UNIT 9 PROJECT SCHEDULING

Objectives
After studying this unit, the student will be able to:
understand the importance of scheduling of various tasks during project
execution;
differentiate between traditional job scheduling and project activity
scheduling through network techniques like PERTICPM;
draw the project network diagram and to calculate project completion
fine; and
understand the importance of critical path and float in any project.
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Structure
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9.1 Introduction
I 9.2 GANTT Chart for Scheduling
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9.3 Network Analysis for Project Management
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I 9.4 Total Project Time and Critical Path
9.5 Project Scheduling
9.6 Summary
9.7 Self-Assessment Questions
9.8 Further Readings

fl 9.1 INTRODUCTION
The most important objective of all project managers is to complete the
project in time. A project is usually sub-divided into physically identifiable
and controllable units of activity or work content which is usually known as
4 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). WBS helps the management to study the
logical inter-relationship among the various work elements systematically.
This WBS works as a framework for the management to communicate
throughout the period of project management.

Scheduling has been defined as a complex activity for deciding the starting
and completion date of any activity,or project. The various activities involve
in this second phase of project management, scheduling, are:
i) Identifying the precedence relationship among the activities or work
elements
ii) Determining the extent of interdependency of events involving work
elements
iii) Scheduling of activities by maintaining inter-relationship in order to
reach the targets of completion time and cost.

9.2 GANTT CHART FOR SCHEDULING

The charts designed by Henry L. Gantt long ago during 1914-17 for
maintaining control of production is known as GANTT CHARTS. The Gantt
Project Management chiut is a linear calendar on which time is eprgd along one axis and activity or
WC~ r k
element is indicated on another axis. Whenever a project or a
. m2lnufacturing programme is initiated, a twget date of completion is required
to be determined. Gantt Chart is one &the i;videly used technique of
sclleduling of various activities of a project.

Gantt Charts are very complehonsive effictivt: tools in the hands of

mamagement. These charts help in planning, scheduling and allocation of all
res~ourcesrequired for any project or programme i~ a systematic manner. Gantt .
chiwts can be employed in the following flve diEerent forms depending upon
the: nature of usuage.
i) Planning charts
ii) Progress charts
iii) Man Record charts
iv) Machine Record charts
. v) Load charts
Gantt charts with all its variations help in the formulation of plan for action,
follow up of progress and removal of bottlenecks through replanning.
Although, Gantt chart is very powerhl tool for project managers, it suffers
from many defects. One of the major drawbacks of Gantt chart is that it does
not indicate the inter-relationship between various activities. Another
limitation of Gantt chart is that it ails to supply information regarding the
effect of any delay of preceding activity on succeeding activity or an overall
project compl~tiontime: lnspite of these drawbacks, Gantt chart has been used

Weeks
ACTIVITY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
.A I u

I I

C
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.
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D
Explanation of Fig 9.1 Project Scheduling

i; Item A : takes 5 weeks for completion

ii) Item B : takes 3 weeks, starting at the beginning of 3'" week.
iii) Item C : takes 3 weeks, but, can start only after completion of Item A
and B
iv) Itgm D : takes 2 weeks, can begin only when two-third of Item C is
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completed
i) Review of progress can be done at the end of fourth weeks to determine
the actual progress of each activity of this pro~ect.

9.3 NETWORK ANALYSIS FOR PROJECT

MANAGEMENT
The study of Network of activities consisting a group of techniques those have
been devised at the end of 1950s to understand the inter-relationship and
interdependence among the various activities which has hitherto been missing
in Gantt charts. These tools and techniques have received immediate attention
from the practitioners for solving the problems of scheduling, planning and
controlling.

It has been reported in 1957 that E. J. Du Pond has saved one 1 million dollors
by employing the technique of network analysis for maintenance scheduling.
This technique is now known as Critical Path Method (CPM). Almost
concurrently U.S. Navy along with Booz, Allen and Hamilton, consulting
engineers, has developed another methodology for the management of US
Navy Polaris Project which is known as Programme Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT). Although, these two techniques PERT and CPM have
invented in the context of specific project, but, by 1970s they have emerged as
very powerfill tools for the proper management of wide variety of project
ranging from sending space shuttle to the moon to starting a prima~yhealth
centre in a village by any NGO.

Fundamentals for Project Network

The relationship amongst the various activities of any project is usually
expressed with the'help of the network diagram. While drawing the network
diagram for any project, the following rules are usually followed.
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a) Any project consists of large number of events and activities. The work
content is termed as activity and is represented by an arrow, while the
event is shown by a circle. An event is said to be completed only when
all activities represented by arrows flowing into that event is completed.

b) Each event, except starting and ending event, will have atleast one
incoming and one outgoing activity. The starting event has only outgoing
activity, while, the ending event has only incoming activity.

C) The beginning of an activity is a Tail Event while the completion of an

activity is called Head Event. Usually these are denoted as ithand jthevent
 Project Management
Activity
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d)
Starting/
Tail Event
Completiod
Head Event
Size of the circle, length, orientation and stape of the arrow have no
significance in the project network.
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e) In any project network diagram time always L'lows from left to right. Head
,events are numbered higher than that of tail event.
f) Subsequent activity can begin only when its tail even is completed.
g) There must be cley indication of beginning and ending event for any
project. If any network diagram fails to indicate this without any
conhsion, that defect is known as Dangling and Looping. These errors
can be removed by introducing DUMMY or REDUNDANT ACTIVITY
which is indicated by broken line. The time taken for a dummy is
considered as Zero.
Usually, any network is described by stating the events i.e. starting and
finishing of activities. The PERT network is generally described by events in
which these activity times are considered as uncertain. But, in case of CPM
network, the time consumed by activities aredescribed deterrninisticakky.
However, this distinction of describing PERT and CPM network by the nature
of activity time has already been disappeared. They are now described
interchangeably by adopting either of the method. However, it is advisable to
maintain a consistent convention throughout the network logic.
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Measure of ACTIVITY Time
Each activity in a network takes some time to perform. @e duration time for
an activity is the time which is actually expected to be required for carrying
out that activity. The time estimate for an activity can be either a uniquely
- determined value as in the case of CPM network or a probabilistic value
determined out of a chosen forum of distribution of any PERT network.
The duration time of an activity (t,,) can be conveniently handled
deterministically in CPM technique which deals with mostly repetitive type of
activity. The times require for activities demand creative ability, like design
and analysis, Research type and many non-repetitive type of jobs, cannot be
forecasted with certainty. PERT network is generally deals with such cases. In
order to reflect this uncertainty, a form of probability distribution (P= Beta) is
chosen to describe the activity time in PERT network. In any PERT network
the activity time is represented by three times in the sequence of a-m-b which
subsequently is converted into a single time estimate (te) with the help of
following formula
a+4m+b
te = Estimated Activity Time =
6
Where
a = Optimistic time, signified that nothing goes wrong
b = Pessimistic Time, signifies that everything goes wrong
m = Most likely Time, represents frequently occurring time.
 Project Scheduling
9.4 TOTAL PROJECT TIME AND CRITICAL
PATH
Each activity in any network is connecting a Successor event with a
predecessor. The time at which an event can be completed is the maximum
time of the various paths flowing into that event. Similarly, the total project ,
time is the maximum of the elapsed times among all the paths in between the
starting and ending event of the project network.

E,= Earliest occurrence time of predecessor event

E, = Earliest occurrence time of successor event
Li = Latest occurrence time of predecessor event
Lj = Latest occurrence time of successor event
tij = Time for the activity ij
The calculation of the project time usually proceeds in the following way:

i) Begin with the starting event, calling it zero time that means Ei = 0
ii) Proceed to each event in sequence and calculate the earliest possible time E,
Ej= Max (E,+t,,)
iii) After reaching at the last even, make E, = L, and start calculation in
backward direction with the help of the following equation
Li= Min (L, - tg)
iv) This process of calculation of Li value for each event will continue till the
starting event for which Li = 0 and Ei= Li= 0
Example 1

Figure 9.2: CPM Network

 Project Management
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Simple Calculation for Fig. 9.2
Activities: 1-2,2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 3-6, 4-6, 5-4, 5-7, 6-7
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Events : .1, 2,3,4,5,6,7

Calculation for E values

, Similarly
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ET7Max I E, + t,, , E6+ t6,1
=Max 111+8, 20+3 1

Calculation for L values

L,= E,= 23
L, = L, - t,, r 23-3 = 20
L, = Min ( L, - t,,, L, - t,, I
= Min I 11-0,23-8(
=Min 1 1 1 , 1 5 ( = 1 1
Critical Path and Float
The critical path is the patb of longest duration chain amongst the all possible
paths that can be drawn between starting and ending event of the project. The
critical path can also be defined as the path having E and L values are same.
Taking the case of example-1, Figure 9.2, the critical path is identified as 1-2-
5-4-6-7.The activities on the critical path is called Critical Activity and the
events on that path is called Critical Event. For example:
Critical Event: 1,2,4,5,6,7
Critical Activity: 1-2,2-5, 5-4, 4-6, 6-7 1
Total Project Time: 23 weeks !

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The Float is related with any activity. It is the-extra time available with that
activity. This extra time can be utilized for scheduling and resource
.reallocation. Total float is calculated with following equation. .
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TF = Total Float = Lj- E, - tlj
The total float for critical activity iszero. Float exists for Non-Critical activity.
From Example- 1
Critical Activity: 2-5 Float = 1 1 - 4 - 7 = 0
The significance of the critical path needs to be understood properly by any Project Scheduling
project manager. Since, the critical path is that path having E and L values are
same, it indicates that no flexibility is available with the planner for changing
the schedule of these activities. It only indicates that all the critical activities
must have to be completed ac'cording to the planned schedule. Any deviation
from this plan would affect the finishing time of that critical activity which
will eventually affect the pro~ectcompletion time. It is observed that for some
activities, although, E and L values are same, but that activity cannot be
declared as critical activity. The reason for this is that the total float for that
activity is not zero, for example the activity 5-7 in Figure 9.2.

The cost is also considered as proportional to the time. Therefore, the project
cost will also increase with the increase of project time. In view of all these, it
is absolutely essential on the part of project manager to mobilize all the
resources in such a way so that all the critical activities could be completed
according to the planned schedule.

Example: 2 of PERT Network (Figure 9.3 and 9.4)

Tim,e (a - m - b)

7- 9- 11 5416 = 9
9- 11 -13 6616 = 11
6- 9- 12 5416 = - 9

Figure 9.3: PERT Diagram

Project Managemevt Few Important Observations for Figure 9.4
a! Critical Path : 1-4-5-6-7 usually indicated by thick line
b) Critical Event: 1,4, 56,7
C) Despite having E and L values are same, the activity 5-7 is not declared as
critical activity because the total float for this activity is not zero
Total Float - TF,,

. 9.5 PROJECT
SCHEDULING

activities and also the project completion time. At this stage, it is also possible
to identify the critical path. The primary objective of scheduling is to ensure
the completion of the project on the calculated completion d a t ~The. other
objective of scheduling is to maintain uniform or level requirement of all lcind
of resources during the project implementation period. For the llfillment of
these objectives, the activities can be scheduled on the basis of Early Start,
Early Finish, Late Start and Late Finish time.

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Figure 9.6: Early Start Schedule

Since, theaEmd L values are same for all critical activities, these activities
have to be scheduled according to the times calculated earlier on the network
diagram. The choice for scheduling on the basis of four different times exists
only for n6n-critical activities whose E apd L values are different. The total
float for non-critical activities can be abaorbed fully or partially for scheduling
these activities. The depl~ymentof various resources will vary for the,
different schedule. An example of schedule based on early start date for the
PERT network diagram has s h o w In Figure 9.5. The broken line indicates the
existence of float for that specific non-critical activity.

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 The project manager can generate alternate schedule based on the four Project Scheduling
different times and also can calculate the resource requirement for each
schedule. The criteria for selection of a particular schedule will be the smooth
or even requirement of resources throughout the execution period of the
project. This makes the planning, procurement, coordination and execution
much more simplified on the part of the project manager.

9.6 SUMMARY
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The project managers throughout the world are mostly concerned about the
proper scheduling of activities for meeting the project completion date. The
Gantt Chart invented in the early of 2 0 century
~ has been in use for
considerable period of time for the purpose of scheduling. To overcome the
several drawbacks of Gantt Chart, network methods like PERT and CPM
methods have been invented in late 1950s in USA. These methods have
established the interrelationship amongst the various activities of the project.
The network method of analysis of the project helps to identify the critical
path, critical activities and events.

There is no existence of any flexibility on any of the critical activity. Hence, it

isimperative on the part of the project manager to ensure the completion of
the critical activity on scheduled date by mobilizing all kinds of resources for
these activities. The project manager can generate schedules based on four
times viz. E,, E. Li and L..
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The schedule also helps the manager to achieve
more even req&rement of resources during project execution period.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. What are the objectives of scheduling?
2. Explain Gantt Chart. Discuss its drawbacks
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I 3. Driw the project network from the following data
Activity: 1-2 1-3 2-3 2-4 3-4 3-5 4-6 5-6
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Time : 2 7 5 5 0 4 10 6

(Weeks)

a) Calculate the project completion time

b) Identify the critical path and activities

4. Explain the significance of Float. Calculate the float for the problem given
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Project Menagemen*
9.8 ' FURTHER READINGS
1. Bhattacharyya, A. and Sorkhel, S., Management by NerworkAnalysis,
Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata.
'. 2. Boloand, RGA., ILO, Project Management and the Environment, ILO,
Geneva 1986.
3. ChoudhuryS., Project Management, TMH, New Delhi
4. Joy, P.K., Total Project Management, Macmillan, India
5. King, W.R. and David, I., (Eds); Handbook of Project Management
6. Lock, D.L., Project ~ a n a ~ e m e nGower
t, Press, London
7. Nicholas, J.M., Managing Business and Engineering Projects, PHI,NPW
Delhi.
8. Project management (MS-52& E-2) IGNOU, New Delhi.