Class Work

On:

Network Analysis in Project Planning

(PERT & CERT)

Course:
Operational Research Techniques (CVE 657)

By
AREMU A.O. (04/30GB024)
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Ilorin, Nigeria

CVE 657 Course Lecturer: Dr A.W. Salami

7th March, 2013

 Network Analysis in Project Planning (PERT & CERT) by Aremu A.O

Question 1

a. What do you understand by the term ‘Project’, outline five characteristics of a project?
b. Distinguish between project planning, project scheduling and project controlling.
c. (i) What do you understand by (i) PERT and (ii) CPM
(ii) Distinguish between PERT and CPM

Solution
1a.
Project is a combination of interrelated activities which must be executed in a certain order
before the entire task is completed.

Characteristics of a Project
The salient characteristics of a project are
 A project has identifiable beginning and end points; it is an entity by itself.
 Execution of project activities and hence completion of the project is always subject to
some uncertainties and risks.
 It is usually large and complex with time duration of 2-3 years. However , some projects
do take more than 10years and others last for just 6 months
 It usually involve heavy investment.
 It is scheduled to be completed by a target.
 It is not a permanent entity, it is usually a non-repetitive task.

1b.
Project Planning
Project planning is a very important phase of project management during which are set the plans
and strategies of project execution, keeping in mind the policies, procedures and rules of
the organization. It has two important aspects – identification of the activities (jobs or
tasks) to be performed and estimation of the required resources. Resources are of many
kinds and are classified as:
i. Manpower Resources
ii. Equipment (machinery) Resources
iii. Financial resources
iv. Material Resources
v. Time and space resources.
Since resources are the starting points of projects, their proper planning and estimation helps to
estimate the time and cost of the various activities and hence the entire project.
Project planning involves the following steps:
 Setting the objectives of the project and the assumptions to be made
 Developing the W.B.S. (Work Breakdown Structure).
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 Network Analysis in Project Planning (PERT & CERT) by Aremu A.O

 Determination of time estimates of these activities

 Estimation of resources – financial, managerial and operational.
 Study of alternative ways of attaining the goals.
 Establishment of inter-dependence relationship between the activities i.e. the sequence of
performing the activities.

Project Scheduling
Project scheduling is the second phase of project management. It is the laying of the project
activities along a time sequence in which they are to be performed so as to assign the starting
and finishing dates to various activities and to allocate resources to them. It can also be define as
a stage where the preparation of timetable for the implementation of the activities and
computation of resources required at different stages of time are done. This is also prepared
before the beginning of a project. It also includes identifying the tasks that are critical and the
resources that are limited so that the entire project proceeds in a logical, orderly and systematic
manner.
This phase consists of determining:
 Start and finish times of each activity, the earliest and latest times at which events can
occur.
 Critical activities that require special attention.
 Allocating resources – men, machines, materials, etc, to each activity.
 Slacks and floats for non-critical activities
 Various constraints due to limitation of resources

Project Controlling
Project controlling is the third phase of project management which involves the follow up the
planning and scheduling phases. Project planning and scheduling are undertaken before the
actual project starts, while the project controlling is undertaken during actual execution of the
project. This is the monitoring phase of a project where deviations in the project are identified
and corrective measures are taken in order to achieve the project goal. Project controlling
usually involves the following steps:
Setting standards and targets with regard to time and cost of the project.
Reviewing the progress by comparing the work accomplished to work scheduled at
different stages of time and finding the deviations.
Evaluating the effect of deviations on the project plan.
Updating the project schedule.
The corrective measures to rectify the deviations from the plan should be suggested. This
requires decision-making with regard to scheduling of resources, scheduling of jobs,
crashing of projects, etc.

1c (i)

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 Network Analysis in Project Planning (PERT & CERT) by Aremu A.O

PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique).

PERT is one of the techniques of project management which uses event oriented network in
which successive events are joined by arrows. This is preferred for projects that are non
repetitive and in which time for various activities cannot be precisely pre-determined. E.g.
launching a new product into the market by a company, research and development of a new war
weapon, sending space craft to Mars are PERT projects. Three time estimates – the optimistic
time estimate, pessimistic time estimate and the most likely time estimates are associated with
each and every activity to take into account the uncertainty in their times.

1c(ii)
CPM (Critical Path Method).
CPM is another technique of project management which uses activity oriented network which
consist of a number of well recognized jobs, tasks or activities. It is usually used for simple and
repetitive types of projects for which the activity times and costs are certainly and precisely
known. Projects like construction of a dam , building, bridge, yearly closing of accounts by a
company physical verification of store is handled by CPM. It is more of a deterministic model.

S/N PERT CPM

i. It is preferred for non-repetitive projects Used for simple and repetitive projects
ii. Uses event oriented network Uses activity oriented network
iii. Used for projects where the time for various Used for projects where activity times
activities cannot be pre-determined and resources are precisely known
iv. Uses probabilistic model Uses deterministic model

Question 2
a. In a tabular form, distinguish between the following; Activity, Event, Path, Network,
Dummy
b. Draw a network for the simple project of erection of works for a shed. The various
activities of the project are as given.

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 Network Analysis in Project Planning (PERT & CERT) by Aremu A.O

Activity Description Preceded by

A Erect site workshop -
B Fence site -
C Bend reinforcement A
D Dig foundation B
E Fabricate steel work A
F Install concrete pillar B
G Place reinforcement C, D
H Concrete foundation G, F
I Erect steel work E
J Paint steel work H, I
K Give finishing touch J

Solution
2a

Terms Definitions
Activity It is physically identifiable a part of a project which requires time and resources
for its execution. It is the project’s physically identifiable part. It is represented by
an arrow with a tail which represents the start and the head that represent the
finish of an activity.
Event It is represented by a circle. The head event, called the jth event, has always a
number higher than the tail event, called the ith event.
Path Is an unbroken chain of activity arrows connecting the initial event to some other
event.
Network Also called arrow diagram, it is the graphical representation of logically and
sequentially connected arrows and nodes which represent activities and events of
a project.
Dummy It is represented by dotted lines and is an activity which only determines the
dependency of one activity over the other but does not consume time. It is usually
represented by dotted line arrows.

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 Network Analysis in Project Planning (PERT & CERT) by Aremu A.O

2b
i. Activities A and B have no preceding activities and can commence immediately
ii. Activities C and E can start once A has finished, while D and F can start once B has
finished. Note that activity D has been given the same head event as C
iii. The remaining network is completed as follows: Activity G follows C and D. Since H is
preceded by G and F, the two have the same head event. Which becomes the tail event for
H. Similarly, I and H have been shown to be preceding J. Activity K follows J as shown in
the figure below.

I
A C

H G J K
H
B D
F

Figure 3: Final stage

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