PROJECT DESIGN AND NETWORK

ANALYSIS

UNIT-4
By
SWATI ROHATGI
 INTRODUCTION- PROJECT DESIGN

• Project design is a major first step towards a successful

project.
• A project design is a strategic organization of ideas, materials
and processes for the purpose of achieving a goal.
• Project managers rely on a good design to avoid pitfalls and
provide parameters to maintain crucial aspects of the project,
like the schedule and the budget.
• Any seasoned project manager will tell from experience that
the more efforts are put in the frontend of a project, the
better the results will be on the backend.
 INTRODUCTION- PROJECT DESIGN

Project design is one of the earliest stages in the life of a project

(exactly when it occurs varies by organization). During project
design, an outline of the project is created, including:
 The organization(s) responsible for completing it
 A description of the project
 Goals, outcomes, and objectives, and when they will be
completed
 Major deliverables, products, and/or features
 Success criteria, and/or monitoring and evaluation guidelines
 Budget estimates
 PROJECT DESIGN STRUCTURE

• VISION STATEMENT: A formal document that states the project’s potential. It’s presented to
stakeholders to show the viability of the project and its benefits. It isn’t a long, detailed
document. It’s to paint a picture of the project’s success, and place it in a larger context.
• IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: To align the problem addressed with the organization and its
strategy. It also provides with the necessary data to design an optimal solution for the problem.
• RESOURCE RECOGNITION:
• Who do you need to execute the project,
• What resource management tools are required,
• Where will the work be done,
• When will the project start and end, and
• Why are these resources needed?
 PROJECT DESIGN STRUCTURE

• IDENTIFYING PROJECT GOALS: A goal coincides with the resolution of a problem. Should be
observable, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-relevant.
• BUILDING PROJECT STRATEGY: It is a process to reach the goals of the project within the
project constraints, such as its resources, schedule, budget, etc.
• CONTINGENCY PLAN: Few things proceed as planned. There needs to be backup plan to respond
quickly and rightly to issues as they arise in a project.
• EVALUATION PLAN: Helps to monitor the project, and raise alert when it starts to veer off track.
Used to analyze the components of the project, the outcomes and impacts.
• CREATE PROJECT BUDGET:A budget will assign a cost to each of the of the project requirements.
• FORMULATE PROJECT PROPOSAL: All of this leads to a project proposal to explain why the
project should be executed and what its benefits are.
 INTRODUCTION- NETWORK
ANALYSIS

• A planning method
• The method of the network analysis is used to control the project.
• All activities are displayed in the consideration of time and dependencies.
• The individual activities will be arranged and recorded according to the dependencies and
their time required
• It establishes logical relationships between activities and their timing from the beginning to
the end
• The critical path and resource bottlenecks are easily recognizable
• Some tasks can commence only when others have been finished, while some can be carried
out simultaneously and independently of each other.
 GANTT CHARTS

• Developed by Henry Gantt prior to WW1 for ship-building projects

• Gantt charts(scheduling technique) provide a quick display/visual representation of
the status of each task in the project network
• They are an easy way to schedule tasks and track the progress of a project against
the deadline
• It is a project planning tool that shows the beginning and finish dates of individual
tasks through horizontal bar graphs.
• It always consists of a horizontal axis that illustrates the time span of your project
(divided in days, weeks or months) and a vertical axis that shows a list of all the
individual tasks.
• It is possible that some tasks might overlap, while others will run one after the
other.
 GANTT CHARTS

On a Gantt chart you can easily see:

 The start date of the project
 What the project tasks are
 Who is working on each task
 When tasks start and finish
 How long each task will take
 How tasks group together, overlap and link with each other
 The finish date of the project.
Magnetic blocks and Legos became a popular Gantt planning tool prior to the advent of Gantt chart software. Planning was
done on paper or with colored blocks.

LEGO GANTT CHART

 GANTT CHARTS

ADVANTAGES

• It helps in setting realistic time frames

• It helps in monitoring the progress of a project and to set priorities.
• The project manager and the team members can easily see what
needs to be done at what time and if there are any delays the chart
can easily be altered to balance it.
 GANTT CHARTS

DISADVANTAGES

• They can become extraordinarily complex for large (>30 activities)

• The size of the bar does not indicate the amount of work
• They need to be constantly updated
• Do not give a clear indication of interrelationship between the
separate actvities
 NETWORK TERMINOLOGY

• ACTIVITY: An identifiable job that has a beginning and an end. It consumes time, manpower and resources.
e.g., ACTIVITY SYMBOL OF ACTIVITY ACTIVITY TIME SYMBOLIC REPR.
EXCAVATION A 15 Days A
16
• EVENT: Also called ‘node’ is the beginning or end of an activity. It is represented by a circle and is a specific point
in time. It does not consume time, manpower and resources. The ith event and the jth event are the tail event and
head event respectively.
• CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES: Activities that can be carried out concurrently.
• PRECEDING ACTVITY: For a given activity, the activity that occurs immediately before it, is its preceding
activity.
• SUCCEEDING ACTVITY: For a given activity, the activity that follows immediately after it, is its preceding
activity.
• DUMMY ACTIVITY: An imaginary activity included in a network. It does not consume time, manpower and
resources. Used to maintain network logic. Represented by a dotted arrow.
• MERGE AND BURST EVENTS: One or more activities can start and end simultaneously at an event.
Third condition not satisfied
 NETWORK RULES AND
CONVENTIONS
• Activity arrows should be drawn from left to right indicating progressive approach towards the
ultimate objective or the final event
• There shall not be any criss-crossing of arrows.
 NETWORK RULES AND
CONVENTIONS

• The arrows of a network shall not form loops.

Activity F can never be reached

 CRITICAL PATH METHOD

• Network based scheduling technique

• Developed in the year 1957, by Morgan R. Walker of DU Pont and James E. Kelly of Remington
Rand
• The Critical Path Method is the sequence of scheduled activities that determines the duration of the
project
• CPM is essentially an algorithm for decision making. This algorithm takes a task's start time, its
duration, and finish time to figure out which activities deserve the most attention (i.e. are
"critical" for the project).
• A network represents the logical sequence of activities. Each path in a network will have a
different duration. The path that has the longest duration is called the critical path and the
activities that lie on the critical path are called critical activities.
• The critical path determines the earliest possible time in which the project can be completed.
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD

If you had to create a short recipe for making an omelette, it would look something like this:
• Beat 2 eggs
• Heat a pan, add butter/oil when hot
• Pour in the beaten eggs and cook for 5 minutes
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD

For example, if you’re building a house, you would have several task sequences as follows:
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD

If you had to figure out the project’s ‘Critical Path’, you would look at the sequence that takes
the most amount of time, like this

The total time taken to complete the sequence along this critical path would give you an idea
of the project’s minimum duration
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD

• For larger networks, larger number of paths exist and it is tedious to select the longest
path.
• Hence, a systematic procedure is adopted to identify critical path.
• It uses two series of computations viz.,
1. Forward pass computation
 To start with calculating of earliest start time(EST or TE)
 No activity can begin until all its predecessor activities are complete
 Earliest finish time = Earliest start time + Activity duration (Time taken for activity)
2. Backward pass computation
 To start with computation of finishing time of events or Latest Finish Time(LFT or TL)
 Latest start time = Latest finish time – Activity duration
ACTIVITY: Calculate EARLIST START TIME and LATEST FINISH TIME of events
 If event-7 is delayed beyond 23rd
day, project completion will also
extend beyond 34 days.

 If the backward pass computations are done correctly, the Latest Finish Time of the start event will be equal to its Earliest Start Time.
Examine the nodes where TE and TL are same
 The critical activities are the activities on this path-B,E,H and K
 CRITICAL PATH IS WRITTEN AS B-E-H-K OR 1-3-6-7-8
• SLACK TIME: It is the difference between the TL – TE of that event.
• The path connecting events with zero slack is the critical path.
• Only critical activities deserve more attention and control by the management. Any delay will
lead to time-overrun of the project.
• Project completion time will not get delayed if the non-critical activities take a little longer time
than planned.
• A detailed study of non-critical activities with regard to the ‘free time’ available is called Activity
Float Analysis.
 Slack = (TL – TE)
 The free time available for an activity is called ‘float’
 ‘Float’ for an activity is similar to ‘slack’ for an event
 An event has only one estimate of slack (either zero or some value)
 An activity has 3 types of estimates for float
1. Total float:The maximum time by which the completion of an activity can be
delayed without affecting the project completion time.
Total float = TL of the head event - TE of the tail event – Duration of the activity
Total float of activity C = 26-5-7 = 14
If entire Total float is used by C i.e., now taking 21 days, activity C is delayed by 14 days.
If the total float of an activity is entirely use up in that activity, that activity and all the subsequent activities in the path
become critical activities. Therefore, critical path now is A-C-G
• Free Float: It is the delay that can be permitted in an activity so that succeeding activities in the
path are not affected.
Free float = TE of the head event - TE of the tail event – Duration of the activity
Free float of D = (12-4) – 7 = 8-7=1

• Independent Float: It is the spare time available for that activity, if that activity is
started as late as possible and is finishes as early as possible.
Independent float = TE of the head event - TL of the tail event – Duration of the activity
ACTIVITY: For the given network, calculate the total float, free float and independent float of all the activities
 USE OF DIFFERENT FLOATS FOR
MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

• All the activities that lie on the critical path have their total floats equal to zero
• If the total float of an activity is used entirely in that activity, it would make that activity and all the succeeding
activities in the path critical. Hence it is not advisable to use the total float completely in an activity as this will
leave no cushion available if subsequent activities need additional time for completion than originally planned.
• Free float can be used completely since this does not disturb the succeeding activities. However, free float of an
activity is arrived at on the assumption that it can start at its Earliest Start Time. This in turn means that all the
proceeding activities should have been finished by this time. Hence the use of free float completely in an activity
without affecting the succeeding activities is possible only if the proceeding activities have been finished in time.
• Independent float of an activity does not depend on proceeding activities and it also does not disturb succeeding
activities. Hence independent float can be used with out any constraint. E.g., if a particular activity has an
independent float of 5 days, delaying the completion time of that activity by 5 days will not affect other activities
in the network.
Floats should be judiciously used. If a first level supervisor is in charge of only one activity, he
can be given only independent float to maneuver his activity completion time. His immediate
superior can be given the option to exercise the use of free float. Use of total float is to be done
only by the project manager who is in overall charge of the project.
 CPM-ADVANTAGES

• Reduce delays: The Critical Path Method helps identify the most important sequence of tasks in a project.
Managers can use this information to reduce delays by optimizing the work along the critical path.
• Visualize dependencies: The CPM depends on listing all tasks associated with a project and their
dependencies. The chart thus created can help you visualize all dependencies and prioritize tasks
accordingly.
• Improve organization: In complex projects, the CPM helps break down deliverables into sequences, and
sequences into tasks. This, along with the focus on visualizing dependencies, mapping constraints, and
defining the critical path of tasks drastically improves project organization.
• Optimize efficiency: By mapping the critical path, project managers get a better idea of important tasks
in the project. They can use this information to allocate resources more efficiently, adding/removing
resources depending on the task's importance.
• Float calculation: Float, as we'll learn below, defines how much a task can be delayed without impacting
the project schedule. This is an important part of the Critical Path Method. Calculating the float can help
you distribute resources more effectively.
 PROGRAMME EVALUATION AND REVIEW
TECHNIQUE (PERT)

• In the critical path method, the time estimates are assumed to be known with certainty.
• In certain projects like research and development, new product introductions, it is difficult to estimate the
time of various activities.
• PERT is used in such projects with a probabilistic method using three time estimates for an activity.

Optimistic time (to): It is the shortest time taken to complete the activity. It means that if everything
goes well then there is more chance of completing the activity within this time.
Most likely time (tm):It is the normal time taken to complete an activity, if the activity were frequently
repeated under the same conditions.
Pessimistic time (tp):It is the longest time that an activity would take to complete. It is the worst time
estimate that an activity would take if unexpected problems are faced.
 PROGRAMME EVALUATION AND REVIEW
TECHNIQUE (PERT)

Taking all these time estimates into consideration, the expected time of an activity is arrived at. The average
or mean (ta) value of the activity duration is given by,
ta = (to + 4tm + tp)/6

Variance(extent of uncertainty) of the activity given by = [(tp – to)/6]2

 QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY PERT AND CPM

• Completion date?

• On Schedule?

• Within Budget?

• Critical Activities?

• How can the project be finished early at the least cost?

COMPARISION CHART
PERT CPM
PERT is only the time-based CPM is the both time and cost-
Applicable
technique. based technique.

PERT is quite handy when

dealing with the unpredictable
tasks and activities as it
Nature of the Project evaluates the total time
required to complete the
project with dealing with the
uncertainties if any.
CPM is highly recommended by
the experts for the
conventional projects that
comprise of the predictable
tasks and activities.

PERT is useful for the research

CPM is useful for the
and development project as
construction projects as it
Project Example they comprise of the
comprises of the predictable
unpredictable tasks and
tasks and activities.
activities.

PERT is the probabilistic CPM is the deterministic

Nature of the Technique
project management tool. management tool.