Datunor S.

Macauyag MSDEV- AD 1ST YEAR

PERT CPM REPORT

Basically, CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Programme Evaluation Review Technique)
are project management techniques, which have been created out of the need of Western
industrial and military establishments to plan, schedule and control complex projects.

CPM was formulated as a tool of planning and control of DuPont engineering projects,
meanwhile PERT was developed to be used as part of the production and management of the
Polaris missile.

These techniques share some common objectives that include defining the total duration of the
project and finding the critical activities. They can be seen as a forward propagation of activities
that define the early finish/start and late start/finish dates taking into consideration the free floats
and the total floats

The ultimate goal of doing this, is to build a time schedule to keep track on the activities. Some
calculations need to be run to estimate the total time required to complete the project and also
classify the project activities as critical and non-critical. A non-critical activity allows the
scheduler to delay it by a certain amount of time, without effecting the length of the project. This
requires to follow some steps that include 1. Describing the project. 2. Drawing the network 3.
Estimating time and 4. Monitoring the progress.

Both PERT and CPM allow to determinate critical information such as: Length of the project,
risks involved, and slack of each activity. This information is vital for project manages.

You will really have to understand how to use the PERT CPM as it is sometimes confusing
especially if the project is big and requires some years to complete.

I think PERT CPM is effective tools for project management however most of the time you are
dealing with numbers and analyzation of how will each task of the project should move with
respect to the accomplishing or finishing date of the project. If you are good with math and
analyzation, this tool is perfect for you but if you are having some challenges in numbers, this
will take sometimes to master the tools. This is purely based on my own perspective.