Calculations on a

Network Model
Supplemental Material for
Construction Management:
Planning and Scheduling
Early Start (ES) – the earliest time that an
The following information outlines the basic steps activity can start based on the latest of the Early
required to run calculations on a Precedence Network to Finish times of all its IPA’s
determine Early Start and Early Finish, Late Start and Early Finish (EF) – the earliest time that an
Late Finish, Float, and to identify the Critical Path. This activity can finish, calculated by adding the
discussion uses a beginning-of-day convention whereby activity’s Duration to its Early Start (EF = ES +
each activity starts and ends on the beginning of the Duration)
listed day; i.e. if an item begins on Day 10 and has a
duration of 1 Day, it will begin on Day 10 and end on Day Late Start (LS) – the latest time that an activity
11. All relationships used in this discussion are Start-to- can start without delaying the completion of
Finish relationships. the project, calculated by adding the Float of an
activity to its Early Start (LS = ES + Float)
1. Assign Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF)
a. Begin by assigning Day 1 as the Early Late Finish (LF) – the latest time that an activity
Start day of the first activity can be finished without delaying the
b. Calculate the Early Finish for this activity completion of the entire project, calculated by
by adding its Duration to its Early Start adding the activity’s Float to its Early Finish (LF
(EF = ES + Duration) = EF + Float)
c. The next activity on the network is Duration – the value assigned to an activity that
assigned an Early Start that is equal to represents the time it will take to complete that
the Early Finish of its Immediately activity
Preceding Activity (IPA)
i. In Figure 1 – The first activity Float – the amount of time that an activity can
begins on Day 1 and has a be delayed before it impacts the completion
Duration of 2 days, so its Early date of the project (also referred to as Total
Finish is the beginning of Day 3, Float)
meaning the next activity can
Lag – the amount of time that exists between
start at the beginning of Day 3 –
the Early Finish of an activity and the Early Start
remember when doing this by
of its successor activity (LAGAB = ESB – ESA)
hand to stick with a single
convention (in this case Critical Path – the sequence of linked activities
beginning-of-day) when for which the Float value of each activity in the
referring to activities path is zero

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 d. If an activity has more than one IPA, its Early Start is the latest of the Early Finish days of
all of its IPA’s
e. Repeat this process making a complete forward pass through the entire network
i. At the end of this step, all activities should have Early Start and Early Finish
calculated
2. Calculate Lags for each link
a. Each activity should be linked to one or more predecessors (IPA’s) unless it is the first
activity on the project
b. Each activity should be linked to a successor activity unless it is the last activity to be
completed on the project
i. A construction project will typically need a final activity in the schedule to
represent demobilization; things like clean-up and hauling off equipment and
trash. Ideally, all other activities should be finished before this final activity is
started.
c. Calculate the Lag for each link by determining the difference between the Early Start of
each activity that follows a link line, and the Early Finish of the activity that precedes it -
Lags must be either 0 or a positive number
1. In Figure 1 – the Early Start of the Activity that follows “Inst Net
Hardware” is Day 23 (Clean/Move Out) and the Early Finish of “Inst Net
Hardware” is Day 13, so the Lag is 10 (LagAB = ESB – EFA)
d. Repeat this process for each link in the network
3. Calculate Float for each activity in the network (also referred to as Total Float)
a. Begin by assigning a Float value of 0 to the last activity in the network
b. Calculate the Float value of that activity’s IPA(s), by adding its Float value to the value of
the connecting Lag line(s)
i. In Figure 1 – The last activity is “Clean/Move Out”, and it has three IPA’s:
“Landscape”, “Inst Net Hardware”, and “Inst Benches”.
1. The Float value of “Landscape” is calculated by adding the Float value of
“Clean/Move Out” (0) to the Lag value of the link line connecting the two
activities (0) – in this case Float for “Landscape” is 0 + 0 = 0
2. The Float value of “Inst Net Hardware” = 0 + 10 = 10
3. The Float value of “Inst Benches” = 0 + 8 = 8
c. Repeat this process making a complete backwards pass through the network
i. At the end of this step, all activities should have a value (either 0 or a positive
number) entered for Float
4. Calculate Late Start and Late Finish
a. Begin with the first activity in the network model – calculate its Late Start by adding the
Float value to its Early Start (LS = ES + Float) – Calculate its Late Finish by adding the Float
value to its Early Finish (LF = EF + Float)
b. Repeat this process for each activity, making a complete forward pass through the
network
5. Identify the Critical Path
a. Determine the Critical Path by identifying the sequence of linked activities for which the
Float value for each activity in the sequence is 0

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 i. In Figure 1 – The Critical Path consists of five activities: “Place Concrete”,
“Surfacing/Coating”, “Install Fence”, “Landscape”, “Clean/Move Out”
1. “Inst Net Hardware” and “Inst Benches” are not in the Critical Path – they
have Float and can move by the number of days equal to the Float
without effecting the completion time of the project
6. Assign Dates to each activity
a. The values currently entered in the network model are days; i.e. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc.
– To turn the network model into a schedule, these vales need to be converted to dates
on a calendar
b. This conversion from Working Days to dates on a calendar will depend on the definition of
a Working Day for the project, and on the planned start date for the project – In other
words, if Day 1 is Monday, Day 2 is Tuesday, etc., Day 6 might be Saturday or it might be
the following Monday depending on the plan of for the project – Similarly, Day 1 could be
any day of the week that is chosen for the start date of the project, it’s not necessarily
always a Monday

Figure 1 – Calculations on a Precedence Network

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