UNIT - 3

ACTIVITY PLANNING

An activity is typically one stage of a project management plan.

Each activity consists of one or more actions that, upon
completion, will lead to the next project stage. Taken together as
a series, the activities will result in the final deliverable. Each
activity has a defined start and end, as well as a deadline or time
period within which it must be completed.
When you are planning a project, one of the key steps is to
define the activities required to bring that project to fruition.
This generally involves creating an activity list, which is exactly
what it sounds like — a list of all the actions required for the
project. For example, let’s say you are planning a large event.
Some activities that might be involved include:

 Mailing invitations
 Booking the venue
 Hiring a caterer

OBJECTIVES OF ACTIVITY PLANNING

1. Feasibility assessment:- Is the project possible within

required timescales and resource constraint.

2. Resource Allocation:- What are the most effective ways of

allocating resources to the project. When should the resources
be available.

3. Detailed Costing:- How much will the project cost and

when is that expenditure likely to take place?
4. Motivation:- Providing targets and being seen to monitor
achievement against targets is an effective way of motivating
staff.
5. Co-ordination:- When do the staff in different departments
need to be available to work on a particular project.

What are the steps involved in Activity Planning?

 1. Ensure that the appropriate resources will be available

precisely when required.

2. Avoid different activities competing for the same

resources at the same time.
 3. Produce a detailed schedules showing which staff carry
out each activity.

 4. Produce a timed cash flow forecast.

What are the objectives of activity planning?

1. Feasibility assessment
2. Resource allocation 
3. Detailed costing 
4. Motivation
5. Co-ordination

PROJECT SCHEDULES
Before work commences on a project or, possibly, a stage of a
larger project, the project plan must be developed to the level of
showing dates when each activity should start and finish and
when and how much of each resource will be required. Once the
plan has been refined to this level of detail we call it a project
schedule. Creating a project schedule comprises four main
stages.

The first step in producing the plan is to decide what activities

need to be carried out and in what order they are to be done.
From this we can construct an ideal activity plan - that is, a plan
of when each activity would ideally be undertaken were
resources not a constraint. It is the creation of the ideal activity
plan that we shall discuss in this chapter. This activity plan is
generated by Steps 4 and 5 of Step Wise.

On a large project, detailed plans for the later stages will be

delayed until information about the work required has emerged
from the earlier stages.
The ideal activity plan will then be the subject of an activity risk
analysis, aimed at identifying potential problems. This might
suggest alterations to the ideal activity plan and will almost
certainly have implications for resource allocation.

The third step is resource allocation. The expected availability

of resources might place constraints on when certain activities
can be carried out, and our ideal plan might need to be adapted
to take account of this.

The final step is schedule production. Once resources have been

allocated to each activity, we will be in a position to draw up
and publish a project schedule, which indicates planned start and
completion dates and a resource requirements statement for each
activity.

Using Gantt Charts for Project Scheduling

A Gantt chart is an easy way to schedule tasks. It is a chart on
which bars represent each task or activity. The length of each
bar represents the relative length of the task.

The main advantage of the Gantt chart is its simplicity. The

systems analyst will find not only that this technique is easy to
use but also that it lends itself to worthwhile communication
with end users. Another advantage of using a Gantt chart is that
the bars representing activities or tasks are drawn to scale; that
is, the size of the bar indicates the relative length of time it will
take to complete each task.

Network Planning Models:

 Scheduling techniques model the project’s activities and
their relationships as a “Network”.In network time flows
from left to right.
 There are two best techniques:
o CRM(Critical Path Method)
o PERT(Program Evaluation Review Technique)

 Both use the “Activity on Arrow” approach to visualize

the project as a network where activities are drawn as
arrows joining circles,or nodes which represent the
possible start or completion of an activity or set of
activities.
 Sequencing the tasks according to their logical
relationship,and then scheduling them taking into account
resources and other factors.
  Both of these techniques used an activity-on-arrow
approach to visualizing the
project as a network where activities are drawn as arrows
joining circles, or nodes,which represent the possible start
and/or completion activities.
More recently a variation on these techniques,
called precedence networks,has become popular.This
method uses activity-on-node networks where activities
are Represented as nodes and the links between nodes
represent precedence or
sequencing requirements.It is this method that is adopted
in the
majority of computer applications currently available.

Formulating Network Model

The first stage in creating a network model is to represent the
activities and their
interrelationships as a graph. In activity-on-nodes we do this by
representing activities as links (arrowed lines) in the graph - the
nodes (circles) representing the events of activities starting and
finishing.

 Constructing precedence networks

Before we look at how networks are used, it is worth spending a
few moments
considering some rules for their construction.

 A project network should have only one start node

Although it is logically possible to draw a network with more
than one starting node it is undesirable to do so as it is a
potential source of confusion. In such cases. (for example,
where more than one activity can start immediately the project
starts) it is normal to invent a start activity which has zero
duration but may have, for example, an actual start date.

 A project network should have only one end node

The end node designates the completion of the project and a
project may only finish once. Although it is possible to draw a
network with more than one end node it will almost certainly
lead to confusion if this is done. Where the completion of a
project depends upon more than one 'final' activity it is normal
to invent a 'finish' activity.

 A node has duration

A node represents an activity and, in general, activities take
time to execute.This network drawing merely represents the
logic of the project and the rules governing the order in which
activities are to be carried out.
 CRITICAL PATH METHOD(CPM)

Critical Path Method (CPM) is a method used in project

planning, generally for project scheduling for the on-time
completion of the project. It actually helps in the determination
of the earliest time by which the whole project can be
completed. There are two main concepts in this method namely
critical task and critical path. Critical task is the task/activity
which can’t be delayed otherwise the completion of the whole
project will be delayed. It must be completed on-time before
starting the other dependent tasks.
Critical path is a sequence of critical tasks/activities and is the
largest path in the project network. It gives us the minimum
time which is required to complete the whole project. The
activities in the critical path are known as critical activities and
if these activities are delayed then the completion of the whole
project is also delayed.
Major steps of the Critical Path Method:
1. Identifying the activities
2. Construct the project network
3. Perform time estimation using forward and backward pass
4. Identify the critical path

Rules for designing the Activity-on-Node network diagram:

 A project network should have only one start node
 A project network should have only one end node
 A node has a duration
 Links normally have no duration
 “Precedents” are the immediate preceding activities
 Time moves from left to right in the project network
 A network should not contain loops
 A network should not contain dangles
 Node Representation:

 Activity label is the name of the activity represented by that

node.
 Earliest Start is the date or time at which the activity can be
started at the earliest.
 Earliest Finish is the date or time at which the activity can
completed at the earliest.
 Latest Start is the date or time at which the activity can be
started at the latest.
 Latest Finish is the date or time at which the activity can be
finished at the latest.
 Float is equal to the difference between earliest start and
latest start or earliest finish and latest finish.

Activity-On-Node diagram:
Forward Pass:
The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on
which each activity may be started and completed.
1. Activity A may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its
start is zero i.e. ES(A) = 0. It takes 6 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 6 i.e. EF(A) =
6.
2. Activity B may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its
start is zero i.e. ES(B) = 0. It takes 4 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 4 i.e. EF(B) =
4.
3. Activity F may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its
start is zero i.e. ES(F) = 0. It takes 10 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 10 i.e. EF(F)
= 10.
4. Activity C starts as soon as activity A completes its
execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is
week 6 i.e. ES(C) = 6. It takes 3 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 9 i.e. EF(C) =
9.
5. Activity D starts as soon as activity B completes its
execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is
week 4 i.e. ES(D) = 4. It takes 4 weeks to complete its
 execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 8 i.e. EF(D) =
8.
6. Activity E starts as soon as activity B completes its
execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is
week 4 i.e. ES(E) = 4. It takes 3 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 7 i.e. EF(E) =
7.
7. Activity G starts as soon as activity E and activity F
completes their execution. Since, activity requires the
completion of both for starting its execution, we would
consider the MAX(ES(E), ES(F)). Hence, earliest week it
can start its execution is week 10 i.e. ES(G) = 10. It takes 3
weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish
is week 13 i.e. EF(G) = 13.
8. Activity H starts as soon as activity C and activity D
completes their execution. Since, activity requires the
completion of both for starting its execution, we would
consider the MAX(ES(C), ES(D)). Hence, earliest week it
can start its execution is week 9 i.e. ES(H) = 9. It takes 2
weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish
is week 11 i.e. EF(H) = 11.
Backward Pass:
The backward pass is carried out to calculate the latest dates on
which each activity may be started and finished without
delaying the end date of the project.
Assumption: Latest finish date = Earliest Finish date (of
project).
1. Activity G’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish
date of the precedent activity of finish according to the
assumption i.e. LF(G) = 13. It takes 3 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 10 i.e. LS(G) =
10.
2. Activity H’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish
date of the precedent activity of finish according to the
assumption i.e. LF(H) = 13. It takes 2 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 11 i.e. LS(H) =
11.
3. The latest end date for activity C would be the latest start
date of H i.e. LF(C) = 11. It takes 3 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 8 i.e. LS(C) = 8.
4. The latest end date for activity D would be the latest start
date of H i.e. LF(D) = 11. It takes 4 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(D) = 7.
5. The latest end date for activity E would be the latest start
date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 3 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(E) = 7.
6. The latest end date for activity F would be the latest start
date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 10 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 0 i.e. LS(F) = 0.
7. The latest end date for activity A would be the latest start
date of C i.e. LF(A) = 8. It takes 6 weeks to complete its
execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 2 i.e. LS(A) = 2.
8. The latest end date for activity B would be the earliest of the
latest start date of D and E i.e. LF(B) = 7. It takes 4 weeks to
complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 3
i.e. LS(B) = 3.
Identifying Critical Path:
Critical path is the path which gives us or helps us to estimate
the earliest time in which the whole project can be completed.
Any delay to an activity on this critical path will lead to a delay
in the completion of the whole project. In order to identify the
critical path, we need to calculate the activity float for each
activity.
Activity float is actually the difference between an activity’s
Earliest start and its latest start date or the difference between
the activity’s Earliest finish and its latest finish date and it
indicates that how much the activity can be delayed without
delaying the completion of the whole project. If the float of an
activity is zero, then the activity is an critical activity and must
be added to the critical path of the project network. In this
example, activity F and G have zero float and hence, are
critical activities.
Advantages of Critical Path Method (CPM):
It has the following advantages:
1. It figures out the activities which can run parallel to each
other.
2. It helps the project manager in identifying the most critical
elements of the project.
3. It gives a practical and disciplined base which helps in
determining how to reach the objectives.
4. CPM is effective in new project management.
5. CPM can strengthen a team perception if it is applied
properly.
6. CPM provides demonstration of dependencies which helps
in the scheduling of individual activities.
7. It shows the activities and their outcomes as a network
diagram.
8. It gives a fair and concise procedure of documenting of
project.
9. It helps in determining the slack time.
10. An explicit and clear approach of communicating project
plans, schedules, time and cost performance is developed.
11. It is extensively used in industry.
12. It helps in optimization by determining the project duration.
Disadvantages of Critical Path Method (CPM):
It has the following disadvantages:
1. The scheduling of personnel is not handled by the CPM.
2. In CPM, it is difficult to estimate the completion time of an
activity.
3. The critical path is not always clear in CPM.
4. For bigger projects, CPM networks can be complicated too.
5. It also does not handle the scheduling of the resource
allocation.
6. In CPM, critical path needs to be calculated precisely.
 What is Risk Identification?
Risk identification is the process of identifying and assessing
threats to an organization, its operations, and its workforce. For
example, risk identification may include assessing IT security
threats such as malware and ransomware, accidents, natural
disasters, and other potentially harmful events that could disrupt
business operations. Companies that develop robust risk
management plans are likely to find they’re able to minimize the
impact of threats, when and if they should occur.

Risk Identification Process Steps

There are five core steps within the risk identification and
management process. These steps include risk identification,
risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk treatment, and risk
monitoring.
1. Risk Identification: The purpose of risk identification is to
reveal what, where, when, why, and how something could affect
a company’s ability to operate. For example, a business located
in central California might include “the possibility of wildfire”
as an event that could disrupt business operations.
2. Risk Analysis: This step involves establishing the probability
that a risk event might occur and the potential outcome of each
event. Using the California wildfire example, safety managers
might assess how much rainfall has occurred in the past 12
months and the extent of damage the company could face should
a fire occur.
3. Risk Evaluation: Risk evaluation compares the magnitude of
each risk and ranks them according to prominence and
consequence. For example, the effects of a possible wildfire
may be weighed against the effects of a possible mudslide.
Whichever event is determined to have a higher probability of
happening and causing damage, it would rank higher.
4. Risk Treatment: Risk treatment is also referred to as Risk
Response Planning. In this step, risk mitigation strategies,
 preventative care, and contingency plans are created based on
the assessed value of each risk. Using the wildfire example, risk
managers may choose to house additional network servers
offsite, so business operations could still resume if an onsite
server is damaged. The risk manager may also develop
evacuation plans for employees.
5. Risk Monitoring: Risk management is a non-stop process that
adapts and changes over time. Repeating and continually
monitoring the processes can help assure maximum coverage of
known and unknown risks.

The First Phase of Risk Management Is Risk Identification

Risk identification enables businesses to develop plans to
minimize harmful events before they arise. The objective of this
step is to identify all possible risks that could harm company
operations, such as lawsuits, theft, technology breaches,
business downturns, or even a Category 5 hurricane.
Safety management professionals must understand that risk
identification is not a one-time process. Instead, the process
should be rigorous, thoughtful, and ongoing.
Ways to Identify Risks
There are many ways to identify an organization’s risks,
however, some of the more common examples include
brainstorming, thinking pessimistically, and seeking employee
feedback.
1. Brainstorming: Risk managers may find that brainstorming the
probability of various catastrophic events with other company
stakeholders, such as managers and certain C-level staff, can
help identify new threats.
2. Thinking Pessimistically: Careers in safety management often
entail planning for the worst while expecting the best. Although
pessimism isn’t often encouraged in the workplace, taking time
to ponder “what is the worst possible thing that could happen to
the company” may be helpful in identifying risks.
3. Seek Employee Feedback: Upper-level management’s
perspective of an organization’s risks can be starkly different
from the perspective that employees hold. Employees may
encounter new risks in their day-to-day activities that may not
have otherwise been encountered. For example, insufficient
training on a piece of operating equipment may be placing staff
at risk of injury. As such, employees are an invaluable source of
first-hand information.

What is Risk Management?

In project management, risk management is the practice of
identifying, evaluating, and preventing or mitigating risks to a
project that have the potential to impact the desired outcomes.
Project managers are typically responsible for overseeing the
risk management process throughout the duration of a given
project.
To effectively manage risk, project managers must have a clear
understanding of their objectives so they can identify any
possible barriers that could impact the team’s ability to produce
results.
“Risk management is really about looking at your project
objectives and figuring out what the threats to those objectives
are, and what you can do to address them from the beginning,”
says Connie Emerson, assistant teaching professor for
Northeastern’s Master of Science in Project
Management program.
The types of events or scenarios that fall under the category of
risk can be broad and sometimes misinterpreted. While project
managers or those tasked with overseeing a project may be
inclined to view risks exclusively as threats, this is not always
the case.
 To clarify this common misconception, Emerson
defines project risk as “…a future event that may or may not
happen which, if it does happen, will have some impact on the
objectives of the project. It could be positive—an opportunity,
or negative—a threat.”

Types of Project Risk

Beyond the basics of what “risk” means, project managers
should also know the different types of risks they may
encounter. Depending on the project type, the factors that should
be considered will differ.
There are several types of risks that occur frequently, regardless
of the specifics of the project. These common types of risk
include:
 Cost: The risk of events that impact the budget, especially those
that cause the project to be completed over budget. Errors
in cost estimation commonly generate risk in addition to
external factors.
 Schedule: The risk of unplanned scheduling conflicts, such as
events that cause the project to be delayed. Scope creep is a
common reason for scheduling issues and project delays.
 Performance: The risk of events that cause the project to
produce results that are inconsistent with the project
specifications.
Depending on the project details, there are many other types of
risks that can occur. For example, project managers may also
need to plan around risks pertaining to implementation, training,
testing, and so on.
Once project managers identify the categories of risk they
should be concerned with, they can begin to understand how
these risks might impact the project outcomes and what they can
do to reduce their effects. To do so, they will also need to
consider the breadth and depth of each type of risk in the context
of the overall project.
 Steps in the Risk Management Process
To protect a project from unplanned risk, project managers
typically follow an ongoing risk management process which
helps them identify, understand, and respond to threats and
opportunities. Before beginning this process, however, it’s
important to fully understand your organization’s practices and
how you will conduct your risk work for that project. This plan
then will drive the following steps:
 Identify the risks that could potentially impact your project.
 Assign ownership of each identified risk to a team member who
will be charged with overseeing that threat or opportunity.
Although some project managers prefer to assign ownership
after the risks have been analyzed and prioritized, taking this
step early can be beneficial. “Many times I assign an owner to
the risk very early on because I want that person to drive the
analysis of the risk,” Emerson notes.
 Analyze each risk to fully understand the driving factors
involved and potential impacts. Be sure to consider the breadth
and depth of each threat at this stage in order to evaluate the
severity of each risk in the context of the overall project.
 Prioritize project risks according to urgency and the severity of
the impact they could cause.
 Respond to your identified risks in accordance with your risk
management approach, either by taking steps to prevent the risk
event from occurring or to minimize the impact if it does occur.
This step should include building the response as well as taking
action.
 Monitor your risk management strategy and make changes as
needed.
Although there are clear steps in the risk management process,
this should ideally be an ongoing effort. After all, the nature of
risk is inherently unpredictable, and project managers need to
have the agility and discipline to continuously adapt to changes
throughout a given project.

5 Tips to Reduce and Manage Risk

While it is impossible to completely eliminate risk, there are
steps that project managers can take to effectively manage
projects while reducing the amount of risk. Here are four tips to
get started:

1. Create a risk management plan.

Anyone that has experience in project management knows how
essential a strong project plan is to the success of the endeavor.
There are many ancillary plans that are often encompassed in
this plan, including the risk management plan.
According to Emerson, your risk management plan should
define your methodology for identifying and prioritizing risk,
your risk tolerance, how your team will respond to risk, how
you will communicate risk, etc. Developing such a plan takes
time and effort, but investing in the planning phase often pays
off by creating a roadmap that will guide your team throughout
the execution phase of your project.

2. Keep your risk register up to date.

Your risk register, which can either be combined with your risk
management plan or a separate document, is a list of all possible
risk events that have the potential to impact your project.
Having this document will help you stay on top of potential
issues, but it is important that you keep it current so that you
always have an accurate snapshot to refer to.
Use your risk register to keep track of what risk events occurred,
how your team responded, and which new risks have surfaced
which you were unable to detect initially. By keeping this
document up to date and ensuring that it is integrative with other
planning deliverables, you, your team members, and other key
stakeholders will always have a clear picture of the state of the
project.

3. Understand the risk event.

A common mistake in risk management is the tendency for
people to think about risk in terms of the possible outcomes
rather than the risk event itself. For example, people sometimes
identify “missing the deadline” as a risk to their project. While
missing the deadline is certainly a threat to the project, this isn’t
actually the risk, but rather the impact.
Instead, consider risk in the following format: Due to X, Y may
occur, causing Z impact. Doing so will help you understand the
root of the risk, the risk event, and how you should address it.

4. Be proactive instead of reactive.

Project managers can sometimes make the mistake of taking a
reactive approach to risk management rather than a proactive
approach. It will always be necessary to have the agility to react
when an unplanned event occurs, but it is also important to take
a step back and view your project through a proactive lens.
By investing time in the early stages of the risk management
process and fully analyzing each risk, you can prepare yourself
to take preventative steps that reduce the probability of the risk
event occurring, rather than trying to respond once it has already
happened.

5. Develop your project management skills.

Above all, effectively managing projects and their risks requires
a strong foundation of project management skills. In addition to
practicing, staying up to date with industry trends, and attending
conferences and workshops, one of the best ways to refine these
skills is to earn a certificate or graduate degree in project
management.
Those who are faced with the opportunity to oversee a project
but lack formal training stand to benefit substantially from
project management education; however, those who are already
working in the field can also benefit by honing their craft.
Programs like Northeastern’s Master of Science in Project
Management, for example, are designed to develop essential
skills through hands-on experience. Industry-leading faculty
bring unique opportunities to discuss real-world challenges in
the classroom, giving students the ability to apply their
knowledge to the scenarios they will face in their roles.

What Is Monte Carlo Analysis in Project

Management?
Monte Carlo Analysis is a risk management technique used to
conduct a quantitative analysis of risks. This mathematical
technique was developed in 1940 by an atomic nuclear scientist
named Stanislaw Ulam and is used to analyze the impact of
risks on your project — in other words, if this risk occurs, how
will it affect the schedule or the cost of the project? Monte Carlo
gives you a range of possible outcomes and probabilities to
allow you to consider the likelihood of different scenarios.
For example, let’s say you don’t know how long your project
will take. You have a rough estimate of the duration of each
project task. Using this, you develop a best-case scenario
(optimistic) and worst-case scenario (pessimistic) duration for
each task.
You can then use Monte Carlo to analyze all the potential
combinations and give you probabilities of when the project will
complete.
The results would look something like this:

 2% chance of completing the project in 12 months (if

every task finished by the optimistic timeline)
 15% chance of completion within 13 months
 55% chance of completion within 14 months
 95% chance of completion within 15 months
  100% chance of completion within 16 months (If
everything takes as long as the pessimistic estimates)
Using this information, you can now better estimate your
timeline and plan your project.

Benefits of Monte Carlo analysis in project management

The primary benefits of using Monte Carlo analysis on your
projects are:

 Provides early inducation of how likely you are to meet

project milestones and deadlines
 Can be used to create a more realistic budget and schedule
 Predicts the likelihood of schedule and cost overruns
 Quantifies risks to assess impacts
 Provides objective data for decision making

Limitations of Monte Carlo analysis in project management

There are some challenges to using the Monte Carlo analysis.
These include:

 You must provide three estimates for every activity or

factor being analyzed
 The analysis is only as good as the estimates provided
 The Monte Carlo simulation shows the overall probability
for the entire project or a large subset (such as a phase). It
can’t be used to analyze individual activities or risks.

PERT TECHNIQUE
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a
procedure through which activities of a project are represented
in its appropriate sequence and timing. It is a scheduling
technique used to schedule, organize and integrate tasks within
a project. PERT is basically a mechanism for management
planning and control which provides blueprint for a particular
project. All of the primary elements or events of a project have
been finally identified by the PERT.
In this technique, a PERT Chart is made which represent a
schedule for all the specified tasks in the project. The reporting
levels of the tasks or events in the PERT Charts is somewhat
same as defined in the work breakdown structure (WBS).
Characteristics of PERT:
The main characteristics of PERT are as following :
1. It serves as a base for obtaining the important facts for
implementing the decision-making.
2. It forms the basis for all the planning activities.
3. PERT helps management in deciding the best possible
resource utilization method.
4. PERT take advantage by using time network analysis
technique.
5. PERT presents the structure for reporting information.
6. It helps the management in identifying the essential elements
for the completion of the project within time.
Advantages of PERT:
It has the following advantages :

1. Estimation of completion time of project is given by the

PERT.
2. It supports the identification of the activities with slack time.
3. The start and dates of the activities of a specific project is
determined.
4. It helps project manager in identifying the critical path
activities.
5. PERT makes well organized diagram for the representation
of large amount of data.
Disadvantages of PERT:
It has the following disadvantages :
1. The complexity of PERT is more which leads to the problem
in implementation.
2. The estimation of activity time are subjective in PERT
which is a major disadvantage.
3. Maintenance of PERT is also expensive and complex.
4. The actual distribution of may be different from the PERT
beta distribution which causes wrong assumptions.
5. It under estimates the expected project completion time as
there is chances that other paths can become the critical path
if their related activities are deferred.

Difference between PERT and CPM :

S.No PERT CPM

.

CPM is that technique of

PERT is that technique of
project management which
project management which
is used to manage only
1. is used to manage uncertain
certain (i.e., time is
(i.e., time is not known)
known) activities of any
activities of any project.
project.

2. It is event oriented It is activity oriented

S.No PERT CPM
.

technique which means that technique which means

network is constructed on that network is constructed
the basis of event. on the basis of activities.

3. It is a probability model. It is a deterministic model.

It majorly focuses on time

It majorly focuses on
as meeting time target or
Time-cost trade off as
4. estimation of percent
minimizing cost is more
completion is more
important.
important.

It is appropriate for
It is appropriate for high
5. reasonable time
precision time estimation.
estimation.

It has Non-repetitive nature It has repetitive nature of

6.
of job. job.

There is no chance of There may be crashing

7. crashing as there is no because of certain time
certainty of time. boundation.

It uses dummy activities

It doesn’t use any dummy
8. for representing sequence
activities.
of activities.

It is suitable for projects

It is suitable for
9. which required research
construction projects.
and development.