NETWORK ANALYSIS

CPM & PERT

Satinder Kaur
Faculty in Management
[email protected]
Introduction
A network is graphic depiction of ‘activities’ and ‘events’.

By analyzing the network, the planning, scheduling and

controlling becomes much easier.

CPM & PERT are most important techniques of network analysis

Generally, these techniques are used to handle very large &

complex projects like
Construction of a residential complex
Ships & aircraft projects
Development of new drug
Satellite development
Implementation of computer system
Designing & laying of a manufacturing plant ------& many more
Planning
This phase involves setting the objectives of the project and
the assumptions to be made. Also it involves the listing of
tasks or jobs that must be performed to complete a project
under consideration. In this phase, men, machines and
materials required for the project in addition to the estimates
of costs and duration of the various activities of the project
are also determined.
Scheduling
 This consists of laying the activities according to the
precedence order and determining.

 The start and finish times for each activity

 The critical path on which the activities require

special attention

 The slack and float for the non-critical paths.

Controlling
This phase is exercised after the planning and scheduling,
which involves the following:

 Making periodical progress reports

 Reviewing the progress

 Analyzing the status of the project

 Management decisions regarding updating , crashing

and resource allocation etc.
CPM & PERT
CPM & PERT helps in developing the overall layout of the project with
estimate of time and resource required & scheduling of timing and
sequencing of various jobs to be performed.

These techniques help the project managers to

determine the expected project completion date,
The schedule start and completion time for the different
activities of project
The key activities of the project which must be completed at
the scheduled time
The period by which non-key activities may be delayed
without causing a delay in the completion of the whole project
Difference between CPM & PERT
PERT CPM

Probabilistic in nature, used in Deterministic in nature, used in

projects, in which the time for project scheduling, in which times
different activities as well as whole needed as well as resources required
project is uncertain are known with certainty.

Useful in new, non-repetitive and R & Useful in repetitive and standardized

D projects projects

Primary focus on time element and Primary focus on cost. Considers

lesser significance to the cost systematic reduction project duration
along with cost savings
The First Step

The initial step in PERT/CPM project scheduling process is

determination of all specific activities that comprises the
project and their interdependence relationship.

Now, these activities portrayed by a network or an arrow

diagram
Arrows and Nodes in a Network
Each of the activities that make up a project consumes time and resources and
has a definable beginning and ending are represented by an arrow.

The circle at the beginning and at the end of the arrow represent the nodes or
events of beginning and completion, respectively. The events are points in time
and can be considered as milestone of a project.

Whereas an activity is a recognizable part of project, involving mental or

physical work and requiring time and resources for its completion; an event
connotes an accomplishment occurring at an instantaneous point in time which
neither requires any time for itself nor consumes any resources.

A 3 days
1 2

Activity begins Activity ends

Rules for Network Construction
1. Each defined activity is represented by one and only one arrow
in the network
2. Before an activity can be undertaken, all the activity preceding
it must be completed. The relation between predecessor and
successor should be clearly laid.
3. The length of the arrows are of no significance. It is only logical
presence of activities.
4. The direction of arrow indicates the general progression in
time. The arrow tail represent the point in time at which the
event ‘activity start’ occurs and the arrow head represent the
point in time at which the ‘activity completion’ event takes
place.
5. Events are identifies by numbers.
6. The activities are identifies by the numbers of their starting and
ending events. For example A12
7. A network should have only one initial and one terminal node.
Dummy Activity
8. When two or more parallel activities in a project have
same head and tail event , dummy activities are
needed in constructing the network. The dummy
activities do not consume time or resources

A
2
A
1 2
1

B B 3
looping
9. Looping is not permitted in a network. If A precedes B, and B precedes
C, then C cannot precedes A.

2
A

B 3
Example
Activity Immediate
Predecessor

A ---
D F
B A 3 5
B H
C A 7 8
A
D B,C 1 2
G
E C 4 6
C E
F D
G E
H F,G
 Time Analysis
We shall use the following notation for basic scheduling
computations:
(i, j) = Activity (i, j) with tail event i and head
event j.
Tij = Estimated completion time of activity (i, j)
Esij = Earliest starting time of activity (i, j)
Efij = Earliest finishing time of activity (i, j)
Lsij = Latest starting time of activity (i, j)
Lfij = Latest finishing time of activity (i, j)
Forward Pass Computations
Before starting computations, the occurrence time of the
initial network event is fixed. The forward pass computation
yields the earliest start and earliest finish time for each
activity (i, j) and indirectly the earliest occurrence time for
each event namely Ei . This consists of the three steps.
 ES & EF
Step 1 The computations begin from the start node and move
towards the end node. Let zero be the starting time for the project.

Step 2 Earliest starting time (ES)ij = Ei is the earliest possible time

when an activity can begin assuming that all of the predecessors
are also started at their earliest starting time. Earliest finish time
of activity (i, j) is the earliest starting time + the activity time.
(EF)ij = (Es)ij + tij

Step 3 Earliest event time for event j is the maximum of the earliest
finish time of all the activities ending at that event.
Ej = Max (Ei + tij)
 D3
2 5
[2,5]

I2
2

[1
E6
A

3]
3,
2]

15
[7,
[0,

]
B7 G4 K6
1 3 7 8
[0,7] [7,11] [15,21]

F 1 [7,17
C

J5
8

0 ]
[0

2]
,8

, 2
]

[17
H6
4 6
[8,14]

Forward Pass- ES & EF

Backward Pass Computations
The latest event time (L) indicates the time by which all activities
entering into that event must be completed without delaying the
completion of the project. These can be calculated by reversing
the method of calculations used for earliest event time.
 LS & LF
Step 1 For ending event assume E=L.
Step 2 Latest finish time for activity (i, j) is the target time for
completing the project.
(Lfij) = Lj
Step 3 Latest starting time of the activity (i, j)
= latest completion time of (i, j) – the activity time
Lsij = Lfij – tij
= Lj – tij
Step 4 Latest event time for event I is the minimum of the latest
start time of all activities originating from the event.
Li = Min (Lj – tij)
 D3
2 5
[11,14]

I2
2

[1
E6
A

4]
]

4,
11

16
[8,
[9,

]
B7 G4 K6
1 3 7 8
[0,7] [12,16] [16,22]

F 1 [7,17
C

J5
8

0 ]
[3

2]
,1

, 2
1]

[17
H6
4 6
[11,17]

Backward Pass- LS & LF

 D3 5
2
2 11 13 14

I2
2
A

E6
B7 G4 K6 8
1 3 7 22 22
0 0 7 7 15 16
C

F1
J5
8

4 H6 6
8 11 17 17

Determination of Event time

Critical Path
A path is a set of continuous series of activities through the
network that lead from initial node of the network to its terminal
node.

In order to arrive at the duration of the project, we have to analyze

the network and determine critical path.

The path that determine the total duration of the project is called
the critical path. The activities on this path is called critical
activities while the other activities are called non critical activities.

In a network the longest path of the network i.e. one having

maximum length
 2 D3 5
2 11 13 14

I
A

2
2

E
6
1 B7 G4 K6 8
3 7 22 22
0 0 7 7 15 16
F1
C

0 J5
8

4 H6 6
8 11 17 17

Path Activities Length

1-2-5-7-8 ADIK 13
1-3-5-7-8 BEIK 21
1-3-7-8 BGK 17
1-3-6-8 BFJ 22 Critical path
1-4-6-8 CHJ 19
PERT
The projects in which time of completion of various activities is
not known with surety, PERT is used.

In this method three time estimates are used :

Optimistic time (a)

Most likely time (m)
Pessimistic Time (b)

The three times are reduced into a single expected time (tei)

tei = a+4m+b/6
Then standard deviation is calculated

=b-a/6

Variance……………. 2
=(b-a/6) 2
EXAMPLE
Activi descri Imme Time
ty ption diate a m b
prede
ssor

A 1-2 --- 4 6 8
B 2-3 A 5 7 15
C 2-4 A 4 8 12
D 3-6 B 15 20 25
E 3-5 B 10 18 26
F 4-6 C 8 9 16
G 5-7 E 4 8 12
H 6-7 D,F 1 2 3
I 7-8 G,H 6 7 8
 E 10,18,26
G
3 5 4,
8,
[18] [8 12

15
11
D
15 ]

,7,
[9, ,2
0,

B5

[2
25

0]
[8]
A 4, 6, 8 [2] I 6,7,8
1 2 6 7 8
[6] H 1,2,3
[7]
[8]
C

16
4,8

]
,9 ,
[10
,1

F8
2

Path Activities Length

1-2-3-5-7-8 ABEGI 47
1-2-4-6-7-8 ACFHI 33
1-2-3-6-7-8 ABDHI 43
 Activity Time Std. Varianc
a m b tei Deviati e
on

A 1-2 4 6 8 6 4/6 4/9

B 2-3 5 7 15 8 10/6 25/9
C 2-4 4 8 12 8 8/6 16/9
D 3-6 15 20 25 20 10/6 25/9
E 3-5 10 18 26 18 16/6 64/9
F 4-6 8 9 16 10 8/6 16/9
G 5-7 4 8 12 8 8/6 16/9
H 6-7 1 2 3 2 2/6 1/9
I 7-8 6 7 8 7 2/6 1/9
110/9
DETERMINE THE PROBABILITY THAT THE PROJECT
WILL BE COMPLETED IN 55 DAYS
Variance= 110/9

Standard deviation = (110/9)1/2 =3.496

z=55-47/3.496=2.29

Probability (z=2.29)= 0.9890

Earliest & latest Scheduling times
Activity Es Ef LS LF
tei
A 6 0 6 0 6
B 8 6 14 6 14
C 8 6 14 20 28
D 20 14 34 18 38
E 18 14 32 14 32
F 10 14 24 28 38
G 8 32 40 32 40
H 2 34 36 38 40
I 7 40 47 40 47
Floats
Float is defined as the difference between the latest and the earliest activity time.

1. Total float : It is the amount of time that the completion time of an activity can
be delayed without affecting the project completion time.
(TF)ij = (Latest start – Earliest start) for activity (i, j)
(TF)ij = (LS)ij – (ES)ij
Or (TF)ij = (Lj - Ei) – tij

2. Free float : It is the amount of time that the activity time can be delayed without
affecting the earliest start time of the immediate successor activities in the
network
Ffij = Esj-Efij