Project Management and Time
PROJECT EVALUATION REVIEW TECHNIQUE (PERT) AND CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)
Project
Evaluation
Review
Technique
and
Critical
Path
Method (CPM) are scheduling techniques used to plan, schedule, budget and control the many activities associated with projects. Projects are usually very large, complex, custom products that consist of many interrelated activities to be performed either concurrently or sequentially. The planning horizon for PERT/CPM
typically extends beyond the six-month time frame of traditional short-range planning used in the other production processes.
Utilizing PERT/CPM involves breaking the total project down into many different individual activities with identifiable time
requirements.
Each activity must be accomplished as part of the
total work to be done. Custom products (made to customer specification) are produced with a project process; therefore, the customer's desired completion date is the focal point for scheduling. time to begin work on the project is determined by working backward from the customer’s desired completion date. Project The
managers must coordinate each of the activities so the project can be completed at the desired date and with minimal costs. The PERT/CPM schedule allows for converting the project plans
1
into an operating timetable; thus, provides direction for managing the day-to-day activities of projects. Although application of both PERT and CPM follow the same steps and use network diagrams to schedule and control projects, the primary difference between these two techniques is that PERT is probabilistic where CPM is deterministic. The terms PERT and
CPM will be used together or interchangeably in this paper to present the basic principles behind the application of these techniques. In addition, deterministic activity times in this
paper will be used to illustrate the techniques.
A SIMPLE EXAMPLE A simple exercise (scheduling a student's morning) is used here to illustrate the principles of
Project
Evaluation
Review
Technique
and
Critical
Path
Method (CPM) are scheduling techniques used to plan, schedule, budget and control the many activities associated with projects. Projects are usually very large, complex, custom products that consist of many interrelated activities to be performed either concurrently or sequentially. The planning horizon for PERT/CPM
typically extends beyond the six-month time frame of traditional short-range planning used in the other production processes.
Utilizing PERT/CPM involves breaking the total project down into many different individual activities with identifiable time
requirements.
Each activity must be accomplished as part of the
total work to be done. Custom products (made to customer specification) are produced with a project process; therefore, the customer's desired completion date is the focal point for scheduling. time to begin work on the project is determined by working backward from the customer’s desired completion date. Project The
managers must coordinate each of the activities so the project can be completed at the desired date and with minimal costs. The PERT/CPM schedule allows for converting the project plans
1
into an operating timetable; thus, provides direction for managing the day-to-day activities of projects. Although application of both PERT and CPM follow the same steps and use network diagrams to schedule and control projects, the primary difference between these two techniques is that PERT is probabilistic where CPM is deterministic. The terms PERT and
CPM will be used together or interchangeably in this paper to present the basic principles behind the application of these techniques. In addition, deterministic activity times in this
paper will be used to illustrate the techniques.
A SIMPLE EXAMPLE A simple exercise (scheduling a student's morning) is used here to illustrate the principles of