Project Management

with PERT/CPM

Arvin T. Galigao, MBM

INTRODUCTION
Project
-is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service.
- Temporary does not necessarily mean short in
duration; many projects last for several years.
 INTRODUCTION
Examples of Projects are:
Developing a new product or service.
Effecting a change in structure, staffing, or style of an
organization.
Designing a new transport vehicle.
Developing a new information system.
Constructing a building or facility.
Running a campaign for political office.
Implementing a new business procedure.
 TERMS RELATED TO NETWORK
PLANNING
Event - is a specific instant of time which
marks the start and the end of an
activity.
- Event consumes neither time nor
resources.
- It is denoted by a circle or a node and
the event number is written within the
circle.
Activity - A project consists of different
types of tasks or jobs to be performed.
These jobs or tasks are called activities.
- An activity is shown by an arrow and it
begins and ends with an event.
- Activity consumes time and resources.
- An activity is denoted by a, b, c, etc.
which is marked below the arrow and
estimated time to accomplish the activity
is written above the arrow.
 SOME TERMS RELATED TO
NETWORK PLANNING
Dummy activity- When two activities start at the same instant of
time (like activities b and c in Figure 9.1), the head events are
joined by a dotted arrow-known as a dummy activity.
- A dummy activity does not consume time.
- It may be critical or non-critical. It becomes a critical activity
when its earliest start time (EST) is same as its latest finishing
time (LFT).
SOME TERMS RELATED TO
NETWORK PLANNING
Critical activities- An activity is called critical if its
earliest start time plus the time taken by it is equal to
the latest finishing time.
- Critical activities are those which if consume more
than their estimated time, the project will be delayed.
- Denoted by a thick arrow to distinguish it from a
non-critical activity.
Critical path- Critical path (CP) is formed by critical
activities. A CP is the longest path and consumes the
maximum time. A CP has zero float. A dummy
activity joining two critical activities is also a critical
activity.
PERT/CPM
PERT and CPM have been used for a variety of projects,
including the following types.
1. Construction of a new plant
2. Research and development of a new product
3. NASA space exploration projects
4. Movie productions
5. Building a ship
6. Government-sponsored projects for developing a new
weapons system
7. Relocation of a major facility
8. Maintenance of a nuclear reactor
9. Installation of a management information system
10. Conducting an advertising campaign
PERT/CPM
PERT and CPM were independently developed in the
late 1950s. Ever since, they have been among the most
widely used OR techniques.
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
Introduces a prototype example that will carry through
the chapter to illustrate the various options for
analyzing projects provided by PERT/CPM.
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
For any given activity, its immediate predecessors (as given in
the third column of Table 10.1) are those activities that must be
completed by no later than the starting time of the given activity.
(Similarly, the given activity is called an immediate successor of
each of its immediate predecessors.)
For example, the top entries in this column indicate that
1. Excavation does not need to wait for any other activities.
2. Excavation must be completed before starting to lay the
foundation.
3. The foundation must be completely laid before starting to put up
the rough wall, etc.

When a given activity has more than one immediate predecessor,

all must be finished before the activity can begin.
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
In order to schedule the activities, Mr. Perty consults
with each of the crew supervisors to develop an
estimate of how long each activity should take when it
is done in the normal way. These estimates are given
in the rightmost column of Table 10.1.
Adding up these times gives a grand total of 79 weeks,
which is far beyond the deadline for the project.
Fortunately, some of the activities can be done in
parallel, which substantially reduces the project
completion time.
A PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE—THE
RELIABLE
CONSTRUCTION CO. PROJECT
USING A NETWORK TO
VISUALLY DISPLAY A PROJECT
Project Networks
A project network consists of a number of nodes
(typically shown as small circles or rectangles) and a
number of arcs (shown as arrows) that lead from some
node to another.
Project Networks
Three types of information are needed to describe a
project.
1. Activity information: Break down the project into its
individual activities (at the desired level of detail).
2. Precedence relationships: Identify the immediate
predecessor(s) for each activity.
3. Time information: Estimate the duration of each
activity.
 Project Networks
Two alternative types of project networks:

activity-on-arc (AOA) activity-on-node (AON)

project network, where project network, where
each activity is represented each activity is represented
by an arc. A node is used to by a node. The arcs then
separate an activity (an are used just to show the
outgoing arc) from each of precedence relationships
its immediate predecessors between the activities. In
(an incoming arc). The particular, the node for
sequencing of the arcs each activity with
thereby shows the immediate predecessors
precedence relationships has an arc coming in from
between the activities. each of these predecessors.
Project Networks
Project Networks
SCHEDULING A PROJECT WITH
PERT/CPM
The project manager for the Reliable Construction Co. project,
wants to use PERT/CPM to develop answers to a series of
questions. His first question has been answered in the preceding
section. Here are the five questions that will be answered in this
section.
Question 2: What is the total time required to complete the project
if no delays occur?
Question 3: When do the individual activities need to start and
finish (at the latest) to meet this project completion time?
Question 4: When can the individual activities start and finish (at
the earliest) if no delays occur?
Question 5: Which are the critical bottleneck activities where any
delays must be avoided to prevent delaying project completion?
Question 6: For the other activities, how much delay can be
tolerated without delaying project completion?
The Critical Path
A path through a project network is one of the routes
following the arcs from the START node to the
FINISH node. The length of a path is the sum of the
(estimated) durations of the activities on the path.
The Critical Path
 Scheduling Individual Activities
Earliest start time and the earliest finish time of the
activity
 The starting and finishing times of each activity if no delays
occur anywhere in the project are called the earliest start
time and the earliest finish time of the activity. These
times are represented by the symbols:
Earliest Start Time Rule
Latest start time and latest finish time of the
activity
 Identifying Slack in the Schedule
 To identify slack, it is convenient to
combine the latest times in Fig. 10.6
and the earliest times in Fig. 10.5
into a single figure. Using activity
M as an example, this is done by
displaying the information for each
activity as follows.
DEALING WITH UNCERTAIN
ACTIVITY DURATIONS
 Three Simplifying Approximations
To calculate the probability that project duration will be no
more than 47 weeks, it is necessary to obtain the following
information about the probability distribution of project
duration.

Probability Distribution of Project Duration.

The mean critical path is the path through the project
network that would be the critical path if the duration
of each activity equals its mean.
Approximating the Probability of
Meeting the Deadline
Thank
You!