1 Event

An event is something that happens, especially when it is unusual or important. You can use events
to describe all the things that are happening in a particular situation.
An event is that particular instant of time at which some specific part of project is to be achieved
while an
activity is the actual performance of a task. An activity requires time and resources for its
completion
An event is a specific instant of time, which makes the start or end of an activity .
Event consumes neither time nor resources.
activity
An activity is the actual performance of the task and requires time and resources for its completion.
It is the work required to complete a specific task.
An activity in project management is a stage of the project management plan. It is the lowest
level of the project work breakdown structure and is a sub-division of work packages. An Activity
contains a list of tasks or actions to be taken in a particular order to convert an input into the
appropriate output.

2 Dummy
Dummy activity is a hypothetical activity which requires zero time and zero resources for
completion. Dummy arrow represents an activity with zero duration. It is represented by dotted line
and is inserted in the network to clarify activity pattern under following situations:
1. It is created to make activities with common starting and finishing events distinguishable,
and
2. To identify and maintain the proper precedence relationship between activities that are not
connected by events.
A dummy activity is an activity added to a project schedule as a placeholder. It has no activity time
associated with it. A dummy activity is intended to show a path of action in a project activity
diagram and is employed when a logical relationship between two activities cannot be linked by
showing the use of arrows linking one activity to another.
3 Activity duration
Activity duration estimates are an important part of the project management process. They allow
project managers to guess how long tasks will take and create a project schedule. If you are a leader
or team member working on or starting a project, consider creating some activity duration estimates
to better organize and understand your progress. In this article, we discuss activity duration
estimates, their importance and several techniques on how to make them.
Activity duration is a noun that represents the specific quantity of time that exists between the
designated start time and end time of a scheduled activity. For further elaboration on this definition,
please see the definitions for actual duration, original duration, and remaining duration. Activity
duration should be carefully measured from the start date to the end date and can be calculated in
whatever calendar units are appropriate given the anticipated timeframe of the project, such as days,
weeks, months, etc. The activity duration can be established when a project is conceived, or it can
be established when a project is kicked off, and is typically fluid in nature, and able to be modified
if the situation merits and with the agreement of all parties. Furthermore, the sum total of the
activity duration can also be broken up into smaller parts in the establishment of project milestones,
points at which either the current state of the project will be assessed, or potentially sum or all
deliverables will be submitted in either final or draft form.
4. Finish-to-Start
The Finish-to-Start relationship means that one activity — the predecessor — must be
fully complete before any following — successor — activities may begin. In our Cisco
example, you must "Finish" deciding where to install the router, before you can 'Start'
the next (successor) step of plugging it in!Finish-to-Start is the most common activity relationship in
project management. Our
example has several of them. For example, a certified network admin would finish
configuring a wireless router gateway, before starting to connect it to the router.
. Start-to-Start
The next relationship we will look at is Start-to-Start. In this case, an activity cannot start
until and unless another activity also starts. What would one of these relationships look
like? Let's go to our Cisco router example and tweak it a little. Let's imagine that we have
multiple, rack-mounted routers and we need to slot them in and then connect them to
the internet. Slotting in the routers is the predecessor activity and connecting them to
the internet is the successor.
Now as soon as one admin starts to slot the routers into the rack, another could start to
make the internet connections. The activities don't have to finish at the same time and
in fact they don't have to start at the same time. The second admin does not need to
start to make the internet connections immediately, but the first one MUST have begun
to plug the routers into their rack slot.
A Start-to-Start (or SS) dependency means that a successor activity cannot begin before its
predecessor has started. They do not however have to start at the same time. These dependencies are
common within projects which require their tasks to run parallel to one another.
. Finish-to-Finish
This relationship exists where two or more activities can only be considered completed
when both are completed. Say in our Cisco example, you were also bringing a new
server online. You would need to load and configure the server operating system and
you also must connect the server to the router. These are examples of finish-to-finish
activities.
5 Lag
Lag time is a delay between tasks. If you’ve ever used a slow internet connection, you’re already
familiar with this term. Lag is seldom intentional or positive — it often prevents you from moving
on to the next step of your project. For example, if you're playing an online multiplayer game, you
may experience an occurrence where your actions never complete, or you suddenly teleport to a
place your character was a few seconds ago (often called rubber-banding). This is known as "lag"
and its occurrence is almost always counterproductive to your goal.
lag can happen when two or more tasks that are dependent on each other
are slowed down by an error along the way. When one is halted, the others have to wait until the
issue is fixed in order to move on. Lag in project management can lead to delayed deadlines and
budget issues if you don’t have a backup plan in place ahead of time.
6 Late start time:
Late start time refers to be time arrived at when all activities are started as late as
possible. In this time –
• all events occur at their latest because all activities start at their latest finished time;
• some activities may start after a time lag subsequent to the occurrence of the preceding
events; and
• all activities leading to an event are completed at the same time.
Early start time:
The early start time refers to the time in which all activities starts as early as
possible. In this time –
• all events occur at their earliest because all activities start at their earliest starting time and
finish at their earliest finish time;• there may be time lags between the completion of certain activities
and the occurrence of
events which these activities lead to; and
• all activities emanating from an event begin at the same time.
Early finish time:
The early finish time refers to the time in which all activities finishes as early as
possible. In this time –
• all events occur at their earliest because of all activities and finish at their earliest finish
time;
• there may be time lags between the completion of certain activities and the occurrence of
events which these activities lead to; and
• all activities emanating from an event begin at the same time.
Latest Finish Time
• The latest finish time is the latest possible date and time by which a project segment can be
completed without negatively impacting the completion date for an entire project. If the
latest finish time is exceeded, it delays the start time of the next project segment, and
therefore the completion of the project as a whole. The concept is used in the planning of
projects using the program evaluation and review technique (PERT).
7 Critical Activity
A critical activity in project management is any task that stakeholders must complete on schedule to
meet project deadlines. Delays in one activity will affect subsequent tasks and the entire project
unless you can reduce the time on other tasks.
The terms critical activity and critical task are often used interchangeably in project management.
There are two types of critical activities:
• Dependent Tasks: This category includes any activities you must complete in a certain
order. A predecessor task must start or finish in order for the successor task to start or finish.
Dependent tasks are sometimes referred to as sequential activities.
As an example, suppose you’re baking a birthday cake. Preheating the oven, baking the
cake, and frosting the cake are all dependent tasks because each depends on the completion
of the preceding tasks.
• Parallel Tasks: You can run these activities concurrently with other tasks. To use the cake
example, preheating the oven and mixing the cake batter could be parallel tasks because you
can do them simultaneously. One does not depend on the other to start the task.
8 critical path.
critical path is an activity or event that, if delayed, will delay project completion. It is the chain of
stages formative the least time needed for an operation, particularly when analyzed on a computer
for a big organization. So, the critical path is actually the longest length of time it will take to total
the project tasks. It is very useful in helping to manage any project.
Critical Path Method uses the following times for an activity:What Is Critical Path?
A critical path in project management is the longest possible sequence of dependent tasks that
stakeholders must complete on time in order to deliver a project on schedule. By identifying the
critical path, you can determine the earliest project completion date.
Essentially, locating the longest sequence of dependencies allows you to find the shortest project
duration. Read our guide to the critical path method to learn more about this practice.
“Critical activities are those that will delay the overall project duration, whereas non-critical
activities won't delay a project,” said Thomas Jepsen, CEO of home-building platform Passion
Plans. “Because of the nature of non-critical activities, you are more free to choose when to start a
non-critical activity.
• (EST) Early start Time is the earliest time the activity can begin.
• (LST) Late start Time is the latest time the activity can begin and still allow the project to be
completed on time.
• (EFT) Early finish Time is the earliest time the activity can end.
• (LFT) Late finish Time is the latest time the activity can end and still allow the project to be
completed on time.
9 Float
In project management, float, sometimes also referred to as “slack,” is a number that indicates the
amount of time a task can be delayed without impacting subsequent tasks or the project’s overall
completion. It’s important to track when you are maintaining your project schedule.
There are two types of float in project management, free float (FF) and total float (TF).
10 Free float
• Free float is the amount of time that a task can be delayed without impacting the subsequent
task.
How to calculate
To calculate Free Float, take the early finish date of the current task and subtract it from the early
start date of the following dependent task.
Free Float = (Early Start of dependant) – (Early Finish of current
•
• Total float is the amount of time a task or a project can be delayed without impacting the
overall project completion time.How to calculate
To calculate Total Float, you must subtract the “earliest” from the “latest.” This can be either from
the start date or the finish date, but both must be from the same chronological side of a task. Don’t
mix up early and late, as you will have a serious problem on your hands!
So it’s either:
Total Float = (Latest Start)- (Early Start Or Total Float)
Total Float = (Latest Finish)- (Early Finish)
Independent float
It is defined as the amount of time an activity's start time can be delayed without affecting the
earliest start time of any successors. So independent float is the delay in any project tasks that
have no bearing on the early finish date of the project
11 network diagram
A network diagram is a graphical representation of a project and is composed of a series of
connected arrows and boxes to describe the inter-relationship between the activities involved
in the project. Boxes or nodes represent the activity description, and arrows show the relationship
among the activities.
Network Diagrams are a graphical portrayal of the activities and events of a project. They show
how each activity relates to others in the project, the sequence of activities, and the need to perform
some tasks before others. Networks also facilitate the determination of the impact of early or late
starts or finishes, provide information about the allocation of resources, and allow managers to do
“what if” analyses. With this information, managers may view the status of the plan, analyze
progress, and evaluate alternatives.
12 Forward Pass in Project
A forward pass in project management is a technique used to move through a project network
diagram. The forward pass helps you understand the project duration and calculate the early start
and early finish values (meaning, the earliest day each project task can begin and wrap up).
The easiest way to understand a project management forward pass is with an example.
Imagine that you’re tackling a project that has five different tasks or activities (A, B, C, D, and E).
You’ve already figured out what each activity is dependent on (otherwise known as that task’s
predecessors) and how long each one should take.
Backward Pass
A backward pass in project management is a technique used to move through a project network
diagram. The backward pass identifies your late start and late finish values, so that you can
understand the project’s duration and eventually find the critical path.
There is both a backward and forward pass in project management. So, if you’re not already
familiar with the forward pass, start there as that’s what you’ll do first.
13, Activity on Node (AON) Network
Activity-on-node is a project management term thatrefers to a precedence
diagramming method which uses boxes to denote schedule activities. These
various boxes or “nodes” are connected from beginning to end with arrows to
depict a logical progression of the dependencies between the schedule
a Activity on Node (AON) Network Planning Technique ctivities. Each node is
coded with a letter or number that correlates to an
activity on the project schedule.
Typically, an activity-on-node diagram will be designed to show which
activities must be completed in order for other activities to commence. This
is referred to as “finish-to-start” precedence – meaning one activity must be
finished before the next one can start.
As with the forward pass, you and your team are tackling a project that has five different tasks (A, B,
C, D,and E).
14 Activity on Arrow( A-O-A) Network
I t is a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows.
The start and end of each node or event is connected to an arrow. Between the two
nodes lies an arrow that represents the activity on arrow diagrams, activities are represented
in arrows. Nodes are considered to be events. The very first event is the “Start” event. Very last
event is the “End” event. An activity cannot stat until the event prior to that activity is
accomplished. For an event to be completed, all activities coming to that event (node) should be
completed.
15 Predecessors
Predecessors and successors in project management describe activities that depend upon one
another to proceed. These dependencies among activities will determine the order in which the
project plan proceeds. Predecessors in project management are activities that must begin or end
before a successor task can proceed.
Dependencies in project management can occur in four different ways and can have varying
relationships depending on the task or project phase:
Finish to Start: Task B cannot begin until task A has been completed
Start to Start: Task B cannot begin until task A begins
Finish to Finish: Task B cannot be completed until task A is completed
Start to Finish: Task B cannot be completed until task A begins
Finish to Start task dependencies, for example, describe a sequence of activities where one task
must be completed before another begins. Another type of dependency is a Finish to Finish task
dependency, where one task must be completed before another can also be complete
16 Basic Steps in Network (PERT/CPM) Techniques
.STEP-I: Planning:
The planning phase is started by splitting the total project into small projects. These smaller
projects, in turn, are divided into activities and are analysed by the department or a section. The
relationship of each activity with respect to other activities are defined and established and the
corresponding responsibilities and the authority are also stated. Thus, the possibility of over-
looking any task necessary for the completion of the project is reduced substantially.
STEP-II: Scheduling:
The ultimate objective of the scheduling phase is to prepare a time chart showing the start and finish
time for each activity as well as its relationship to other activities of the project. Moreover, the
schedule must pinpoint the critical path activities which require special attention if the project is to
be completed in time.
For non-critical activities, the schedule must show the amount of slack or float times which can be
used advantageously when such activities are delayed or when limited resources are to be utilized
effectively. In this phase, it is possible to resource requirements such as time, manpower, money,
machines etc.
STEP-III: Allocation of Resources:
Allocation of resources is performed to achieve the desired objective. A resource is a physical
variable such as labour, finance, equipment and space which will impose a limitation on time for the
project.
When resources are limited and conflicting demands are made for the same type of resource, a
systematic method for allocation of resources become essential. Resource allocation usually incurs
a compromise and the choice of this compromise depends on the judgement of managers.
STEP-IV: Controlling:
The final phase in project management is controlling. Critical path method facilitates the application
of the principle of management by exception to identify areas that are critical to the completion of
the project.
By having progress reports from time to time and updating the network continuously, a better
financial as well as technical control over the project is exercised. Arrow diagrams and time charts
are used for making periodic progress reports. If necessary, new courses of action are determinedfor the
remaining portion of the project.
17 Activity involved in construction planning
1. Marking & Grading
Marking is one of the first construction activities, which involves marking the area of the plot for
reference. This helps the workers to always be able to orient themselves in terms of their
workspace.
Grading helps to ensure that buildings are even, last long, and maintain maximum support. There
may be particular circumstances when something is being constructed that would require a slight
incline or decline to the base surface. In this case, it would be very important that the incline is
exactly the correct angle. It is a matter of safety and plays a major role in construction management.
Grading uses big machines to help ensure the space is level, or that it is at the appropriate angle that
it is supposed to be
2. Excavation
This is a fairly broad term – there are several different types of construction activities in excavation.
In general, the term involves moving earth or rocks out of a certain area to prepare it for
construction. This includes basement excavation, which digs the earth out to prepare for a basement
to be built. It also includes muck, rock, and topsoil excavation, all of which include removing the
substance from the workspace.
3. Concreting
The process of pouring concrete is another major activity in construction. It is often used for the base of
buildings, for roads, bridges, pipes, and many other applications. One of the reasons it has become so
popular in the construction industry is that concrete is easy to make in large quantities, and it changes
states,
so that it is easy to work with and manipulate
4. Carpentry
One of the first activities that comes to many people’s minds when construction is mentioned is
carpentry. This is the general cutting and installation of materials that will be used for the
construction of a structure. Carpentry used to be a word that described individuals working with
wood specifically, but now carpentry means working with several different materials.
5. Brick masonry
Bricks have been used in construction for decades, and are still used often today as a highly
efficient material. Brick masons lay the bricks, ensuring that they are laid in a way that is
structurally sound. For example, laying each brick one on top of the other allows for cracks to go all
along the entire wall. If the bricks are offset, as you will often see, it makes severe cracking of the
mortar less likely.
6. Plumbing
In structures that require plumbing, there are specific plumbing activities that must occur to ensure
they will function properly. This includes putting in piping and fixtures for both incoming potable
water and outgoing waste.
7. Welding
The activity of attaching two metals together using heat is welding, a crucial action in construction
used to bind metals, especially for structural purposes. There are different types of welding which
can be used for different types of metals and different conditions. All welding is extremely skilled
and can be difficult to master. It is also dangerous, so it is important that construction companies
have strict safety guidelines.
8. Electrical
Individuals working as electricians on a construction product are responsible for ensuring that the
structure will ultimately have full access to electricity from the transformer provided by the
electrical company, which is located close to the building. There are several steps that go into the
installation of electricity in a build, including temporary electrical needs, a rough installation, and
finally the real installation which will be used.
9. Roof laying
Roofing is an important construction activity for ensuring the protection of a structure from the
elements, and can help provide stability for the structure. There are different methods used for
roofing. Shingles are common for residential roofs, but there are also metal, polycarbonate, and
steel roofs, as well as many others which are used for different purposes.
10. Glazing
This activity is basically anything to do with glass windows and doors in a construction project. The
term is used broadly to reference the installation of pretty much any glass involved in the
construction of a particular structure.
11. Finishing
Finishing in construction means putting on the final touches of a structure in order to prepare it to
be used. This includes but is not limited to activities like glazing, flooring, painting, wallpapering,and
plastering. It is most often about final aesthetic touches, and slightly less about safety and
function, although all finishing activities are a crucial part of a final construction product.
and plastering. It is most often about final aesthetic touches, and slightly less about safety and
function, although all finishing activities are a crucial part of a final construction product.