PERT

 The Project or Programme Evaluation and Review

Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical
tool, used Project Management. It was developed for
the U.S. Navy Special Projects Office in 1957 to support
the U.S. Navy's Polaris nuclear submarine project.

 Used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within

a project.

 It is a method to analyze the tasks involved in

completing a given project, especially the time needed
to complete each task, and to identify the minimum
time needed to complete the total project.
 CPM
 Critical Path Method which was developed
by DuPont Company and applied first to the
construction projects in the chemical industry.
 Though both PERT and CPM techniques have
similarity in terms of concepts, the basic
difference is, PERT is used for analysis of project
scheduling problems. CPM has single time
estimate and PERT has three time estimates for
activities and uses probability theory to find the
chance of reaching the scheduled time.
Event: An event (or node) will always occur at the beginning and end of an
activity. The event has no resources and is represented by a circle. The ith
event and jth event are the tail event and head event respectively, (Figure 8.2).
 Activity Types

• Predecessor activity - Activities that ought to be completed

immediately previous to the start of another activity are known as
predecessor activities.
• Successor activity - These are those activities that cannot be started
until one or more of other activities are finished but immediately
succeed them.
 Dummy Activity

An imaginary activity which does not consume any resource and time is called a dummy activity.
Dummy activities are simply used to represent a connection between events in order to
maintain a logic in the network. It is represented by a dotted line in a network.
 Event
An event signifies a point in time representing the completion of several activities and the
starting of new ones. This is typically symbolizes by a circle in a network which is also
known as node or connector.
Merge event - Event in which more than one activity comes and connects an event is called
as merge event.
Burst event - It is event in which more than one activity leaves an event.
Merge and Burst event - An activity can be merge and burst event simultaneously, as regard
some activities it can be a merge event and with some other activities it may be a burst
event.
 Guidelines for Drawing Network Diagram

a)Each activity is represented by one and only one arrow in the network. This implies that no single
activity can be represented twice in the network. This is to be distinguished from the case where
one activity is broken into segments. In such a case each segment may be represented by a separate
arrow.

b)      No two activities can be identified by the same beginning and end event. In such cases, a dummy
activity is introduced to resolve the problem 
 c) In
order to ensure the correct precedence relationship in arrow diagram following question must be
checked whenever any activity is added to a network.
What activity must be completed immediately before this activity can start?
What activities must follow this activity?
What activities must occur simultaneously with this activity?

d)     Thus a network should be developed on the basis of logical or technical dependence.

e)      The arrows depicting various activities are indicative of logical precedence only; hence length and
bearing of the arrows are of no significance.

f)       The flow of the diagram should be from left to right.

g)      Two events are numbered in such a way that the event of higher number can happen only after the
event of lower number is completed.
 Labeling of a Network Diagram
A standard procedure called i-j rule developed by D.R.F Fulkerson is most
commonly used for this purpose.
Step 1: First, a start event is one which has arrows emerging from
it but not entering it. Find the start event and label it as number1.
Step 2: Delete all arrows emerging from all numbered events.
This will create at least one new start event out of the preceding
events.
Step 3: Number all new start events �2�, �3� and so on. No
definite rule is necessary but numbering from top to bottom may
facilitate other users using the network when there are more
than one new start event.
Step 4: Go on repeating step no. 2 & 3 until the end reached.
 ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED IN CONSTRUCTING A NETWORK

a.Two activities starting from a tail event

must not have a same end event. To ensure
this, it is absolutely necessary to introduce a
dummy activity, as shown in Figure 8.6.

b.Looping error should not be formed in a

network, as it represents performance of
activities repeatedly in a cyclic manner, as
shown below in Figure 8.7.

c.In a network, there should be only one

start event and one ending event as
shown below, in Figure 8.8.

d.The direction of arrows should

flow from left to right avoiding
mixing of direction as shown in
Figure 8.9.
 Common Errors

1.Dangling
2. Looping or Cycling
3.Redundancy
Two activities starting from a tail event must not have a same end
event. To ensure this, it is absolutely necessary to introduce a
dummy activity
In a network, there should be only one start event and one ending event 
Looping error should not be formed in a network, as it represents
performance
of activities repeatedly in a cyclic manner
 Looping
Looping error is also called as cycling error in a network
diagram. Making an endless loop in a network is called as
error of looping.

A
The direction of arrows should flow from left to right avoiding
mixing of direction
 Dangling

Whenever an activity is disconnected from the network it

is called dangling error.

C Dangling
A B D E G

Dangling

F
 Redundancy
When the dummy activity is introduced and it is not
required, it is called redundancy errors.

C
B

A D
A B C D
Example - 1
Extension to the Recreation center
Example - 2
Purchase of a New Car
 Example -3
Preparation of Paneer
I.                  Receive whole cow/buffalo milk
ii)                  Standardize milk to obtain desired level of fat percentage
iii)                Take citric acid and prepare 1% solution
iv)                Heat  the citric  acid to 70 o C
v)                  Bring the standardized milk to boil on medium heat
vi)                Cool the milk to 70 o C and add slowly the solution of citric acid till yellowish
whey separates
vii)              Strain the mixture through a clean muslin cloth.
viii)            Hold it under running water for a minute and then press out the excess water.
ix)                Hang the muslin for 15-20 minutes so that all the whey is drained out.
x)                  Prepare mould to form Paneer block
xi)                Fill the mass into the block and tie the muslin
xii)              Place it under something heavy for up to two hours
xiii)            Cut the paneer into chunks and used as required.
 Precedence table
Activity Description Preceding Activity

A Receive whole cow/buffalo milk -

B Standardize milk to obtain desired level of fat percentage A

C Take citric acid and prepare 1% solution -

D Heat  the citric  acid to 70 o C C

E Bring the standardized milk to boil on medium heat  B

F Cool the milk to 70 o C and add slowly the solution of citric acid till D,E
yellowish whey separates.

G Strain the mixture through a clean muslin cloth. F

H Hold it under running water for a minute and press out the excess G
water.
I Hang the muslin for 15-20 minutes and drain out all the whey. H

J Prepare mould to form Paneer block H

K Fill the mass into the block and tie the muslin J

L Place it under something heavy for up to two hours. K

M Cut the paneer into chunks and use as required. L

 Example – 4

House Construction Project

Example 1:
Draw a network for a house construction project. The sequence of activities with their predecessors are given.
Activity A (preparation of house plan), has a start event 1 as well as an
ending event 2. Activity B (Construction of house) begins at event 2 and
ends at event 3. The activity B cannot start until activity A has been
completed. Activities C and D cannot begin until activity B has been
completed, but they can be performed simultaneously. Similarly, activities
E and F can start only after completion of activities C and D respectively.
Both activities E and F finish at the end of event 6.
Example - 5
PERT CPM
PERT is that technique of project management which is CPM is that technique of project management which is
used to manage uncertain (i.e., time is not known) used to manage only certain (i.e., time is known) activities
activities of any project. of any project.
It is activity oriented technique which means that network
It is event oriented technique which means that network is is constructed on the basis of activities.
constructed on the basis of event.

It is a probability model It is a deterministic model.

It majorly focuses on Time-cost trade off as minimizing
It majorly focuses on time as meeting time target or cost is more important.
estimation of percent completion is more important.
It is appropriate for high precision time estimation. It is appropriate for reasonable time estimation.
It has repetitive nature of job.
It has Non-repetitive nature of job.
There is no chance of crashing as there is no certainty of There may be crashing because of certain time
time. boundation.

It is suitable for projects which required research and It is suitable for construction projects.
development.
PERT & CPM
 PROJECT COMPLETION TIME
Four types of time required to accomplish an activity.
Optimistic time: The minimum possible time required to accomplish an activity (o) or a path
(O), assuming everything proceeds better than is normally expected
Pessimistic time: The maximum possible time required to accomplish an activity (p) or a
path (P), assuming everything goes wrong (but excluding major catastrophes).
Most likely time: The best estimate of the time required to accomplish an activity (m) or a
path (M), assuming everything proceeds as normal.
Expected time: the best estimate of the time required to accomplish an activity (te) or a
path (TE), accounting for the fact that things don't always proceed as normal (the
implication being that theexpected time is the average time the task would
require if the task were repeated on a number of occasions over an extended period of
time.
A formula to estimate the cost and/or time required to complete a task .
TE means Estimated Time, o Optimistic Time, m Most likely Time , p Pessimistic Time
TE= (o + 4m + p) ÷ 6
For Activity A:
o = 4 hours (Optimistic time), m = 8 hours (Most likely time), p = 16
hours (Pessimistic time) TE is Most likely time
TE = (o + 4m + p) ÷ 6

E = (4 + 4(8) + 16) / 6
E = 52 / 6
E = 8.7 hours
Critical path: Critical path is the longest sequence of activities in a
project plan which must be completed on time for the project to
complete on its due. It is the sequence of activities which
decides the total project duration
 Variables within critical path
Float or slack is a measure of the excess time and
resources available to complete a task. How long a task can
be delayed without interrupting other tasks or the whole
project
 It is the amount of time that a project task can be delayed
without causing a delay in any subsequent tasks (free
float) or the whole project (total float).
 Positive slack would indicate ahead of schedule; Negative
slack would indicate behind schedule; and Zero slack would
indicate on schedule.
A project consists of the following activities and time estimates. Construct the network. determine the expected task time. show the critical path. what is the project duration?
The formula for expected task time (te) =

Accordingly the expected task times for different activities are as

follows:
Activity (te) values, days
1-2 → 7
1-3 → 6
1-4 → 14
2-5 → 5
2-6 → 11
3-6 → 7
4-7 → 11
5-7 → 4
6-7 → 5
 The expected task times are shown on the network diagram to determined the
critical path & project duration.

From this network diagram 1-4-7 represents the critical path and the
duration for project completion = total time along the critical path = 14+11 =
25 days