Project Management

Dr. Everette S. Gardner, Jr.

PERT / CPM advantages

1. Disciplined planning

2. Realistic objectives

3. Unambiguous communication

4. Allows management by exception of critical

tasks

Project Management 2
 Drawing networks
• Activities on nodes (AoN)
A B

• Activities on arrows (AoA)

A B

• Dummy activities – In AoA, any 2 events in network can be directly

connected to only one activity.
x w x
11 12
Wrong:w 11 12 Right:
y Dummy y
13

Project Management 3
 Drawing networks (cont.)
• Many computer programs require one initial event and one terminal event

A x
1 98

0 100
B y
2 99
Dummy start Dummy stop

• What’s wrong with this?

10
J
L
12 11
K

Project Management 4
Drawing exercise 1
Activity Predecessors
A -
B A
C A
D B,C
E C
F D
G E,F

Draw this format in AoN format.

Repeat in AoA format.

Project Management 5
Drawing exercise 2
Activity Predecessors
A -
B -
C A,B
D A,B
E C
F C,D
G F

Project Management 6
Scheduling calculations:
1. Forward pass – Start each activity as early as possible.
ES = Max. EF of immediate predecessors
EF = ES + Task time

2. Backward pass – Work backward from the project completion time

in step 1, starting each activity as late as possible.
LS = LF – Task time
LF = Min. LS of immediate successors

3. Compute slack times.

Slack = LS – ES
or
LF – EF

Project Management 7
Black Lagoon project
Work breakdown table:

Preceding Succeeding
tasks tasks
Description Task # Days A B A B

Edit script 1 2 3 4
Casting 2 1 5 6
Special effects 3 2 1 5
Build sets 4 2 1 6
Horror scenes 5 3 3 4 7 8
Other scenes 6 1 2 4 8
Previews 7 1 5
Edit film 8 2 5 6

Project Management 8
Black Lagoon project (cont.)

Precedence diagram:

#3 #5
#7
(2 days) (3 days)
(1 Day)
#1 Special Horror
Previews
(2 days) effects scenes
Edit
script #4
(2 days)
Build
sets
#6 #8
#2 (1 day) (2 days)
(1 day) Other Edit
Casting scenes film

Project Management 9
 Time-cost tradeoffs
• Activity direct costs

Crash – Activity fully expedited

Direct cost

Normal – No expediting

Time

Project Management 10
 Time-cost tradeoffs (cont.)

• Project direct costs

All activities crashed

Direct cost

All activities normal

Time

Project Management 11
 Time-cost tradeoffs (cont.)
• Project total costs

Total cost

Indirect cost (overhead)

Total cost

Direct cost

Time

Project Management 12
Network crashing problem
Consider the following AoA network:
Duration
9
1 4 Cost slope
30 7
4
70 150
0 6 5
50 5
90
8
3
80 **
4
2 200 3

** Activity 3-5 cannot be expedited

The duration of each task is shown above the arrows. The cost slope
for each task is shown below the arrows. The initial critical path is
0-1-2-4-5 @ 22 days. The initial cost is $3,050.
Project Management 13
Network crashing problem (cont.)
Cost and time data are:

Normal Crash
Activity Time Cost Time Cost Cost Slope
0-1 4 days $210 3 days $280 70
0-2 8 400 6 560 80
1-2 6 500 4 600 50
1-4 9 540 7 600 30
2-3 4 500 1 1,100 200
2-4 5 150 4 240 90
3-5 3 150 3 150 **
4-5 7 600 6 750 150
3,050 4,280

** Activity 3-5 cannot be expedited

Project Management 14
Network crashing problem (cont.)
Develop schedules ranging from 22 to 17 days for this project. Record
the critical paths and total costs below:

Schedule Critical Total

Duration Path(s) Cost
22 0-1-2-4-5 $3,100

21

20

19

18

17
Project Management 15