SYS 612 Project Management of Complex Systems

Solution Algorithm For PERT Networks

Introduction
In the previous lesson you learned how to develop a PERT network. So know that you
have a PERT network, what do you do with it? Currently the network as you have
developed only lets you know which tasks can be performed concurrently and provides a
graphical representation of the precedence structure within the network itself. By
Solving the network, you will be able to tell how quickly the problem can be
completed, you will be able to determine the earliest starts and finishes for each task, the
latest starts and finishes for each activity and you will know which activities within the
network are time sensitive and will require a greater share of manager attention in order
to ensure timely completion of the project.

Before we get into the solution algorithm, there are a number of terms that must be
defined:
Earliest Start Time - This is the earliest time an activity can start given the
information from preceding activities. For example, if Activity B could not
begin until Activity A was completed, and Activity A took 3 days to
complete, then Activity Bs earliest start time is Day 3.
Earliest Finish Time - This is the earliest an activity can be completed given
all of the information from previous activities. From the previous example, if
Activity B took 5 days to complete and it started on day 3, its earliest finish
time would be Day 8.
Latest Start Time - This is the latest an activity in the project can start and
still not delay the overall completion time of the project.
Latest Finish Time - This is the latest an activity in a project can be
completed and still not delay the overall completion of the project.
Slack - The difference between the earliest start time and the latest start time.
It shows how long an activity within a project can be delayed and still not
affect the overall completion of the project. For instance, if Activity B had an
earliest start time of 3 days and a latest start time of 5 days, we know we have
a slack of two days. Which means we can delay starting Activity B by as
much as 2 days and our project will still finish on the projected completion
date.
Critical Path - A path from the start node to the end node where all activities
along the path have zero (0) slack. This means any delay of an activity along
the critical path will delay the overall completion of the project. Every Pert
network has at least one critical path and could have more.
Forward Pass - The first step in the solution algorithm where the earliest start
and finish times for each activity are determined.
Backward Pass - The second step in the solution algorithm where the latest
start and latest finish times are determined.
You should remember that all PERT networks start with the project commencing on Day
0. In order to explain the procedures in the PERT solution algorithm, we will use the

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sample problem worked out in the previous lessons reading assignment. Table 1 is the
Precedence Table for the network, and Figure 1 is the actual PERT network

Activity Duration Precedence

A 5 --
A:5 C:2
B 3 -- G:3
C 2 A E:7
D 3 B B:3 D:3
E 7 C, D F:4
F 4 E
G 3 E Figure 1. Example Problem PERT Network
Table 1. Example Problem Precedence
Table

Forward Pass
The first step in solving the PERT network is to conduct the forward pass. Begin at the
start node and annotate the earliest activities A and B can begin is Day 0. Because
Activity A takes 5 days to complete, the earliest it can be completed is the beginning of
Day 5 (0 + 5 = 5). The earliest Activity B can be completed is Day 3 (0 + 3 = 3). Figure
2 shows the how the activities are labeled to reflect early start and early finish times for
the first two activities
EFA = 5
We next have to determine the early
A:5 start times and finish times for Activities C and
ESA = 0 D. Neither activity can begin until its
predecessor is completed. For Activity C that
ESB = 0 B:3 means it can begin no sooner than the beginning
EFB = 3 of day 5. Activity D can begin no sooner than
the beginning of day 3. The early finish time
for Activity C is day 7 (5 + 2 = 7). The early
finish time for Activity D is day 6 (3 + 3 = 6).
Figure 2. Early Start And Finish Figure 3 shows the network for the first for
Times Indicated activities.

EFA = 5 ESC = 5 Determining the start time for

A:5 C:2 Activity E is not quite as easy. Activity
ESA = 0 EFC = 7 E requires both C and D to be
completed before it can begin. When
D:3 EFD = 6 you have multiple activities merging on
ESB = 0 B:3
EFB = 3 ESD = 3 a single node you select the maximum
of all early finish times. In this case the
early start time for Activity E is
Figure 3. Early Start And Early Max(EFC, EFD) or the greater of 7 and
Finish Times 6. Therefore the earliest Activity E can

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start is day 7. Intuitively this would make sense. Think about it. Suppose you wanted to
frost a cake. You would have to bake it and make the frosting first, before you could
frost the cake. If the cake bakes for 35 minutes and it takes you only 15 to make the
frosting, you still cannot frost the cake until after it is done baking. The early finish time
for Activity E is day 14 (7 + 7 = 14). Figure 4 shows the network up to this point.
EFA = 5 ESC = 5

A:5 C:2
ESA = 0
EFC = 7 E:7
ESE = 7 EFE = 14

EFD = 6
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3
EFB = 3 ESD = 3

Figure 4. Early Start and Finish Times

Activities F and G both begin when Activity E is complete. Therefore the early start for
both activities is day 14. The early finish for Activity F is day 18 (14 + 4 = 18). The
early finish for Activity G is day 17 (14 + 3 = 17). Their is a dummy arc connecting the
two terminal activities, but dummy activities use no time nor resources so their is no
change to the completion time. The overall project will be completed on day 18. Figure 5
shows the PERT Network with the completed forward pass.
EFG= 17

EFA = 5
G:3
ESC = 5

A:5 C:2 ESG = 14

EFC = 7 E:7 EF
ESA = 0
ESE = 7 E = 14 F:4
ESF = 14 EFF = 18
EFD = 6
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3
EFB = 3 ESD = 3

Figure 5. PERT Network With Forward Pass Completed

Other than we know the project takes 18 days to complete, we now little else. The rest of
the information comes from completing the backward pass.

Backward Pass
The backward pass is pretty much the same thing as the forward pass except you move in
the opposite direction. The latest finish for the terminal node is always the project
duration. In this case we know the project lasts 18 days, so the latest we can finish
Activity F and still finish the project on time is day 18. The latest we can start Activity F
and not delay the project is day 14 (18 - 4 = 14). Again the dummy activity that connects

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Activity G to the terminal node consumes no time. Therefore the latest we can finish
Activity G and still not delay the project completion time is also day 18 ( 18 - 0 = 18).
The latest we can start Activity G and still not delay the entire project completion time is
day 15 (18 - 3 = 15). Figure 6 shows the PERT network with the backwards pass
completed on Activities F and G. As you can see the network is going to get pretty
crowded.
EFG= 17

EFA = 5
G:3
ESC = 5
LFG= 18
A:5 C:2 ESG = 14 LS = 15
EFC = 7 E:7 EF G
ESA = 0
ESE = 7 E = 14
ESF = 14
F:4 EFF = 18
EFD = 6
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3 LSF = 14 LFF = 18
EFB = 3 ESD = 3

Figure 6. Beginning The Backward Pass

The one node in Figure 6 has been shaded because you need to pay attention to it. It is
called a burst node because many activities are bursting out of it (hey I didnt name these
things, I just teach the stuff). When doing a backward pass and you come to a burst node
like we have here, you use the minimum late start time to determine the late finish time
of the preceding activity. More specifically, to determine the late finish for Activity E,
you would select the minimum of the late starts for activities G and F. In this case it is
day 14 for Activity F. The late start for Activity E is day 7 (14 - 7 = 7). Figure 7 shows
the network up to this point.
EFG= 17

EFA = 5
G:3
ESC = 5
LFG= 18
A:5 C:2 ESG = 14 LS = 15
EFC = 7 E:7 EF G
ESA = 0
ESE = 7 E = 14
ESF = 14
F:4 EFF = 18
EFD = 6 LSE = 7 LFE = 14
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3 LSF = 14 LFF = 18
EFB = 3 ESD = 3

Figure 7. Halfway Through The Backward Pass

Activities C and D both have a late finish of 7. The late start for Activity C is 5 (7 - 2 =
5) and the late start for Activity D is 4 (7 - 3 = 4). We continue the process for Activities
A and B and the final network with both the forward and backward pass is shown in
Figure 8.

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EFG= 17

EFA = 5
G:3
ESC = 5
LFG= 18
A:5 LSC = 5
C:2 ESG = 14 LS = 15
LFA = 5 EFC = 7
ESA = 0 LFC = 7
E:7 EF G

LSA = 0 ESE = 7 E = 14
ESF = 14
F:4 EFF = 18
EFD = 6 LSE = 7 LFE = 14
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3 LSF = 14 LFF = 18
EFB = 3 ESD = 3 LFD = 7
LSB = 1
LFB = 4 LSD = 4

Figure 8. The PERT Network with The Backward Pass Completed

Critical Path
Now we determine the slack at each activity. Remember the slack is calculated by
subtracting the early start from the late start. The table below shows the slack calculated
for each activity in the PERT network.

Slack Function Using Calculated

Activity Starting Times Slack
A LSA - ESA 0
0-0
B LSB - ESB 1
1-0
C LSC - ESC 0
5-5
D LSD - ESD 1
4-3
E LSE - ESE 0
7-7
F LSF - ESF 0
14 - 14
G LSG - ESG 1
15 - 14

The fact that all of the slack values equal 0 or 1 is strictly by accident. It is possible to
have more than just one day of slack in an activity (the sample problems have some). In
order to determine the critical path of this PERT Network, we identify all of the activities
from the start node to the end node that have no slack and we highlight those activity
arcs. Figure 9 shows the finished network with the critical path highlighted in a heavier
line than the rest. The critical path for this network is:

A-C-E-F

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EFG= 17

EFA = 5
G:3
ESC = 5
LFG= 18
A:5 LSC = 5
C:2 ESG = 14 LS = 15
LFA = 5 EFC = 7
ESA = 0 LFC = 7
E:7 EF G

LSA = 0 ESE = 7 E = 14
ESF = 14
F:4 EFF = 18
EFD = 6 LSE = 7 LFE = 14
ESB = 0 B:3 D:3 LSF = 14 LFF = 18
EFB = 3 ESD = 3 LFD = 7
LSB = 1
LFB = 4 LSD = 4

Figure 9. PERT Network With Critical Path Identified

From a mangers perspective, any activity along the critical path deserves your attention,
especially as it approaches the finish time for that activity. Any delay in any activity
along the critical path will delay the completion date of the entire project. An activity
with slack greater than zero indicates how long you can delay that activity without
affecting the project completion time. It is possible for a project to have more than
critical path.

Conclusion
By determining what the earliest is that you can start an activity and what the latest is that
you can start an activity, you can determine the critical activities within your project that
may or should get a little more than their fair share of management supervision. Just
because an activity is on the critical path however does not mean you must micro-manage
its execution. Nor does it mean you can ignore activities not on the critical path. An
activity ignored is one that soon becomes critical. See sample problem 1 for an example
problem where the activities on the network have more slack than just 1 day. Sample
problem 2 is an example problem of a PERT Network with multiple critical paths. Next
lesson will focus on expediting (also called crashing) a project so you can speed up the
projected project completion time or get a project back on schedule once it has slipped
from the accepted timeline.

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