Performance Management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Scheduling - Time (CPM and PERT) (E)

What is the project? How to select and justify the project? How to plan and execute the project?

Posted: Oct 2010

Two methods used for time scheduling of the project, Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The four steps to developing a project schedule are the following:

The critical path method (CPM) and program evaluation and review technique (PERT) are methods for estimating the duration of project tasks. The two methods can be used separately, but many projects are planned by both methods.

The purpose of CPM is to calculate the estimated completion time for the previous example. Using the tasks that take the longest, the critical path would look like this:

Task A, Task B, Task C, and Task E. Task D would not be part of the critical path since it can be done simultaneously with Task C and will take less time than Task C. The total estimated time to completion then is:

Task A (5) + Task B (10) + Task C (8) + Task E (2) = 25 time periods (minutes, hours, etc.)

Another method for estimating the duration of activities is PERT. It is referred to as a probabilistic method because it uses a weighted average of three estimates of the duration of an activity. It is preferred when there is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the duration of a task.

Using PERT, the time estimate is determined with the following formula:

T = (O + 4M + P ) ÷6 
 
T – expected time
O = most optimistic estimate of time
ML = most likely estimate of time
P = most pessimistic estimate of time

Continue on Project Management:
 
1. Project Management Overview 
2. 9 Areas of Project Management 
3. Project Lifecycle – 5 Stages of Project  
4. How to Determinine a Value of the Project? 
    4.1. Simple Payback 
    4.2. Average Return on Investment (ROI) 
    4.3. Net Present Value (NPV) 
    4.4. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 
    4.5. Cost/benefit analysis 
    4.6. Time value of money 
    4.7. Present value of future payments 
    4.8. Justification of Addopted project 
5. Project Planning – Project Charter 
6. Work Cascading Structure (WBS) 
7. Project Scheduling ( Arrow-on-Arrow and Gantt Chart ) 
8. Project Scheduling  ( CPM and PERT ) 
9. The Responisbility Matrix 
10. Resources and Budget Planning 
11. Clasification of Projects