Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Analysis (CPA) are tools that are used to schedule and manage large complex projects. These tools help to simplify the planning and scheduling of projects to plan most importantly during the management of a project, they enable companies to monitor achievement of project goals and assist to identify where remedial action needs to be taken to ensure project is completed within the time frame.
PERT is used to estimate the time each activity will take. PERT is intended for very large-scale, one-time, complex, non-routine projects. . It is more of an event-oriented technique rather than start- and completion-oriented, and is used more in R&D-type projects where time, rather than cost, is the major factor. A PERT diagram shows the relationship between simultaneous steps in a project, after critical path analysis PERT diagram can also be used to show the critical path.
CPA formally identifies tasks which must be completed on time for a project to be completed on time, which tasks have the option of been delayed and the minimum length of time needed to complete a project. If a company would require to accelerate a project, CPA analysis will help you to identify which project steps you should accelerate to complete the project within the available time. This helps you to minimize cost while still achieving your objective.
STEPS TAKEN TO CREATE A PERT DIAGRAM;
1. List the steps required in a project and the time required to complete each event
The formula below to calculate the estimated time for each project stage:
a + 4m + b
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(a- Optimistic time, m- Normal time, b- Pessimistic time).
2. Draw a network of lines and circles showing the relationships between events.
3. Each circle should be labeled with the number of its step.
4. A line represents the time that each event takes. Each line should