projects is progressing.

This can support communication across the business and ensure staff know where the project is up to.

Gantt charts can help a business to break complex projects down into smaller, manageable tasks.

This makes it easier to assign responsibilities and track progress.

Gantt charts highlight tasks that are dependent on each other.

This can support businesses ensuring tasks are completed in the correct order so that unavoidable delays are reduced and making it more time efficient.

Gantt charts enable increased accountability.

With task dependencies highlighted, stakeholders can see which tasks are holding up a project and who is responsible.

They can then go to that person and ask them about the delay and then hopefully resolve the problem to move the project on Disadvantages of Gantt charts, Gantt charts can be complicated to set up.

Stakeholders who are tasked with creating Gantt charts will need some form of training to use them efficiently.

Some staff may be overwhelmed by the amount of detailed information within the Gantt chart.

Seeing the enormity of large projects may cause stress for some people.

As Gantt charts that are being used for big projects can become very, very detailed and large.

Priorities aren't always identified.

Generally Gantt charts don't highlight project priorities, although some software allows this to be added, so people might not know which task is most important and which one has less priority.

Although Gantt charts show the timeline, they don't always reference the amount of work involved in each task.

The length of the bar shows a timeline for the task, not how much work is involved.

Some tasks with short deadlines might require huge amounts of work, which can be misleading to stakeholders.

Advantages of Kanban Boards.

Kanban boards show a visual representation of the project as a whole.

It is clear for all stakeholders to see which tasks are at which stage of the project.

Shared boards means that stakeholders can see the progress that has been made throughout the project, and this can increase motivation.

Increased motivation can raise productivity.

If a member of staff can see how well they're getting through the job and how much time is left.

That is a really motivating factor.

Communication and collaboration can be enhanced.

All teams using the Kanban board will know the status of the task and who is responsible.

Work in progress limits can be set to avoid bottlenecks and reduce stress.

Work in progress limits restrict how many tasks a team can work on simultaneously at given time.

This can reduce stress and feelings of of being overwhelmed across the staff team.

Bottlenecks is where too many tasks are in one column are highlighted so that appropriate action can be taken.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

True or false.

Increased transparency can be seen as an advantage of shared calendars, Gantt charts and Kanban boards.

Think about the question and pause the video.

Okay.

How did you get on? Well, if you selected true, you would be correct, and here's why.

By using these key tools, everybody within the organisation will be more knowledgeable about the tasks involved, responsibilities across the staff team, and their own place within the project.

Well done.

Let's move on.

Disadvantages of Kanban boards.

Kanban boards don't generally show task timings.

Some software will allow a task estimated time for completion to be added to the task card.

They don't show task dependencies.

Unlike Gantt charts, Kanban boards don't show which tasks need to be completed before others.

If boards aren't updated regularly, they can become useless.

Outdated boards can cause confusion across the business and have a damaging effect on workflows and productivity because if people don't know what has been done and hasn't been done, how will they know what to work on next? Keeping boards up to date can be time consuming.

Time needs to be spent on keeping the boards up to date, which means employees will have less time to do other work.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

True or false.

Gantt charts are more effective than Kanban boards because they show project dependencies.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go.

Which option did you choose? Well, if you chose false, you'll be correct.

Let's have a look why that is.

Neither tool can be deemed more effective overall.

A business should decide which of the tools will work well for them based on the needs of the project.

That makes perfect sense.

The tool you choose would depend on the task and the business.

Okay, let's move on.

Let's have a look at the requirements of Task B.

First of all, we're going to read the scenarios and then you are going to evaluate whether the business has chosen the best tool for their organisation.

Scenario one, Lucas's Logistics, 500 employees.

As the business has grown, I have needed to support my staff team in organising projects efficiently.

The most important factor I need to consider my business is the timescale of large projects and how long they take to be completed.

I've been recommended some project management software, which focuses on the use of Kanban boards, so I've invested in that.

Okay, pause the video and have a go at the task.

So in this example Andeep says, "I think Lucas should have chosen to use a Gantt chart rather than a Kanban board.

He mentions that the most important thing to his business is a timescale of projects.

A Gantt chart would show this much better than a Kanban board." Okay, moving on to scenario two.

Let's see what Sophia has to say.

Sophia Stereos, 5,000 employees.

As my team is dispersed across the UK, I've started to use the tool to help with project management.

My business makes stereos.

It's really important to know what stage of project is at so that I can track the move from the design stage to production.

I researched which tools might be best, and I've purchased some software, which creates Kanban boards.

Okay, you evaluate whether Sophia has chosen the correct tool, and we'll have a look at the example in a moment.

Pause the video.

Okay.

Let's have a look at the example.

Andeep suggests, "I think Sophie has made the right choice.

She talks about needing to know what stage of the project the stereos are at.

A Kanban board will show this well." Let's have a look at the final scenario.

Scenario three.

Laura's Lesson Plans, 50 employees.

My business relies heavily on schedules and workflows so that we can get materials to teachers on time.

I've invested in a tool that allows me to share calendars, create Gantt charts and change to Kanban board view.

I'm hoping this supports my business.

Okay, evaluate what Laurie is currently using and make your suggestions on whether it's the correct choice or not, and then we'll have a look at the example in a moment.

Pause the video.

Okay.

Let's have a look what Andeep has said.

"I think Laura has made a good choice.

A tool that incorporates shared calendars, Gantt charts, and Kanban boards means that she has ability to choose which tool or view is best depending on her focus at that time.

However, with only 50 employees, I would wonder if this may have been expensive and whether she will get value for money." How did you find task B? How did your responses compare to the examples? If you feel like you didn't have quite enough detail or you missed some key elements, maybe go back over the content from the lesson today, but well done for having a go.

So now we've reached the end of our lesson.

Well done for working so hard.

You've done a fantastic job today.

Let's summarise what we've during the lesson.

Task management software allows users to create, prioritise, and manage tasks.

These tools help individuals and teams track their to-do lists, set deadlines, and monitor progress.

Gantt charts, visualise project timelines and task dependencies, allowing teams to manage schedules and deadlines effectively.

Calendars and scheduling tools allow users to plan their time, set reminders and schedule events or deadlines.

Calendar tools can often be synced with project or task management tools to ensure a cohesive schedule.

Thank you for joining today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing you next time.