Chapter Seven

Project Implementation Tools

 Contents
 Work breakdown Structure
 Gantt chart
 Network Techniques
 The Critical Path Method (CPM)
 Program Evaluation and Review
Techniques/PERT/
 Project Time- Cost Analysis
 Roadmap to Project Success
Statement Work Responsibility Network Gantt Res ource B ud get
of Work Breakdown Matrix Plan
Form Purpos e Structure
Project Project Back ground R

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Team Project D eliv era bles

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P LA N
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C ondu ct
Clo se-Out
LEADERSHIP
Meeting
COMMUNICATION

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Tra ck
CL

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Pro gres s
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A RN
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S hare IM Update Re s olve Manage
E valuate
L es s ons S u c ces s Plan Is sues C hange
Learned
 Activity Scheduling
• Activities Schedule is the backbone of every
project and is essential for a successful
outcome.
• It gives all personnel involved in the project
common understanding of what is required,
how this will be achieved, when it will be
achieved and who will be responsible for the
successful outcome of each activity.
 Activity Scheduling Involves:

• Application of Work Breakdown Structure

in order to subdivide the major project
deliverables into smaller, more manageable
component based on the project scope.
• Identification of the activities needed in
order to produce the project deliverables and
if necessary breaking down the activities into
more manageable tasks which can then be
assigned to individuals
• Determination of activities’ sequence (i.e. in
what order should related activities be
undertaken?) and dependencies (i.e. is the
activity dependent on the start up or
completion of any other activity?)- Network
• Estimation of activities/ tasks duration
• Scheduling of activities by defining the start
up and completion dates of each activity/task.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• It represents a systematic and logical breakdown
of the project into its component parts.
• It is constructed by dividing the project in to its
major parts, with each of these being further
divided in to sub parts.
• This is continued till a breakdown is done in
terms of manageable units of work for which
responsibility can be defined.
 
Thus, the work breakdown structure helps in:
• Effective planning by dividing the work
in to manageable elements which can
be planned, budgeted and controlled.
• Assignment of responsibility for work
elements to project personnel and
outside agencies.
• Development of control and
information system.
 Ways of doing WBS
• Hardware orientation [identification of
basic work packages]
• Agency orientation [based on assignment
of responsibility to different agencies]
• Functional oriented [e.g. deign,
procurement, construction and
commissioning]
 Illustrative WBS for Construction Projects

Foundation Exterior Interior Finish

Heating/air Electrical Paint Fixtures

Frame & conditioning
Layout Form install Roof
windows

Pour & Finish

insulate Dry wall
Floor Clean up
Install siding Painting covering
Doors & trim
Tools of Implementation Planning
• Gantt or bar chart showing when activities
take place
• Project network showing activities, their
dependencies and their relation to the
whole.
Bar or Gantt Chart

An illus trativ e Bar C hart

Activities
Time in weeks from project start
10 20 30 40

Design

Purchase of
parts

Fabrication

Assembly
• A Gantt chart is a graphical representation
of the duration of tasks against the
progression of time.
• A Gantt chart is a useful tool for planning,
scheduling and monitoring projects.
The advantages of the bar chart are:
• It is simple to understand
• It can be used to show progress
• It can be used for manpower planning
The disadvantages of the bar chart are:
• It cannot show interrelationship
among activities on large , complex
projects;
• There may be a physical limit to the
size of the bar chart, which may limit
the size of the project; and
• It cannot easily cope with frequent
changes or updating.
 Network Techniques
• In this technique, the
• activities,
• events, and
• their relationships
are presented by a network diagram, also
called an arrow diagram.  
 Why Project Network?
• It is a convenient way to show activities and
precedence in relation to the whole project.
• It is a basis of project planning:
– responsibility allocation
– definition of subcontracting units
– role of different players
• It is the base for scheduling and
establishment of work time tables
• Facilitate critical path determination for
management control
– deterministic Vs probabilistic activity times
• Facilitates resource planning for projects
– Project crashing with time cost trade offs
– Resource aggregation
– Resource leveling
– Limited resource allocation
• It can handle very large and complex projects
and it can be easily computerized and updated
• Uses for project implementation
– Time table for implementation
– Monitoring and reporting progress
– updating of schedules and resources
– Coordination of work with different
agencies
The project network is thus a common
vehicle for planning, communicating and
implementing the right from inception.
 Drawbacks of network technique
• Being more complicated than the
traditional bar chart it is not easily
understood by the project personnel,
and
• It does not define an operational
schedule which tells who does what
and when.
 Basic Network terminologies
• An activity is a task or a job that takes
time and resources
• It is represented in a network by an
arrow.
• The arrow doesn’t have any relationship
with a scale.
• Example: Excavate the land, Dig foundations,
Lay foundations, Build a wall, etc.
In a network analysis, it is important to
establish:
• The activities involved in the project,
• Their logical relationship, ex.
Building a wall comes after laying
the foundation.
• An estimate of the time that an
activity is going to take
• An event is a point in time and
indicates the start or finish of an activity
or activities, e.g. wall built, foundations
dug, etc.
• An event is represented in a network by a
circle.

• The establishment of activities automatically

determines events because they are the start
and finish of activities.
• Dummy activity: an activity that
does not consume time or resources.
• It shows merely the dependencies
or proper relationship between
activities.
• A dotted arrow represents dummy.  
Network: this is the combination of activities,
dummy activities and events in logical sequence
according to the rules of drawing networks.
Example:
 Rules for drawing networks:
• A complete network should have one point of
entry – a start event, and one point of exit – a
finish event.
• Each activity must have one preceding (tail)
event and one succeeding or head event. Many
activities may have the same tail event and
many may have the same head event.
• No activity can start until its tail event is
reached.
• An event is not complete until all
activities leading in to it are complete.
• A series of activities which lead back to
the same event are not allowed.
• All activities must be tied in to the
network; all must contribute to the
progress of the project, danglers are not
allowed.
 Activity Identification
• Short description: example, Lay
foundation, erect frame, etc.
• Alphabetic or numeric code: example, A,
B, C, etc., or 100, 101, 108 etc.
• Using tail and head event numbers:
example, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 3-6, etc
 Example 1: Organizing a one day seminar
Generate the list of jobs to be done:
a) Decide date, budget , venue for seminar
b) Identify speakers, participants
c) Contact and finalize speakers
d) Print seminar brochure
e) Mail brochures to tentative participants
f) Estimate number of participants
g) Decide menu for lunch, tea and coffee
h) Arrange for catering
i) Arrange projection facilities at venue
j) Receive guests at registration
k) Conduct seminar as per brochure
l) See off guests
Code Activity Predecessors
A Decide date, budget , venue for seminar -
B Identify speakers, participants -
C Contact and finalize speakers B
D Print seminar brochure A, C
E Mail brochures to tentative participants D
F Estimate number of participants E
G Decide menu for lunch, tea and coffee F
H Arrange for catering G
I Arrange projection facilities at venue F
J Receive guests at registration E
K Conduct seminar as per brochure H, I, J
L See off guests K
 Network of A one day seminar on
PPA
10
L

9
K
J 8
A D E
1 5
3 4
I H
B F 6
2 C 7
G
 Example 2: Complex Construction
Project
A = Lay foundation
B = Erect framework
C = install millwork
D = install wiring
E = install plumbing
F = plaster walls
G = install siding
H = decorate the interior
I = finish the exterior
The interrelationship among these
activities is as follows:
• A should precede B
• B should precede C, D, E, F, and G
• C, D, E and F should precede H
• G should precede I
 Network diagram of the project:
4
C

H
1 2 3
D
7 9
A B
E

F 5

I
G 6

8
 Activity Duration
• Deterministic [as in CPM]
– When previous experience yields fairly
accurate estimates of activity duration,
[e.g., construction activity, market surveys]

• Probabilistic [as in PERT]

– when there is uncertainty in times, as for
instance in R & D activities, new activities
being carried out for the first time.
• Deterministic time estimate:
– A single time estimate is used for each
activity. This is taken from experts who
have prior knowledge and experience of
the activity.
• Probabilistic time estimate:
– Multiple time estimates -Three time
estimates [Optimistic, Most Likely and
Pessimistic] are commonly used for each
activity based Expected O  4of
on the consensus ML P
the
Time
6
group.
 Critical path
• Is the longest path in the network
• Lower bound on the project duration [the
shortest time in which the whole project can
be completed]
• Selective control for management of the
project
• Can be determined by:
– Enumeration of all paths in the network
– Event based computations [forward pass
and backward pass]
• There may be two critical paths and the
critical path can pass through a dummy.
• The Critical path is determined by
selecting the chain of activities where
their ESTs are equal to their LSTs.
• The other activities with differences in
their ESTs and LSTs are non-critical
activities.
• Earliest start time (EST): the earliest possible
time at which a succeeding activity start.
Calculating the EST is called the forward pass.

• Latest start times (LST): is the latest possible

time at which a preceding activity can finish
without increasing the project duration. Notes
on calculating LST (termed the backward
pass)
 Example 1 2

B D

2 4

0 1 3 4 5
A C E F

1 3 1 2

• The Critical paths of this project are A, B, D and F.

• The total duration of this project is 9 days.
• The non-critical paths are C and E.
Example
Activity Preceding Activity Activity durations (Weeks)
A - 9
B _ 3
C A 8
D A 2
E A 3
F C 2
G C 6
H C 1
J B, D 4
K F, J 1
L E, H, G, K 2
M E, H 3
N L, M 4

Required: Find the critical path and the duration for this project.
 Answer 3
M (3)

7
E (3) 8

N (4)
A (9) H (1)
1
L (2)
C (8)
G (6)
4 6
D (2)

B (3) F (2)

2
K (1)
J (4)
5

Critical path : A, C, G, L and N

Project duration : 29 Weeks
 
Exercise 1
Activity Predecessors Duration (days)

A - 2
B - 3
C A 1
D A, B 4
E D 5
F D 8
G C, E 6
H C, E 4
I F, G, H 3

Draw the network and find the critical path?

• Float: Float or spare time is associated with
non- critical activities. There are three types of
floats: total floats, free float and independent
float.
• Total float is the amount of time a path of
activities could be delayed with out affecting
the overall project durations.
• Total Float = Latest finish time – Earliest Start
time – Activity duration
• For example total float for activity C and E is 7-
1-4 = 2 days.
• Free float is the amount of time an
activity can be delayed without affecting
the commencement of a subsequent
activity at its earliest start time, but may
affect float of a previous activity.
• Free float = Earliest Finish Time- Earliest
Start Time – Activity Duration
• For example free float for activity E is 7-
4-1 = 2 days
• Independent Float is the amount of time an
activity can be delayed when all preceding
activities are completed as late as possible and
all succeeding activities completed as early as
possible. Independent float therefore does not
affect the float of either preceding or
subsequent activities.
• Independent Float= Earliest Finish Time-latest
Start Time-activity Duration
• Example, Independent float for activity E is 7-
6-1 = 0 days.
A c ti v i t y Duration E S T L S T E F T L F T T F F F I F

A 1 0 0 1 1 - - -

B 2 1 1 3 3 - - -

C 3 1 1 4 6 2 - -

D 4 3 3 7 7 - - -

E 1 4 6 7 7 2 2 -

F 2 7 7 9 9 - - -
Uncertain activity duration [PERT]
• For each activity in the project three time
estimates are obtained:
– Optimistic times, a
– Most likely time, m
– Pessimistic time, b
 PERT time estimates

• Mean of activity duration:

= (a + 4m + b)/6
• Variance of activity duration:
=( (b-a) /6 )2
• Standard deviation of activity duration:
= sq. roots of variance = (b-a )/6
 Basic PERT Procedure
• Compute mean and variance of all jobs
• Conduct forward and backward pass on the
project network with expected times of all
activities
• Identify the critical path
• Obtain variance of critical path by adding
variance of activities.
• Obtain the distribution of the project duration
• Make probability statements about the
project
– Chances of meeting the target date
– Probability of exceeding A given ceiling
date
– Probability that the project duration is
confined to an interval of time.
– Z (standard normal deviate) = [x-q]/SD
Multiple time estimate

1
3

C
A D F

0.5, 1, 1.5
2, 3.5, 4 5.6, 7, 15 3, 4.5, 5.4

2
0 4
E
B

5,6,8
4,5,6
Activity Expected duration
 a  4m  b 
 ED 
 6 

A 3.33
B 5.00
C 1.00
D 8.10
E 6.17
F 4.40

The critical path B, D and F

Project duration = 5+8.1+4.4 = 17.5
• To calculate the probability that the project
can be completed within 19 days:
• Calculate the SD of each activity on the critical
path using the formula: b a
6
64
– Activity B = 6
 0.33

15  5.6
1.57
– Activity D = 6

5.4  3
– Activity F = 6
0.4
• Find the combined standard deviation of all
activities on the critical path.

0.33  1.57  0.4 1.65weeks

2 2 2

• Find the number of standard deviations that

the scheduled date is away from the expected
duration.
19  17.5
 0.91
1.65
• Look up this value in a table of areas
under the normal curve to find the
probability.

• In this case the probability of achieving

the scheduled date of week 19 is 82%.
 Exercise 2
Activity Predecessors Time estimates
a m b

A - 2 4 8
B - 4 6 10
C A 6 6 6
D A 2 8 14
E A 6 8 12
F B,C 9 3 15
G D,F 8 16 20
H D,F 4 4 4
I E, H 4 8 10

Draw the network? Find the CP?

What is the probability of completing the project by 36 days?
What is the probability of finishing the project by 28 days?
 Cost scheduling
• The overall objective is to calculate the
cost of various project durations and to
find the cheapest way of reducing the
overall duration
 Multiple Objectives
• Project cost and time are undoubtedly the two
major objectives that project managers strive
to minimize and control
• Project performance ( in terms of both
quantum and quality of work done)needs to be
monitored and controlled
• There could be a number of attributes that
reflect project performance, time and cost.
 Conflicting objectives:
• Meeting a certain contracted date
• Minimizing the total project cost
– Direct activity cost
– Indirect activity cost
– Penalties for project delays
• Ensuring that certain activities are not
crashed for quality reasons
• Confining the expenses to a fixed budget
• With expenditure of additional resources it is
generally possible to accomplish the activity in
a shorter duration
• The minimum possible duration of the activity
is its crash duration, when its cost is the
highest.
• For technological reasons it is not possible to
shorten duration below the crash limit even by
spending more money or resources.
• project schedules influence both the direct costs of
activities and indirect costs associated with the project.
• Activity direct costs:
– Costs associated with the performance of the
specific activity, such as:
• cost of planning and design
• raw materials procurement
• Labor costs
• Manufacturing or processing costs
• Travel, communication and transportation
• Consultation fees, etc
 Project indirect costs
• Overhead costs such as:
– managerial services
– Indirect supplies
– Equipment rentals
– Allocation of fixed expenses
– Site office maintenance
• Indirect costs increase with the duration of the
project
• Project cost comprises direct costs
and indirect project costs.
• As we shorten project duration, direct
costs increase whereas indirect costs
decrease.
• Therefore, there is optimal project
duration where the total project cost
becomes the minimum.
 Project direct cost- time relationship

• Normal cost: The costs associated with a

normal time estimate for an activity.
• Crash cost: they are caused by extra wages,
overtime premiums and extra facility costs.
• Crash time: the minimum possible time that
an activity is planned to take. Applying extra
resources usually brings this about.
• Cost slope: this is the average cost of
shortening an activity by one time unit.

CrashCost NormalCost
Cost Slope 
NormalTime  CrashTime

• Least cost scheduling or crashing: The

process by which we can find the least cost
method of reducing the overall duration of a
project.
 Heuristic solution procedure:
• Start with the normal project duration
• Obtain the critical paths
• Choose that activity on the critical path which
is cheapest to crash
• Crash that activity till either another path
becomes critical or the activity is fully crashed
• Determine the most economical set of
activities to be crashed or relaxed to reduce
the durations all critical paths
• No further crashing is possible when at least
one critical path can not be reduced
• When two or more activities on any path
are simultaneously crashed, some previously
crashed activity on the path may be relaxed.
Example: Given the information below, find the maximum length of the
schedule and the minimum cost schedule when the indirect cost is
Birr70 per day.

Preceding Time Cost

Acti vity
Activity Normal Crash Normal Crash Slope *

A - 4 2 150 350 100

B - 8 6 100 200 50
C A 2 1 50 90 40
D B 10 5 100 400 60
E B 5 1 100 200 25
F C, E 3 1 80 100 10
Total Direct Cost 580

* Average cost of shortening an activity by one time unit

 2

4 13
C (2)
A (4) 4
F(3)
0 5
13 15
18 18
0 0 E (5)

B (8) 3 D (10)

88

The critical paths are B and D

Normal project duration is 18 days
Step 1: The first is to determine the
normal costs and normal durations of the
project.
• The critical paths are B and D
• Normal project duration is 18
days
• Direct Cost = Birr580
• Indirect cost = 70X18= 1260
• Total project cost = Birr1840
Step 2: Reduce the least cost slope critical
activity B by two days
• The critical paths B and D (Not changed)
• Project duration 16 days
• Direct cost = normal cost + crush cost =
580+100 = 680
• Indirect Cost = 70X16 = 1120
• Total project cost = 1120 + 680 = 1800
Step 3: Since we have fully used the crash time
for B, now crash critical activity D by two
days
• Two Critical paths: the first is B and D;
and the second is B, E and F.
• Project duration 14 days
• Direct cost = Cost of step 2 + crash cost =
680+(60*2=120) = 800
• Indirect Cost = 70X14 = 980
• Total project cost = 980 + 800 = 1780
Step 4: Three crashing days remain from activity D. We
select one either E or F with the least cost slope to crash
it together with activity D. Therefore, we can crash two
days of activity D and only two days of Activity F.
• Two Critical paths: the first is B and D; and the
second is B, E and F.
• Project duration is 12 days
• Direct cost = Cost of step 3 + crash cost (crash cost
of D + Crash cost of F) = 800 + (60+10)*2 days = 940
• Indirect Cost = 70X12 = 840
• Total project cost = 940 + 840 = 1780
Step 5: We can further crash by one more day
activity D and E but not activity F
• Two Critical paths. The first is B and D;
and the second is B, E and F.
• Project duration is 11 days
• Direct cost = Cost of step 4 + crash cost
(crash cost of D + Crash cost of E) = 940 +
(60+25)*1 days = Birr1025
• Indirect Cost = 70X11 = 770
• Total project cost = 1025+ 770 = 1795.
• Conclusion: The student should note that
the total project cost starts to increase at
step 5 when compared to step 4. Then the
optimal solution for this project is the values
of step 6 as follows.
• Project duration = 12 days; Total project
cost = 1780
The activities and time estimate ( in weeks) for various activities are
illustrated below:

Activity Preceding Time Estimates

Activity Optimistic Most likely Pessimistic

A - 1 2 3
B - 8 10 12
C A 2 4 6
D B 1 2 3
E C,B 6 8 10
F D 4 3 8

• Draw the network diagram?

• Determine the critical path
• Calculate EST, LST, EFT and LFT of the activities on the critical path?
• Detriment the average estimated duration of the project?
• What is the probability of finishing the project with in 20 weeks?
• Given the following list of activities , precedence
relationships, normal and crash time and cost of a project,
when the indirect cost is birr 120 per day,
Activity Preceding Time Cost
activity Normal Crash Normal Crash

A _ 6 4 500 620
B _ 4 2 300 390
C A 7 6 650 680
D A 3 2 400 450
E B,C 5 3 850 1000
• Calculate the cost slope?
• Draw the network diagram?
• Determine the project completion time?
• Determine the critical path?
• Construct a least cost schedule for the network (Crash it)?
Thank You!!