PERT and CPM

PERT and CPM
PERT and CPM

• Project Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are
both useful tools when planning and
controlling a project. PERT and CPM are
complementary and both are important
analytical techniques in project management
when managing tasks.
What Is CPM?
• Critical Path Method (CPM) is used to determine the earliest possible starting
time for each task in the project. It’ll also help a project manager determine
the critical tasks and non-critical tasks. This helps when executing the project.
If you’re behind schedule, you know which tasks can be skipped without
impacting the integrity of the work.
• Therefore, the critical path is the longest sequence in a network diagram or
the shortest duration for the project to be completed.
• There are some terms used in CPM just as there are in PERT.
These are early start (earliest time a project can be started), late start
(latest time to start a project), early finish (earliest completion of a project) and
late finish (latest time to complete a project without causing delays).
CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS
The critical path for any network is the longest path through the entire network.
Since all activities must be completed to complete the entire project, the length of
the critical path is also the shortest time allowable for completion of the project.
Thus if the project is to be completed in that shortest time, all activities on the
critical path must be started as soon as possible.
These activities are called critical activities.
If the project has to be completed ahead of the schedule, then the time required
for at least one of the critical activity must be reduced.
Further, any delay in completing the critical activities will increase the project
duration.
• The activity, which does not lie on the critical path, is called non-
critical activity.
• These non-critical activities may have some slack time.
• The slack is the amount of time by which the start of an activity

may be delayed without affecting the overall completion time of the
project.But a critical activity has no slack.
• To reduce the overall project time, it would require more resources

(at extra cost) to reduce the time taken by the critical activities to
complete.
DETERMINATION OF FLOAT AND SLACK TIMES
As discussed earlier, the non – critical activities have some slack or float. The
float of an activity is the amount of time available by which it is possible to
delay its completion time without extending the overall project completion
time.
d = duration of activity
TE = earliest expected time
TL = latest allowable time
ES= earliest start time of the activity
EF = earliest finish time of the activity
LS = latest start time of the activity
LF= latest finish time of the activity
Total Float TF: The total float of an activity is the difference between
the latest start time and the earliest start time of that activity.
TF = LS – ES....................(1)
or
What Is PERT?
• Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) is a project management planning
tool used to calculate the amount of time it will take to realistically finish a project.
• PERT works on a PERT chart, which maps three-time estimates:
Optimistic time (tO):
It is the shortest time taken to complete the activity. It means that if
everything goes well then there is more chance of completing the activity
within this time.
Most likely time (tm):
It is the normal time taken to complete an activity, if the activity were
frequently repeated under the same conditions.
Pessimistic time (tp):
It is the longest time that an activity would take to complete. It is the
worst time estimate that an activity would take if unexpected problems
are faced.
Taking all these time estimates into consideration, the expected time
of an activity is arrived at.
The average or mean (ta) value of the

activity duration is given by,
The variance of the activity time is

calculated using the formula,
Probability for Project Duration
The probability of completing the project

within the scheduled time (Ts) or contracted
time may be obtained by using the standard
normal deviate where Te is the expected time
of project completion.
Probability of completing the project within
the scheduled time is,
Example
An R & D project has a list of tasks to be performed whose time
estimates are given in the Table , as follows.
a.Draw the project network.

b.Find the critical path.
c.Find the probability that the project is completed in 19 days. If
the probability is less than 20%, find the probability of
Time expected for each
activity is calculated using
the formula (5): Similarly,
the expected time
is calculated for all the
activities.
The variance of activity time is

calculated using the formula (6).
Similarly, variances of all the
activities are calculated.
Construct a network
diagram:
calculate the time earliest (TE)

and time Latest (TL) for all the
activities.
From the network diagram Figure , the critical path is

identified as 1-4, 4-6, 6-7, with a project duration of 22
days.
The probability of completing the project within 19 days is given
by, P (Z< Z0)
To find Z0
,
From the Z table:
= Thus, the probability of completing the R & D project in 19

9.01% days is 9.01%.
Since the probability of completing the project in 19 days is less
than 20% As in question, we find the probability of completing it in
24 days.
From the Z table: 0.8944 days = 81. 33%

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PERT and CPM

These activities are called critical activities.

• These non-critical activities may have some slack time.

• The slack is the amount of time by which the start of an activity

• To reduce the overall project time, it would require more resources

The average or mean (ta) value of the

The variance of the activity time is

Probability for Project Duration

The probability of completing the project

a.Draw the project network.

The variance of activity time is

calculate the time earliest (TE)

From the network diagram Figure , the critical path is

From the Z table:

= Thus, the probability of completing the R & D project in 19

From the Z table: 0.8944 days = 81. 33%

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