Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Planning &
Controlling
Techniques
Network
Graphical portrayal of activities and event
Shows dependency relationships between tasks/activities in a
project
Clearly shows tasks that must precede (precedence) or follow
(succeeding) other tasks in a logical manner
Clear representation of plan – a powerful tool for
planning and controlling project
Networking Techniques
2. Scheduling
3. Allocation Of Resources
4. Controlling
Need of
PERT/CPM
Prediction of deliverables
Planning resource requirements
Controlling resource allocation
Internal program review
External program review
Performance evaluation
Uniform wide acceptance
PERT
PER
•T
U S Navy (1958) for the
POLARIS missile program
• Multiple task time estimates
(probabilistic nature)
Project Evaluation • Activity-on-arrow network
and Review construction
Technique (PERT) • Non-repetitive jobs (R & D
work)
PER
T instead of being a single
PERT is based on the assumption that an activity’s duration
follows a probability distribution
value
Three time estimates are required to compute the parameters
of an activity’s duration distribution:
pessimistic time (a) - the time the activity would take if
things
did not go well
most likely time (m ) - the consensus best estimate of
the activity’s duration
optimistic time (b) - the time the activity would take if
things Mean (expected time):t = a + 4m + b
e
did go well 6
2
b- a
Variance: V = 6
Use of
PERT
In construction activities
Transportation activities
In oil refineries
Computer system-
For manufacturing electric generator machines
Medical and surgical sector
Library activities
Importance of PERT
System
Reduction in cost
Saving of time
Determination of activities
Elimination of risk in complex
activities –
Flexibility
Evaluation of alternatives-
Useful in effective control-
Useful in decision making
Useful is research work
Critical path
Those activities which contribute directly to the overall duration of the
project constitute critical activities, the critical activities form a chain
running through the network which is called critical path.
Critical event : the slack of an event is the difference between the latest &
earliest events time. The events with zero slack time are called as critical
events.
Critical activities : The difference between latest start time & earliest start
time of an activity will indicate amount of time by which the activity can
be delayed without affecting the total project duration. The difference is
usually called total float. Activities with 0 total float are called as critical
activities
CPM
CP
M
• E I Du Pont de Nemours & Co. (1957)
for construction of new chemical
plant and maintenance shut-down
• Deterministic task times
Critical Path • Activity-on-node network
construction
Method • Repetitive nature of jobs
(CPM)
CPM
Path calculation
A connected sequence of activities leading from the starting
event to the ending event
Critical Path
The longest path (time); determines the project duration
Critical Activities
All of the activities that make up the critical path
Critical path
Those activities which contribute directly to the overall duration of the
project constitute critical activities, the critical activities form a chain
running through the network which is called critical path.
Critical event : the slack of an event is the difference between the latest &
earliest events time. The events with zero slack time are called as critical
events.
Critical activities : The difference between latest start time & earliest start
time of an activity will indicate amount of time by which the activity can
be delayed without affecting the total project duration. The difference is
usually called total float. Activities with 0 total float are called as critical
activities
Benefits of
Useful CPM/PERT
at many stages of project management
Mathematically simple
Give critical path and slack time
Provide project documentation
Useful in monitoring costs
Limitations to CPM/PERT
Clearly defined, independent and stable activities
Specified precedence relationships
Over emphasis on critical paths
Deterministic CPM model
Activity time estimates are subjective and depend on judgment
PERT assumes a beta distribution for these time estimates, but
the actual distribution may be different
PERT consistently underestimates the expected
project completion time due to alternate paths becoming
critical
Example
Activity Predecessor
activity C
2 4 F
A none
A
B none
D
C A 1
6
D A
B
3 5 G
E B
E
F C
G D&E
Example
Activity Predecessor
activity
A none
B A
C A
D B
E C
F D ,E
3 D
B
A F
1 2 5 6
C 4 E
Project Crashing
Crashing
reducing project time by expending additional
resources
Crash time
an amount of time an activity is reduced
Crash cost
cost of reducing activity time
Goal
reduce project duration at minimum cost
Time-Cost Relationship
Crashing costs increase as project duration decreases
Indirect costs increase as project duration increases
Reduce project length as long as crashing costs are less than
indirect costs
Time-Cost Tradeoff
Total project cost
Indirect
cost
Direct cost
time
The Resource
Problem
Resources and Priorities
Project network times are not a schedule until resources have
been assigned.
The implicit assumption is that resources will be available in
the required amounts when needed.
Adding new projects requires making realistic judgments of
resource availability and project durations.
Resource-Constrained Scheduling
Resource leveling (or smoothing) involves attempting to even
out demands on resources by using slack (delaying
noncritical activities) to manage resource utilization.
Kinds of resource
People
Materials
Equipment
Working Capital