This document provides an overview of project management techniques PERT and CPM. It begins with an introduction to project management, explaining that it ensures projects are properly planned and executed to deliver value. It then describes PERT as a method for analyzing time needed to complete project tasks and identify minimum time to complete a project while incorporating uncertainty. CPM is described as a technique that calculates the longest path of activities to determine which are critical and have float. The document emphasizes that these techniques help ensure projects are completed on time and on budget by structuring the planning and management of tasks and dependencies.

1. 1
Project Management : PERT & CPM
Author: Shashank kapoor*
Faculty of Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh Rd. ,Agra
Abstract : Project management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a
view to produce finished products or service. There are many ways in which a project
can be carried out and the way in which it is executed is project management. It also
includes identifying requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives,
balancing the competing demands from the different stakeholders and ensuring that a
commonality of purpose is achieved. It is clear that unless there is a structured and
scientific approach to the practice of management, organizations would find
themselves adrift in the Ocean called organizational development and hence would be
unable to meet the myriad challenges that the modern era throws at them. Hence, the
importance of project management to organizations cannot be emphasized more and
the succeeding paragraphs provide some reasons why organizations must take the
practice of project management seriously.
Introduction
Great project management means much
more than keeping project management’s
iron triangle in check, delivering on time,
budget, and scope; it unites clients and
teams, creates a vision for success and
gets everyone on the same page of
what’s needed to stay on track for
success. When projects are managed
properly, there’s a positive impact that
reverberates beyond delivery of ‘the
stuff’.
1. Strategic Alignment
Project management is important
because it ensures what is being
delivered, is right, and will deliver real
value against the business opportunity.
*for correspondence
Shashank kapoor
B.Tech IIIrd yr, Mechanical
Specialisation in CS
(154169)
Shashankkapoor1994@gmail.com
Every client has strategic goals and the
projects that we do for them advance
those goals. Project management is
important because it ensures there’s rigor
in architecting projects properly so that
they fit well within the broader context
of our client’s strategic frameworks
Good project management ensures that
the goals of projects closely align with
the strategic goals of the business.
2. Leadership
Project management is important
because it brings leadership and direction
to projects.
Without project management, a team can
be like a ship without a rudder; moving
but without direction, control or purpose.
Leadership allows and enables a team to
do their best work. Project management
provides leadership and vision,
motivation, removing roadblocks,
coaching and inspiring the team to do
their best work.

2. 2
3. Clear Focus & Objectives
Project management is important
because it ensures there’s a proper plan
for executing on strategic goals.
Where project management is left to the
team to work out by themselves, you’ll
find teams work without proper briefs,
projects lack focus, can have vague or
nebulous objectives, and leave the team
not quite sure what they’re supposed to
be doing, or why.
As project managers, we position
ourselves to prevent such a situation and
drive the timely accomplishment of
tasks, by breaking up a project into tasks
for our teams. Oftentimes, the foresight
to take such an approach is what
differentiates good project management
from bad. Breaking up into smaller
chunks of work enables teams to remain
focused on clear objectives, gear their
efforts towards achieving the ultimate
goal through the completion of smaller
steps and to quickly identify risks,
since risk management is important in
project management.
4. Realistic Project Planning
Project management is important
because it ensures proper expectations
are set around what can be delivered, by
when, and for how much.
Without proper project management,
budget estimates and project delivery
timelines can be set that are over-
ambitious or lacking in analogous
estimating insight from similar projects.
Ultimately this means without good
project management, projects get
delivered late, and over budget.
5. Quality Control
Projects management is important
because it ensures the quality of
whatever is being delivered, consistently
hits the mark.
Projects are also usually under enormous
pressure to be completed. Without a
dedicated project manager, who has the
support and buy-in of executive
management, tasks are underestimated,
schedules tightened and processes
rushed. The result is bad quality output.
Dedicated project management ensures
that not only does a project have the time
and resources to deliver, but also that the
output is quality tested at every stage.
6. Risk Management
Project management is important
because it ensures risks are properly
managed and mitigated against to avoid
becoming issues.
Risk management is critical to project
success. The temptation is just to sweep
them under the carpet, never talk about
them to the client and hope for the best.
But having a robust process around
the identification, management and
mitigation of risk is what helps prevent
risks from becoming issues.
7. Orderly Process
Project management is important
because it ensures the right people do the
right things, at the right time – it ensures
proper project process is followed
throughout the project lifecycle.
Surprisingly, many large and well-
known companies have reactive planning
processes. But reactivity – as opposed to
proactivity – can often cause projects to
go into survival mode. This is a when
teams fracture, tasks duplicate, and

3. 3
planning becomes reactive creating
inefficiency and frustration in the team.
8. Continuous Oversight
Project management is important
because it ensures a project’s progress is
tracked and reported properly.
Status reporting might sound boring and
unnecessary – and if everything’s going
to plan, it can just feel like
documentation for documentation’s
sake. But continuous project oversight,
ensuring that a project is tracking
properly against the original plan, is
critical to ensuring that a project stays on
track.
9. Subject Matter Expertise
Project management is important
because someone needs to be able to
understand if everyone’s doing what they
should.
With a few years experience under their
belt, project managers will know a little
about a lot of aspects of delivering the
projects they manage. They’ll know
everything about the work that their
teams execute; the platforms and systems
they use, and the possibilities and
limitations, and the kinds of issues that
typically occur.
10.Learning from Success and Failure
Project management is important
because it learns from the successes and
failures of the past.
Project management can break bad
habits and when you’re delivering
projects, it’s important to not make the
same mistakes twice. Project managers
use retrospectives or post project reviews
to consider what went well, what didn’t
go so well and what should be done
differently for the next project.
PERT
Project Evaluation and Review
Techniques is commonly abbreviated to
PERT. PERT is a method of analyzing
the tasks involved in completing a given
project, especially the time needed to
complete each task, and to identify the
minimum time needed to complete the
total project. It incorporates uncertainty
by making it possible to schedule a
project while not knowing precisely the
details and durations of all the activities.
It is more of an event-oriented technique
rather than start- and completion-
oriented, and is used more in projects
where time is the major factor rather than
cost. It is applied to very large-scale,
one-time, complex, non-routine
infrastructure and Research and
Development projects.
Program Evaluation Review Technique
(PERT) offers a management tool, which
relies "on arrow and node diagrams
of activities and events: arrows represent
the activities or work necessary to reach
the events or nodes that indicate each
completed phase of the total project."
CPM
The critical path method (CPM) is a
project modeling technique developed in
the late 1950s by Morgan R. Walker
of DuPont and James E. Kelley Jr.
of Remington Rand.
The essential technique for using
CPM: is to construct a model of the
project that includes the following:
1. A list of all activities required to
complete the project (typically

4. 4
categorized within a work
breakdown structure),
2. The time (duration) that each
activity will take to complete,
3. The dependencies between the
activities and,
4. Logical end points such as
milestones or deliverable items.
Using these values, CPM calculates
the longest path of planned activities to
logical end points or to the end of the
project, and the earliest and latest that
each activity can start and finish without
making the project longer. This process
determines which activities are "critical"
(i.e., on the longest path) and which have
"total float" (i.e., can be delayed without
making the project longer). In project
management, a critical path is the
sequence of project network activities
which add up to the longest overall
duration, regardless if that longest
duration has float or not. This determines
the shortest time possible to complete the
project. There can be 'total float' (unused
time) within the critical path. For
example, if a project is testing a solar
panel and task 'B' requires 'sunrise', there
could be a scheduling constraint on the
testing activity so that it would not start
until the scheduled time for sunrise. This
might insert dead time (total float) into
the schedule on the activities on that path
prior to the sunrise due to needing to
wait for this event. This path, with the
constraint-generated total float would
actually make the path longer, with total
float being part of the shortest possible
duration for the overall project. In other
words, individual tasks on the critical
path prior to the constraint might be able
to be delayed without elongating the
critical path; this is the 'total float' of that
task. However, the time added to the
project duration by the constraint is
actually critical path drag, the amount by
which the project's duration is extended
by each critical path activity and
constraint.
A project can have several, parallel, near
critical paths; and some or all of the tasks
could have 'free float' and/or 'total float'.
An additional parallel path through the
network with the total durations shorter
than the critical path is called a sub-
critical or non-critical path. Activities on
sub-critical paths have no drag, as they
are not extending the project's duration.
CPM analysis tools allow a user to select
a logical end point in a project and
quickly identify its longest series of
dependent activities (its longest path).
These tools can display the critical path
(and near critical path activities if
desired) as a cascading waterfall that
flows from the project's start (or current
status date) to the selected logical end
point.
References
1. https://www.slideshare.net/dubey1992
/pert-cpm-project-management
2. https://www.slideshare.net/iirmjaipur/p
roject-management-pert-and-cpm
3. www.idc.iitb.ac.in/~chakku/dm/06_Per
t%20cpm.ppt
4. www.interventions.org/pertcpm/
5. www.math.upatras.gr/~tsantas/.../Hillie
r&Lieberman_7th-
edition_Chapter10.pdf
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critic
al_path_method
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_
evaluation_and_review_technique
8. https://www.slideshare.net/corvinno/pe
rt-presentation-824238

5. 5
9. https://www.slideshare.net/tomeh/prog
ram-evaluation-review-technique-pert
10.www.aast.edu/pheed/staffadminview/p
df_retreive.php?url=157...1...ppt