Chapter Seven

Project Planning and Implementation

7.1 Project Planning

•Project planning involves a series of steps that determine how
to achieve a particular community or organizational goal or
set of related goals. This goal can be identified in a
community plan or a strategic plan. Project plans can also be
based on community goals or action strategies developed
through community meetings and gatherings, tribal council or
board meetings, or other planning processes. The planning
process occurs before you write your application and submit it
for funding. Most commonly used for the purpose of easy
understanding, project plan can be described by the way of
visual form. Here we can discuss only two visual forms:
A. Bar charts/Gantt chart B. Net work model
Network Techniques

These are more sophisticated than the traditional

bar charts.
In these techniques, the activities, events and their
interrelationships are presented by a network
diagram also called arrow diagram.
The two common types are:
Critical path method (CPM)
Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT)

2
 Cont’d
Critical path method (CPM)
CPM is used where the project term
regards the time estimates for task
completion as being very sound.
Deterministic task times
Activity-on-node network construction
Repetitive nature of jobs

3
 Cont’d
Program evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
PERT makes an attempt to apply rational
scheduling techniques to complex project.
Multiple task time estimates (pessimistic,
most likely and optimistic
Activity-on-arrow network construction
Non-repetitive jobs (R & D work)

4
 • Developed in 1950’s

History • CPM by DuPont for chemical plants

• PERT by U.S. Navy for Polaris missile

CPM was developed by Du Pont and the

emphasis was on the trade-off between the
cost of the project and its overall completion
time (e.g. for certain activities it may be
possible to decrease their completion times by
spending more money - how does this affect
the overall completion time of the project?)

PERT was developed by the US Navy for the

planning and control of the Polaris missile
program and the emphasis was on completing
the program in the shortest possible time. In
addition PERT had the ability to cope with
uncertain activity completion times. 5
 Network..... Cont’d
• Use of nodes and arrows
Arrows  An arrow leads from tail to head directionally
• Indicate ACTIVITY, a time consuming effort that is required
to perform a part of the work.
Nodes  A node is represented by a circle
- Indicate EVENT, a point in time where one or more activities
start and/or finish.

• Activity
– A task or a certain amount of work required in the project
– Requires time to complete
– Represented by an arrow
• Dummy Activity
– Indicates only precedence relationships
– Does not require any time or effort 6
CPM calculation
• Path
• A connected sequence of activities leading from the starting
event to the ending event
• Critical Path
• The longest path (time); determines the project duration
• Critical Activities
• All of the activities that make up the critical path

7
 Example- A simple network
List of four activities for developing a simple product:

Activity Description Immediate

predecessors
A Buy Plastic Body -
B Design Component -
C Make Component B
D Assemble product A,C

Immediate predecessors for a particular activity are the

activities that, when completed, enable the start of the
activity in question.
8
 Sequence of activities
• Project can start work on activities A and B
anytime, since neither of these activities depends
upon the completion of prior activities.
• Activity C cannot be started until activity B has
been completed
• Activity D cannot be started until both activities A
and C have been completed.
• The graphical representation (next slide) is
referred to as the PERT/CPM network

9
Network of Four Activities

Arcs indicate project activities

A D
1 3 4

B C

Nodes correspond to the beginning

and ending of activities

10
 Example
Develop the network for a project with following activities and
immediate predecessors:
Activity Immediate
predecessors
A -
B -
C B
D A, C
E C
F C
G D,E,F

11
 Network of Seven Activities
A D
1 3 4 G
7
E
dummy
B

C 5 F

2 6
•Dummy activity is used to identify precedence
relationships correctly and to eliminate possible
confusion of two or more activities having the same
starting and ending nodes
•Dummy activities have no resources (time, labor,
machinery, etc) – purpose is to PRESERVE LOGIC of
the network
12
 Scheduling with activity time
Activity Immediate Completion
predecessors Time (week)
A - 5
B - 6
C A 4
D A 3
E A 1
F E 4
G D,F 14
H B,C 12
I G,H 2
Total …… 51
This information indicates that the total time required to complete activities
is 51 weeks. However, we can see from the network that several of the

activities can be conducted simultaneously (A and B, for example).

13
 Earliest start & earliest finish time
• We are interested in the longest path through the
network, i.e., the critical path.
• Starting at the network’s origin (node 1) and
using a starting time of 0, we compute an
earliest start (ES) and earliest finish (EF) time
for each activity in the network.
• The expression EF = ES + t can be used to find
the earliest finish time for a given activity.
Eg: For activity A, ES = 0 and t = 5; thus the
earliest finish time for activity A is
EF = 0 + 5 = 5

14
Arc with ES & EF time
EF = earliest finish time

ES = earliest start time

Activity

2
[0,5 ]
A
5
1
t = expected activity
time

15
 Network with ES & EF time

D[5,8]
2 5
3
E[ 1 0]
6,

G[1 4
5,6 F[
]

5]
1 4

0,2
1
0,
7

A[
6]

4]
C[5,9]
4 24,2

4
I[
2
1 6
B[0
, 6] [ 9,21]
6 H
12
3

Earliest start time rule: ES for an activity leaving a

particular node is equal to the largest of EF for all
activities entering the node. 16
Activity, duration, ES, EF, LS, LF

EF = earliest finish time

ES = earliest start time

Activity

3
[ 5,9 ]
C
[ 8 ,12]
4
2
LF = latest finish time
LS = latest start time

17
 Latest start & latest finish time
• To find the critical path we need a backward
pass calculation.
• Starting at the completion point (node 7) and
using a latest finish time (LF) of 26 for activity I,
we trace back through the network computing a
latest start (LS) and latest finish time for each
activity
• The expression LS = LF – t can be used to
calculate latest start time for each activity. For
example, for activity I, LF = 26 and t = 2, thus the
latest start time for activity I is
LS = 26 – 2 = 24

18
 Network with LS & LF time

D[5,8] 5
2 3[7,10]
0]

G[1 10,24
E[ 1

14[
1[5 5,6] [6, 10]

0,2 ]
F 6,

5[ 0,5]
,6]
4[ 7

5]

4]
A[
26]

0,
4 I[24 ,

C[5,9]
4[8,12]
24 , 26]
2[
1 6
B[0 , 2 1] ]
9 4
6[6 ,6] H[ 12,2
, 12
] 12[
3

Latest finish time rule: The LFLF for an activity entering a

particular node is equal to the smallest of the latest start times for all
activities leaving the node.
19
 Slack or Free Time or Float
Slack is the length of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the
completion date for the entire project.
Eg, slack for C = 3 weeks, i.e Activity C can be delayed up to 3 weeks
(start anywhere between weeks 5 and 8).

[5 ,9 ] 3
C
ES LS EF LF
[ 8 ,12]
5 8 9 12 2 4

LF-EF = 12 –9 =3

LS-ES = 8 – 5 = 3

LF-ES-t = 12-5-4 = 3

20
Activity schedule for our example
Activity Earliest Latest Earliest Latest Slack Critical
start (ES) start (LS) finish finish (LS-ES) path
(EF) (LF)

A 0 0 5 5 0 Yes
B 0 6 6 12 6
C 5 8 9 12 3
D 5 7 8 10 2
E 5 5 6 6 0 Yes
F 6 6 10 10 0 Yes
G 10 10 24 24 0 Yes
H 9 12 21 24 3
I 24 24 26 26 0 Yes
21
 Important Questions
• What is the total time to complete the project?
• 26 weeks if the individual activities are completed on
schedule.
• What are the scheduled start and completion times for
each activity?
• ES, EF, LS, LF are given for each activity.
• What activities are critical and must be completed as
scheduled in order to keep the project on time?
• Critical path activities: A, E, F, G, and I.
• How long can non-critical activities be delayed before
they cause a delay in the project’s completion time
• Slack time available for all activities are given.

22
 Importance of Float (Slack) and Critical Path
1. Slack or Float shows how much allowance each
activity has, i.e how long it can be delayed
without affecting completion date of project
2. Critical path is a sequence of activities from start
to finish with zero slack. Critical activities are
activities on the critical path.
3. Critical path identifies the minimum time to
complete project
4. If any activity on the critical path is shortened or
extended, project time will be shortened or
extended accordingly

23
 Importance of Float (Slack) and Critical Path (cont)
5. So, a lot of effort should be put in trying to control
activities along this path, so that project can meet due
date. If any activity is lengthened, be aware that
project will not meet deadline and some action needs
to be taken.
6. If can spend resources to speed up some activity, do
so only for critical activities.
7. Don’t waste resources on non-critical activity, it will
not shorten the project time.
8. If resources can be saved by lengthening some
activities, do so for non-critical activities, up to limit
of float.
9. Total Float belongs to the path
24