ME 380

Project Planning

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Elements: Activities & Events
Feature: Precedence relations
Activity
A
B
C
D
E

Duration
4
5
3
3
2

Precedence
A
A
B, C

Activities Table

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Graphical representation :
Activities :
(edges)

Events :
(vertices)

C
T
(Time reqd. for activity)

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Precedence:
Activities B & C precede Activity E
B

This Event cannot occur before both

activities B & C have been completed

Critical Path Method

Example
Activity
A
B
C
D
E

Duration
4
5
3
3
2

Precedence
A
A
B, C

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The project sequence graph is constructed:
D
A

Project
Start

Now what ???

B
E

Project
End

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Events are consolidated to provide the

specified precedence.
Dummy activities are added if necessary.
A
D

Project
Start

C
Project
End
E

Dummy Activity Example

To be able to bolt a bracket to a panel, the operations
required are :

Design bracket
Build bracket B
Build panel
C
Drill holes in panel

A
C

A
C

A
A
D

A,C

B
D

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Activity times (duration) are added next :

A
4

Project
Start

B
5

3 C

D
3
E
2

Project
End

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The CRITICAL PATH is the path through the project on which any delay
will cause the completion of the entire project to be delayed:

A
4
Project
Start

B
5

3 C

D
3
E
2

Project
End

Critical Path Method (CPM)

For fairly simple projects, the critical path is

usually the longest path through the project.

For projects with several parallel and interlinked

activities, this may not always be the case.

For more complicated projects, the critical path

can be determined with an earliest time forward
sweep through the diagram followed by a latest
time reverse sweep.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The EARLIEST starting time of each activity is associated with the events. It
corresponds to the longest time of any path from any previous event.

0
Project
Start

A
4
B
5

3 C
7

D
3
E
2

Project
End
9

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The LATEST starting time of each activity is also associated with the events.
It corresponds to the longest time of any path from any subsequent event.

0
0
Project
Start

A
4
B
5

4
4
3 C
7
7

D
3
E
2

Project
End
9
9

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The CRITICAL PATH is the path along which the earliest time and latest time are the
same for all events, and the early start time plus activity time for any activity equals
the early start time of the next activity.

0
0
Project
Start

A
4
B
5

4
4
3 C
7
7

D
3
E
2

Project
End
9
9

Critical Path Method (CPM)

This project cannot be completed in less than 9 weeks given the expected duration of the activities.
However, activities B & D could be delayed or extended by up to 2 weeks each without affecting the
minimum project completion time. This is termed float or slack time.

0
0
Project
Start

A
4
B
5

4
4
3 C
7
7

D
3

Project
End
E
2

9
9

Example
Activity
A 3
B 3
C 4
D 1
E 3
F 2
G 2
H 4
I
1
J 3
K 5

Duration
A
C
B, D
A, B, D
C, F
G
C
E, G
F, H, I

Precedence

Example
B
A
Project
Start

E
J

F
G

D
C
I

Project
End

Example
Activity

Duration

Earliest
Start

Latest
Start

Float

13

10

10

13

10

16

14

14

Summary: CPM Steps

List all activities and expected durations.

Construct CPM diagram for activities list.

Determine EARLIEST start time for each event

(working forward from project start).

Determine LATEST start time for each event

(working backwards from project end).

Identify the CRITICAL PATH (and the float

time for any non-critical activities).

Using Estimates of Activity times

The estimated duration of any activity is just that an

estimate.
There is usually an optimistic time (shortest time, TS)
associated with any activity 1 in 100 chance of taking
less time than this.
There is also usually a pessimistic time (longest time,
TL) associated with any activity 1 in 100 chance of
taking longer than this.
If TM is the most likely time for a specific activity, then a
mean and variance for the activity can be calculated,
assuming that TS, TL and TM are the parameters
describing a Beta distribution.

Using Estimates of Activity times

The estimated time TEST is calculated as:
TEST = (TS + 4.TM + TL)/6
and the variance of this is:
2 = (TL TS)2/36

from the previous Example

Activity

Duration
TM

TS

TL

TEST

Earliest
Start

Latest
Start

Float

3.0

0.5

0.5

3.0

3.5

0.5

10

4.83

1.67

4.83

4.83

3.33

6.50

14.84

8.34

2.67

6.50

6.5

2.17

9.17

9.17

4.17

11.34

11.34

1.17

4.83

14.34

9.51

3.17

11.34

18.17

6.83

12

5.83

15.51

15.51

PERT/CPM
The critical path has now become C-D-F-G-H-K
with a total estimated time of 21.3 days
(i.e. 15.51 + 5.83)
The std. deviation along the critical path is the
square root of the sum of the individual
variances:
CP = C2 + D2 + F2 + G2 + H2 + K2
which for this data is 2.36 days