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Project Scheduling
PERT/CPM

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 Project Scheduling

In many situations, managers are responsible for planning, scheduling, and

controlling projects that consist of numerous separate jobs or tasks
performed by a variety of departments and individuals.
Often these projects are so large or complex that the manager cannot
possibly remember all the information pertaining to the plan, schedule, and
progress of the project.
In these situations the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
and the Critical Path Method (CPM) have proven to be extremely valuable.

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 PERT/CPM

PERT and CPM can be used to plan, schedule, and control a wide variety of
projects:
1. Research and development of new products and processes.
2. Construction of plants, buildings, and highways.
3. Maintenance of large and complex equipment.
4. Design and installation of new systems

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 PERT/CPM

Because projects may have as many as several thousand activities, project

managers look for procedures that will help them answer questions such as
the following:
1. What is the total time to complete the project?
2. What are the scheduled start and nish dates for each specic activity?
3. Which activities are critical and must be completed exactly as scheduled
to keep the project on schedule?
4. How long can noncritical activities be delayed before they cause an
increase in the total project completion time?

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 Project Scheduling With Known Activity Times
Case Study: Western Hills Shopping Center
The owner of the Western Hills Shopping Center is
planning to modernize and expand the current 32-business
shopping center complex. The project is expected to
provide room for 8 to 10 new businesses. Financing has
been arranged through a private investor. All that remains
is for the owner of the shopping center to plan, schedule,
and complete the expansion project. The list of activities
for the western hills shopping center project is give on
table (next slide)

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 Case Study: Western Hills Shopping Center

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 Step 1: Project Network

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 Critical Path

A path is a sequence of connected nodes that leads from the Start node to
the Finish node.
One path for the network in Figure is dened by the sequence of nodes A
EFGI.
Other possible paths are ADGI, ACHI, and BHI.
All paths in the network must be traversed in order to complete the project.
So we will look for the path that requires the most time (Critical time).

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 Critical Path

Because all other paths are shorter in duration, this longest path (Critical
path) determines the total time required to complete the project.
If activities on the longest path are delayed, the entire project will be
delayed.
Thus, the longest path is the critical path.
Activities on the critical path are referred to as the critical activities for the
project.

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 PERT/CPM Algorithm
Step 1: Earliest Start and Finish Times
Make a forward pass through the network as follows: For
each activity i beginning at the Start node, compute:
Earliest Start Time = the maximum of the earliest
finish times of all activities immediately preceding
activity i. (This is 0 for an activity with no
predecessors.)
Earliest Finish Time = (Earliest Start Time) + (Time to
complete activity i ).
The project completion time is the maximum of the
Earliest Finish Times at the Finish node.
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 Earliest Start and Finish Times

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 2003 ThomsonTM/South-Western Slide 13
 PERT/CPM Algorithm
Step 2: Latest Start and Finish Times
Make a backwards pass through the network as follows:
Move sequentially backwards from the Finish node to the
Start node. At a given node, j, consider all activities
ending at node j. For each of these activities, i, compute:
Latest Finish Time = the minimum of the latest start
times beginning at node j. (For node N, this is the
project completion time.)
Latest Start Time = (Latest Finish Time) - (Time to
complete activity i ).

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 Latest Start and Finish Times

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 2003 ThomsonTM/South-Western Slide 16
 Step 3: Slack Time

After we complete the forward and backward passes, we can determine the
amount of slack associated with each activity. Slack is the length of time an
activity can be delayed without increasing the project completion time. The
amount of slack for an activity is computed as follows:
Calculate the slack time for each activity by:
Slack = (Latest Start) - (Earliest Start), or
= (Latest Finish) - (Earliest Finish).

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 2003 ThomsonTM/South-Western Slide 18
 Contributions of PERT/CPM

The project manager is now able to answer the following questions:

1. How long will the project take to complete?
Answer: The project can be completed in 26 weeks if each activity is
completed on schedule.
2. What is the critical Path?
Answer: A E F G I is the critical path.
3. What are the scheduled start and completion times for each activity?
Answer: The activity schedule (see summary table previous slide) shows the
earliest start, latest start, earliest nish, and latest nish times for each activity.

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 Contributions of PERT/CPM

4. Which activities are critical and must be completed exactly as scheduled

to keep the project on schedule?
Answer: A, E, F, G, and I are the critical activities.
5. How long can noncritical activities be delayed before they cause an
increase in the completion time for the project?
Answer: The activity schedule (see summary table previous slide) shows the
slack associated with each activity.

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 Case Study: Franks Fine Floats

Franks Fine Floats is in the business of building elaborate parade floats.

Frank and his crew have a new float to build and want to use PERT/CPM
to help them manage the project .
The table on the next slide shows the activities that comprise the project.
Each activitys estimated completion time (in days) and immediate
predecessors are listed as well.
Frank wants to know the total time to complete the project, which activities
are critical, and the earliest and latest start and finish dates for each activity.

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 Example: Franks Fine Floats

Immediate Completion
Activity Description Predecessors Time (days)
A Initial Paperwork --- 3
B Build Body A 3
C Build Frame A 2
D Finish Body B 3
E Finish Frame C 7
F Final Paperwork B,C 3
G Mount Body to Frame D,E 6
H Install Skirt on Frame C 2

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 Example: Franks Fine Floats

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 Determining the Critical Path

Step 3: Calculate the slack time for each activity by:

Slack = (Latest Start) - (Earliest Start), or
= (Latest Finish) - (Earliest Finish).

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 Example: Franks Fine Floats
Activity Slack Time

Activity ES EF LS LF Slack
A 0 3 0 3 0 (crit.)
B 3 6 6 9 3
C 3 5 3 5 0 (crit.)
D 6 9 9 12 3
E 5 12 5 12 0 (crit.)
F 6 9 15 18 9
G 12 18 12 18 0 (crit.)
H 5 7 16 18 11

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 Example: Franks Fine Floats

Determining the Critical Path

A critical path is a path of activities, from the Start node to the

Finish node, with 0 slack times.

Critical Path: ACEG

The project completion time equals the maximum of the

activities earliest finish times.

Project Completion Time: 18 days

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