CPM - PERT NETWORK /PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

1. NET WORK ANALYSIS – CPM/PERT

3. 5. Helpful for scheduling, monitoring, and controlling projects
6. CMP determines the project duration, which minimized the sum of direct and
indirect costs.
7. The activities and their outcomes can be shown as a network
8. Displays dependencies to help scheduling
9. Evaluates which activities can run parallel to each other
10. Determines slack and float times
11. Widely used in industry
12. Can define multiple, equally critical paths
LimitationsofCPM:
The main limitations of the CPM are:
1. CPM operates on the assumption that there is a precise known time that each
activity in the project will take. But, it may not be true in real practice. Expected time
may not be always known with accuracy.
2. CPM time estimates are not based on statistical analysis.
3. It cannot be used as a controlling device for the simple reason that any
change introduced will change the entire structure of network. In
other words, CPM cannot be used as a dynamic controlling device.
4. CPM's can be complicated, and complexity increases for larger projects
5. Does not handle the scheduling of personnel or the allocation of resources
6. The critical path is not always clear and needs to be calculated carefully
7. Estimating activity completion times can be difficult especially for the new
Projects.

6. Comparing CPM and PERT
Both CPM and PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) provide the user with project
management tools to plan, monitor, and update their project as it progresses. There are many
similarities and differences between the two, however.
Similarities between PERT and CPM
 Both follow the same steps and use network diagrams
 Both are used to plan the scheduling of individual activities that make up a project
 They can be used to determine the earliest/latest start and finish times for each activity
Differences between PERT and CPM
 PERT is probabilistic whereas CPM is deterministic
 In CPM, estimates of activity duration are based on historical data
 In PERT, estimates are uncertain and we talk of ranges of duration and the probability that an
activity duration will fall into that range
 CPM concentrates on Time/Cost trade off.

7. H1 is the Dummy Activity.