Dr. B.

Venkateswarlu

1
NETWORK SCHEDULING BY PERT / CPM

INTRODUCTION
Network scheduling is a technique used for planning, and scheduling large
projects in the field of construction, maintenance, fabrication, purchasing computer
system etc. The technique is a method of minimizing the trouble spots such as
production, delays and interruptions, by determining critical factors and
coordinating various parts of the overall job.
There are two basic planning and control technique that utilize a network to
complete a predetermined project or schedule. These are Programme Evaluation
review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM).
A person is defined as a combination of interrelated activities all of which
must be executed in a certain order for its completion.
The work involved in a project can be divided into three phases
corresponding to the management functions of planning, scheduling and control.
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.
(i)
the start and finish times for each activity
(ii)
the critical path on which the activities require special attention and
(iii)
the slack and float for the non-critical paths.
Controlling: This phase is exercised after the planning and scheduling, which
involves the following:
(i)
Making periodical progress reports
(ii)
Reviewing the progress
(iii)
Analyzing the status of the project and
(iv)
Management decisions regarding updating, crashing and resource
allocation etc.
Basic Terms:
To understand the network techniques one should be familiar with a few basic terms
of which both CPM and PERT are special applications.
Network: It is the graphic representation of logically and sequentially connected
arrows and nodes representing activities and vents of a project. Networks are also
called arrow diagram.
Activity: An activity represents some action and is a time consuming effort
necessary to complete a particular part of the overall project. Thus, each and every
activity has a point of time where it begins and a point where it ends.
It is represented in the network by an arrow.

Here A is called the activity.

Event: The beginning and end points of an activity are called events or nodes.
Event is
appoint in the time and does not consume any resources. It is represented by a
numbered circle. The head event called the j th event has always a number higher
than the tail event called the ith event.

Dr. B.Venkateswarlu

There are three types of events namely (i) Burst Event (ii) Merge Event and (iii)
dual Event.
1.Burst Event: If an event represents the joint initiation of more than one activity, it
is called a burst event.

2. Merge Event: If an event represents the joint completion of more than one
activity, it is called a Merge Event.

3. Dual Event: If an event represent the joint completion of more than one activity
and also the joint initiation of more than one activity it is called a Dual Event.

Preceding, Succeeding and concurrent activities: Activities which must be

accomplished before a given event can occur are termed as preceding activities.
Activities which cannot be accomplished until an event has occurred are termed as
succeeding activities. Activities which can be accomplished concurrently are known
as concurrent activities. This classification is relative, which means that one activity
can be preceding to a certain event, and the same activity can be succeeding to
some other event or it may be concurrent activity with one or more activities.
Dummy activity:

COMMON ERRORS
Following are the three common errors in a network construction:
Looping (Cycling): In a network diagram looping error is also known as cycling
error. Drawing an endless loop in a network is known as error of looping. A loop can
be formed if an activity were represented as going back in time.

Dangling: to disconnect an activity before the completion of all the activities in a

network diagram is known as Dangling.
Redundancy: If a dummy activity is the only activity emanating from an event and
which can be eliminated is known as redundancy

Dr. B.Venkateswarlu

Rules of network construction:

There are a number of rules in connection with the handling of events and activities
of a project network that should be followed.
(i)
Try to avoid arrows which cross each other
(ii)
Use straight arrows
(iii)
No event can occur until every activity preceding it has been completed
(iv)
An event cannot occur twice i.e., there must be no loops.
(v)
An activity succeeding an event cannot be started until that event has
occurred.
(vi)
Use arrows from left to right. Avoid mixing two directions, vertical and
standing arrows may be used if necessary.
(vii) Dummies should be introduced if it is extremely necessary.
(viii) The network has only one entry point called the start event and one point
of emergence called the end or terminal event.
Numbering the events (Fulkersons Rule):
After the network is drawn in a logical sequence every event is assigned a number.
The number sequence must be such so as to reflect the flow of the network. In
numbering the events the following rules should be observed.
(i)
Event numbers should be unique.
(ii)
Event numbering should be carried out on a sequential basis from left to
right
(iii)
The initial event which has all outgoing arrows with no incoming arrow is
numbered as 1.
(iv)
Delete all arrows emerging from all the numbered events. This will create
at least one new start event out of the preceding events.
(v)
Number all new start events 2,3 and so on. Repeat this process until all
the terminal event without any successor activity is reached. Number the
terminal node suitably.
NOTE: The head of an arrow should always bear a number higher than the one
assigned to the tail of the arrow.
TIME ANALYSIS
Once the network of a project is constructed the time analysis of the network
becomes essential for planning various activities of the project. An activity time is a
forecast of the time an activity is expected to take from its starting point to its
completion. (under normal conditions)
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)
(LS) ij = Latest starting time of activity (i,j)
(LF) ij = Latest finishing time of activity (i,j)
The basic scheduling computation can be put under the following tree groups.
Forward Pass Computations (For Earliest Event Time):
Before starting computations, the occurrence time of the initial network event is
fixed. The forward pass computation yields the earliest start and the earliest finish
time for each activity (i,j) and indirectly the earliest occurrence time for each event
namely Ei. This consists of the following 3 steps.
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 = E i 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 t ij

Dr. B.Venkateswarlu

Step 3: Earliest event time for event j is the maximum of the earliest finish time
of all the activities ending at that event.

E j Max Ei t ij
i

the computed E values are put over the respective rectangle

representing each event.
Backward Pass Computations (for latest allowable time):
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 the earliest event
time. This is done in the following steps.
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
(Lf ij) = Lj
Step 3: Latest starting time of the activity (i,j)
= Latest Completion time (i,j) - the activity time
LS ij = Lf ij t ij
= L j t ij
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 L j t ij
i

The computed L values are put over the respective triangle representing each
event.
Determination of Floats and Slack Times:
Float is defined as the difference between the latest and the earliest activity time.
Stack is defined as the difference between the latest and the earliest event time.
Hence the basic difference between the slack and float is that slack is used for
events only; whereas float is used for activities. There are mainly three kinds of
floats as given below:
Total Float: It refers to the amount of time by which the completion of an activity
could be delayed beyond the earliest expected completion time without affecting
the overall project duration time.
Mathematically, the total float of an activity (i,j) is the difference between the latest
start time and the earliest start time of that activity. Hence the total float for an
activity (i,j) denoted by (Tf) ij is calculated by the formula
(Tf) ij = (Latest start Earliest start) for activity (i,j)
i.e., TF ij LS ij ES ij

i.e., TF ij L j Ei t ij

where Ei, Lj are the earliest time and latest time for the tail event i and j and head
event j and tij is the normal time for the activity (i,j). This is the most important
type of float as it concerns with the overall project duration.
Free Float: The time by which the completion of an activity can be delayed beyond
the earliest finish time without affecting the earliest start of a subsequent
succeeding activity.
Mathematically, the free float for activity (i,j) denotes by (Ffij) can be calculated by
the formula:
Ef ij E j E i t ij
Efij = Total float Head event slack
Head event slack = Lj Ej
This float is concerned with the commencement of subsequent activity. The
free float can take values from zero up to total float, but it cant exceed total float.

Dr. B.Venkateswarlu

This float is very useful for rescheduling the activities with minimum disruption of
earlier plans.
Independent Float: The amount of time by which the start of an activity can be
delayed without affecting the earliest start time of any immediately following
activities assuming that the preceding activity has finished at its latest finish time.
Mathematically, independent float of an activity (i,j) denoted by Ifij can be
calculated by the formula: If ij E j Li t ij
Or
Ifij = Free Float Tail event slack
Where tail event slack is given by
Tail event slack = Li Ei
The negative independent float is always taken as zero. This float is concerned with
prior and subsequent activities.
IFij FFij TFij
NOTE:
(i)
(ii)

If the total float TF for any activity (i,j) is zero, then those activities are
called critical activity.
The float can be used to reduced project duration. While doing this, the
float
of not only that activity but that of other activities would also
change.

Critical Activity: An activity is said to be critical if a delay in its start will cause a
further delay in the completion of the entire project.
Critical Path: The sequence of critical activities in a network is called the critical
path. It is the longest path in the network from the starting event to the ending
event and defines the minimum time required to completed the project. In the
network it is denoted by double line. This path identifies all the critical activities of
the project. Hence, for the activity (i,j) to lie on the critical path, following
conditions must be satisfied.
(a) ESi = LFi
(b) ESj = LFj
(c) ESj ESj = LFj LFi = tij
Esi, Esj, are the earliest start, and finish time of the event i and j
Lfi, Lfj are the latest start, and finish time of the event i and j
Critical Path Method (CPM):
The iterative procedure of determining the critical path is as follows:
Step 1: List all the jobs and then draw arrow (network) diagram. Each job is
indicated by an arrow with the direction of the arrow showing the sequence of jobs.
The length of the arrows has no significance. The arrows are placed based on the
predecessor, successor, and concurrent relation within the job.
Step 2: Indicate the normal time (tij) for each activity (i,j) above the arrow which is
deterministic.
Step 3: Calculate the earliest start time and the earliest finish time for each event
and write the earliest time Ei of each event i in the
. Also calculate the latest
finish and latest start time. From this we calculate the latest time L j for each event j
and put in the .
Step 4: Tabulate the various times namely normal time, earliest time and latest
time on the arrow diagram.
Step 5: Determine the total float for each activity by taking the difference between
the earliest start and the latest start time.
Step 6: Identify the critical activities and connect them with the beginning event
and the ending event in the network diagram by double line arrows. Which gives
the critical path.

Dr. B.Venkateswarlu

Step 7: Calculate the total project duration.

Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT):
Pert is one of the techniques which is widely used today for planning, scheduling
and controlling activities of a project. In an industrial environment this projects are
usually large and complex.
Terminologies in PERT:
1. Time Estimates
2. Measure of Deviation and Variation
3. Expected Time or Average Time
4. Probability of Completing the project
1. Time Estimates: PERT calculations depend upon the following three time
estimates namely
(i)
Optimistic Time Estimates
(ii)
Pessimistic Time Estimates
(iii)
Most Likely Time Estimates
(i) Optimistic Time Estimates (
or a) :- It is the duration of any activity when
everything goes on very well during the project i.e., labours are available and come
in time, Machines are working properly, Money is available when ever needed.
There is no scarcity of raw material needed.
(ii) Pessimistic Time Estimates (
or b):- It is the duration of any activity when
almost everything goes against our will and a lot of difficulties is faced while doing a
project.
(iii) Most Likely Time Estimates ( or m):- It is the duration of any activity when
sometimes things go on very well, sometimes things go on very bad while doing the
project:
2. Expected Time or Average Time ( or ):- If an activity is repeated a number of
times, then optimistic and pessimistic times are likely to occur equal number of
times. But most likely is to occur 4 times more than the optimistic or pessimistic
time.
Therefore, Expected Time or Average Time

or

3. Measure of Deviation and Variation:- Let us consider two activities P and Q

which have the following time estimates:
Activity
P
Q
Activity P:

Activity Q:

6
9

10
10

Expected variation of activity:

14
11

4. Probability of completing the project:- Any management will be interested in

knowing the probability of completing the project with in a given due date,
i.e., by
Where

Area under normal distribution curve.