OJECT MANAGEMENT

M & PERT TECHNIQUES

FLOW OF PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION
BAR CHART
NETWORK PLANNING
ESTIMATING TIME
CPM
PERT

Project Management
Project
A project is an interrelated set of activities that
has a definite starting and ending point and
that results in a unique product or service.
Project management
Project management is a scientific way of
planning, implementing, monitoring &
controlling the various aspects of a project
such as time, money, materials, manpower &
other resources.

Project management generally consists of three

phases.
Planning:
Planning involves setting the objectives of the project. Identifying various activities
to be performed and determining the requirement of resources such as men, materials,
machines, etc.
The cost and time for all the activities are estimated, and a network diagram is developed
showing sequential interrelationships (predecessor and successor) between various activities
during the planning stage.
Scheduling:
Based on the time estimates, the start and finish times for each activity are worked
out by applying forward and backward pass techniques, critical path is identified, along with
the slack and float for the non-critical paths.
Controlling:
Controlling refers to analyzing and evaluating the actual progress against the plan.
Reallocation of resources, crashing and review of projects with periodical reports are carried
out.

BAR CHART
The bar chart is a two dimensional chart.
The x-axis of the chart shows the project timeline. The yaxis of the chart is a list of specific activities that must be
accomplished to complete the project.
These activities are typically listed in order of earliest
start on the project. The content of the bar chart are bars
that show the planned (and/or actual) start and end
times for each task.
Since the tasks are usually arranged from earliest to
latest, most bar charts show a pattern of bars that begin
in the upper left of the chart and proceed to bars that
complete the project displayed in the bottom right of the
chart.

For the activities, duration, and sequence shown

in the table below, the related bar chart is shown.

Review of Project Progress

Network Planning Methods

Methods used for network planning are:

CPM
PERT

Managing a project with network planning methods involves

four steps:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Describing the Project.

Diagramming the Network.
Estimating time of completion.
Monitoring Project Progress.

Network Diagram

Concepts
Activity
Precedence relationship
Successor
Event

Guidelines for network diagram

1.

Before an activity can begin, its preceding

activities must be completed.

2.

Arrows indicate logical precedence.

3.

Flow of the diagram is from left to right.

4.

Arrows should not intersect.

5.

Dangling should be avoided.

APPRAOCHES FOR
NETWORK DIAGRAM

ACTIVITY ON ARC(AOA):
Uses arcs to represent activities and nodes
to represent events.
It is Event Oriented.
3

B
1

Dummy

C
4

DUMMY ACTIVITY
AOA approach requires the addition of a Dummy
Activity to clarify the precedence relationships between
the two activities. It is a zero time activity and consumes
no resources.
Dummy Activity is used in two situations:
1) When two or more activities start and end at the same
nodes
A
D
B

Dummy

2) When two or more activities share the same

precedence activity but not all the
precedence are
shared.

A
1

C
3

7
4

ACTIVITY ON NODE(AON):

1- Uses nodes to represent activities and

arcs indicate precedence relationships
between them.
2- It is Activity Oriented.

Some conventions of network diagram are shown in Figure 8.10

(a), (b), (c), (d) below:

ESTIMATING TIME OF COMPLETION

Planning the schedule of the project
Time estimates include:
1)

Total time for completion.

2)

ES- Earliest start time: the earliest time at which the

activity
can start given that its precedent
activities must be completed first.

3)

EF-Earliest finish time: equals to the earliest start time for

the activity plus the time required to complete the
activity.

4)

LF- Latest finish time: the latest time in which the activity
can be completed without delaying the project.

5)

LS- Latest start time: equal to the latest finish time minus
the time required to complete the activity.

6) FORWARD PASS:
The early start and early finish times are calculated by
moving forward through the network and
considering the
predecessor activities
Considers maximum
7) BACKWARD PASS:
The latest start and finish times are calculated by moving
backward through the network.
Considers minimum
8) SLACK TIME:
Slack time for an activity is the difference between its earliest
and latest start time or between the earliest and latest finish
time.
Critical path is the path of activities having zero Slack time.

A Simple Project
Activity
A

Immediate
Predecessor
-

Expected
Time
5

A, B

Precedence Diagram

ES

Earliest Starting (time)

EF

Earliest Finishing

LS

Latest Starting

LF

Latest Finishing

Slack

Difference Time

CRITICAL PATH
METHODS(CPM)

HISTORY :
It was developed by J.E.KELLY of REMINGTONRAND and M.R.WALKER of DU PONT and the
emphasis was on the trade-off between the cost
of project and its overall completion time. The
first test was made in 1958,when CPM was
applied to the construction of a new chemical
plant.
DEFINITION:
Critical path is the sequence of activities between
a projects start and finish that takes the longest
time to complete.

STEPS IN DETERMINING
CRITICAL PATH

Specify the individual activities.

Determine the sequence of the activities.
Draw the network diagram.
Estimate the activity completion time.
Identify the critical path.
Update the CPM diagram.

Activit Preceden Normal time

(week)
y
ce

Normal
Cost (Rs)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
Total

300
30
420
720
250
320
400
780
1000
4220

A
A
A
D
B,C,E
F
F
G

3
3
7
9
5
6
4
13
10

C-7
1

A-3

G-4

F-6

I10

D-9
B-3
3

E-5

H-13
8

Overhead cost as per the given dataRs.50

Paths in the network diagram :
A-D-F-G-I = 32
A-D-F-H = 31
A-C-F-H = 29
A-C-F-G-I = 30
A-B-E-F-H = 30
A-B-E-F-G-I = 31

tical path A-D-F-G-I = 32

7

C-7
1

A-3

G-4
F-6

D-9
B-3
3

I10

E-5

H-13
8

TIME ESTIMATES
o Optimistic time (to) It is the shortest time in
which the activity can be completed.
o Most likely time (tm) It is the probable time
required to perform the activity.
o Pessimistic time (tp) It is the longest estimated
time required to perform an activity.
o Expected time
te = to + 4tm + tp
6

STEPS IN PERT
1.

Identify the specific activities.

2.

Determine proper sequence of the activities.

3.

Construct the network diagram.

4.

Estimate the time required for each activity.

5.

Determine the critical path.

6.

Update the PERT chart.

PROCEDURE FOR NUMBERING THE EVENTS

Step1: Number the start or initial event as 1.
Step2: From event 1, strike off all outgoing activities. This would have
made one or more events as initial events (event which do not have
incoming activities). Number that event as 2.
Step3: Repeat step 2 for event 2, event 3 and till the end event. The
end event must have the highest number

Example 1:
Draw a network for a house construction project. The sequence
of activities with their predecessors are given in Table 8.1, below.

Activity

Descrip Preced
tion
ence

Optimis Most
tic time Likely
time

Pessimi Expecte
stic
d time
time

Initial
design

12

16

26

17

Survey
market

18

10

Build
prototype

10

18

11

Test
prototype

Redesign
ing

B,D

11

Market
testing

10

Set up
productio
n

15

20

25

20

A-17
1

B-10
2

E-5
4

C-11

F-8
5

G-20
6

D-3
3

A-B-E-F-G = 60
A-C-D-E-F-G = 64 (CRITICAL PATH)

Advantages of PERT

Expected project completion time.

Probability of completion before a specified date.
The critical path activities that directly impact the
completion time.
The activities that have slack time and that can
lend resources to critical path activities.
Activity start and end dates.

LIMITATIONS
The PERT Formula Requires Too Much Work.
The network charts tend to be large and
unwieldy.
Calculating the time estimates is very
complex for all the activities.
Updating of the project is time consuming
and requires high costs.
Emphasis is laid only on time factors and
cost factors are neglected.

Difference between
CPM & PERT

CPM

PERT

CPM works with fixed

PERT works with

deterministic time

probabilistic time

CPM is useful for repetitive PERT is useful for non

and non complex projects

with a certain degree of
time estimates.

repetitive and complex

projects with uncertain time
estimates.

CPM includes time-cost

PERT is restricted to time

trade off.

variable.

CPM- for construction

PERT- used for R&D

projects.

programs.