PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, a methodology developed by the

U.S. Navy in the 1950s to manage the Polaris submarine missile program. A similar
methodology, the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed for project management in
the private sector at about the same time.

PERT/CPM for Project

Scheduling & Management

1. INTRODUCTION
Basically, CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Programme Evaluation
Review Technique) are project management techniques, which have been
created out of the need of Western industrial and military establishments to
plan, schedule and control complex projects.

1.1 Brief History of CPM/PERT

CPM/PERT or Network Analysis as the technique is sometimes called,
developed along two parallel streams, one industrial and the other military.

CPM was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and
J.E.Kelly of Remington Rand, circa 1957. The computation was designed for
the UNIVAC-I computer. The first test was made in 1958, when CPM was
applied to the construction of a new chemical plant. In March 1959, the
method was applied to a maintenance shut-down at the Du Pont works in
Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125 to 93 hours.

PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program
Evaluation Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by
the Lockheed Missile Systems division and the Consultant firm of Booz-Allen
& Hamilton. The calculations were so arranged so that they could be carried
out on the IBM Naval Ordinance Research Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren,
Virginia.

1.2 Planning, Scheduling & Control

Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic
Managerial functions, and CPM/PERT has been rightfully accorded due
importance in the literature on Operations Research and Quantitative
Analysis.

Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a
focus around which managers could brain-storm and put their ideas together.
It proved to be a great communication medium by which thinkers and
planners at one level could communicate their ideas, their doubts and fears to
another level. Most important, it became a useful tool for evaluating the
performance of individuals and teams.

There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning
costs, scheduling manpower and machine time. CPM/PERT can answer the
following important questions:

How long will the entire project take to be completed? What are the risks
involved?

Which are the critical activities or tasks in the project which could delay the
entire project if they were not completed on time?

Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule?

If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to
do this at the least cost?

1.3 The Framework for PERT and CPM

Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques.
The procedure is listed below:

I. Define the Project and all of it’s significant activities or tasks. The

Project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start

activity and a single finish activity.

II. Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities

must precede and which must follow others.

III. Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should
have unique event numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to

avoid giving the same numbering to two activities.

IV. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity

V. Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the

critical path.

VI. Use the Network to help plan, schedule, monitor and control the

project.

The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which
make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire
project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to
responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by
concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire
project.
Non-critical activities can be replanned, rescheduled and resources for them
can be reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole project.

Five useful questions to ask when preparing an activity network are:

 Is this a Start Activity?

 Is this a Finish Activity?
 What Activity Precedes this?
 What Activity Follows this?
 What Activity is Concurrent with this?

Some activities are serially linked. The second activity can begin only after
the first activity is completed. In certain cases, the activities are concurrent,
because they are independent of each other and can start simultaneously.
This is especially the case in organisations which have supervisory resources
so that work can be delegated to various departments which will be
responsible for the activities and their completion as planned.

When work is delegated like this, the need for constant feedback and co-
ordination becomes an important senior management pre-occupation.

1.4 Drawing the CPM/PERT Network

Each activity (or sub-project) in a PERT/CPM Network is represented by an
arrow symbol. Each activity is preceded and succeeded by an event,
represented as a circle and numbered.
At Event 3, we have to evaluate two predecessor activities – Activity 1-3 and
Activity 2-3, both of which are predecessor activities. Activity 1-3 gives us an
Earliest Start of 3 weeks at Event 3. However, Activity 2-3 also has to be
completed before Event 3 can begin. Along this route, the Earliest Start would
be 4+0=4. The rule is to take the longer (bigger) of the two Earliest Starts. So
the Earliest Start at event 3 is 4.

Similarly, at Event 4, we find we have to evaluate two predecessor activities –

Activity 2-4 and Activity 3-4. Along Activity 2-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4
would be 10 wks, but along Activity 3-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be
11 wks. Since 11 wks is larger than 10 wks, we select it as the Earliest Start
at Event 4.We have now found the longest path through the
network. It will take 11 weeks along activities 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4. This is the
Critical Path.

1.5.3 The Backward Pass – Latest Finish

Time Rule
To make the Backward Pass, we begin at the sink or the final event and work
backwards to the first event.

At Event 3 there is only one activity, Activity 3-4 in the backward pass, and
we find that the value is 11-7 = 4 weeks. However at Event 2 we have to
evaluate 2 activities, 2-3 and 2-4. We find that the backward pass through 2-4
gives us a value of 11-6 = 5 while 2-3 gives us 4-0 = 4. We take the smaller
value of 4 on the backward pass.
1.5.4 Tabulation & Analysis of Activities
We are now ready to tabulate the various events and calculate the Earliest
and Latest Start and Finish times. We are also now ready to compute the
SLACK or TOTAL FLOAT, which is defined as the difference between the
Latest Start and Earliest Start.

Earliest Earliest Latest Latest Total

Event Duration(Weeks)
Start Finish Start Finish Float
1-2 4 0 4 0 4 0
2-3 0 4 4 4 4 0
3-4 7 4 11 4 11 0

1-3 3 0 3 1 4 1
2-4 6 4 10 5 11 1

 The Earliest Start is the value in the rectangle near the tail of each

activity

 The Earliest Finish is = Earliest Start + Duration

 The Latest Finish is the value in the diamond at the head of each

activity

 The Latest Start is = Latest Finish – Duration

There are two important types of Float or Slack. These are Total Float and
Free Float.

TOTAL FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding

activities occur at the earliest possible times and all
succeeding activities occur at the latest possible times.

 Total Float = Latest Start – Earliest Start

Activities with zero Total float are on the Critical Path

FREE FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding

activities occur at the earliest possible times and all
succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible times.
When an activity has zero Total float, Free float will also be zero.

There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early
Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We
shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be
concerned only with Total Float for the time being.

Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready
to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt
Chart.

There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early
Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering), and float can also be negative. We
shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be
concerned only with Total Float for the time being. Having computed the
various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the
scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.