Project Scheduling

Ingredients of Project

Specific outcomes: Products or

results

Definite start and end dates:

Projects dont go on forever

Established budgets: Required

amounts of people
 Project Management

Used to manage large complex projects

Has three phases:

1. Project planning
2. Project scheduling
3. Project controlling
 Phase 1: Project Planning

1. What is the project goal or objective?

2. What are the activities (or tasks) involved?
3. How are activities linked?
4. How much time required for each activity?
5. What resources are required for each
activity?
 Phase 2: Project Scheduling

1. When will the entire project be

completed?
2. What is the scheduled start and end time
for each activity?
3. Which are the critical activities?
4. Which are the noncritical activities?
 Phase 2: Project Scheduling (cont.)

5. How late can noncritical activities be w/o

delaying the project?
6. After accounting for uncertainty, what is
the probability of completing the project
by a specific deadline?

When do you want the

Project to be
done?
 Phase 3: Project Controlling

At regular intervals during the project the

following questions should be considered:

Is the project on schedule? Early? Late?

Are costs equal to the budget? Over
budget? Under budget?
Are there adequate resources?
What is the best way to reduce project
duration at minimum cost?
 Project Scheduling Phase

Commonly used techniques:

Gantt Chart (Bar Chart)

Critical Path Method (CPM)
Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT)
 Gantt Chart

Graph or bar chart with a bar

for each project activity that
shows passage of time
Provides visual display of
project schedule
 Historical Background
CPM (Critical Path Method) scheduling was developed in the late
1950's.

Introduced to the industry as a tool to improve planning and scheduling of

construction programs.

Concurrent with industrial development of CPM, the U.S. Navy introduced

a similar method of scheduling called PERT.

PERT is an acronym for Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

The Navy developed this method to evaluate and monitor progress of the
Polaris Missile Program.

The major difference between CPM and PERT is that PERT is a more
probabilistic approach that lends itself to activities for which there is little or
no historical experience, whereas CPM uses historical information for
establishing durations.
 Demonstration
A house is to be constructed. The various activities are listed in the following table
with an information on time and predecessors.

Activity Duration(months) predecessor

Design house and 3
obtain financing
Lay foundation 2 1
Order and receive 1 1
materials
Build house 3 2,3
Select paints 1 2,3
Select carpet 1 5
Finish work 1 6
 Example of Gantt Chart
Month
0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10
Activity
Design house
and obtain
financing
Lay foundation
Order and
receive
materials

Build house

Select paint

Select carpet

Finish work

1 3 5 7 9
Month
 Project Network

Activity-on-node (AON)
nodes represent activities,
and arrows show
precedence relationships
Event Node
completion or beginning
of an activity in a project
1 2 3

Branch
AON Network for House Building Project

Lay foundations Build house

2 4
Finish work
2 3
7
Start 1 1
3
Design house 6
and obtain
3
1 5 1
financing
1 Select carpet
Order and receive
materials Select paint
 Critical Path

2 4
2 3
7
Start 1 1
3

3 6
1 5 1
1

A: 1-2-4-7 Critical path

3 + 2 + 3 + 1 = 9 months
B: 1-2-5-6-7 Longest path
3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 8 months through a network
C: 1-3-4-7 Minimum project
3 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 8 months
completion time
D: 1-3-5-6-7
3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7 months
 Activity Start Times

Start at 5 months

2 4
Finish at 9 months
2 3
7 Finish
Start 1 1
3

3 6
1 5 1
1 Start at 6 months
Start at 3 months
 Node Configuration

Activity number Earliest start

Earliest finish
1 0 3

3 0 3 Latest finish

Activity duration Latest start

 Activity Scheduling
Earliest start time (ES)
earliest time an activity can start
ES = maximum EF of immediate predecessors
Forward pass
starts at beginning of CPM/PERT network to determine earliest
activity times
Earliest finish time (EF)
earliest time an activity can finish
earliest start time plus activity time
EF= ES + t
Earliest Activity Start and Finish Times

Lay foundations
Build house
2 3 5
Start 4 5 8
2
3

1 0 3 7 8 9
3 1
Design house
and obtain 6 6 7 Finish work
financing 3 3 4
1
1 5 5 6
Select carpet
Order and receive 1
materials Select pain
 Activity Scheduling (cont.)
Latest start time (LS)
Latest time an activity can start without delaying critical path
time
LS= LF - t
Latest finish time (LF)
latest time an activity can be completed without delaying critical
path time
LF = minimum LS of immediate predecessors
Backward pass
Determines latest activity times by starting at the end of
CPM/PERT network and working forward
Latest Activity Start and Finish Times

Lay foundations
Build house
2 3 5
Start 4 5 8
2 3 5
3 5 8

1 0 3 7 8 9
3 0 3 1 8 9
Design house
and obtain 6 6 7 Finish work
financing 3 3 4
1 7 8
1 4 5 5 5 6
Select carpet
Order and receive 1 6 7
materials Select pain
 Activity Slack
ES = LS or EF = LF indicates critical path

ES-LS or EF-LF indicates slack time

Activity LS ES LF EF Slack S
*1 0 0 3 3 0
*2 3 3 5 5 0
3 4 3 5 4 1
*4 5 5 8 8 0
5 6 5 7 6 1
6 7 6 8 7 1
*7 8 8 9 9 0
* Critical Path
 Slack Time and Critical Path(s)

Slack is the length of time an activity can

be delayed without delaying the project
Slack = LS ES

Activities with 0 slack are Critical Activities

The Critical Path is a continuous path
through the network from start to finish that
include only critical activities
 Total Slack Time vs. Free Slack Time

Total slack time is shared by more than 1

activity

Free slack time is associated with only 1

activity
 Activity Slack
Total Slack Time is shared by activity 3-5-6.

What is the implication of this situation?

Activity LS ES LF EF Slack S
*1 0 0 3 3 0
*2 3 3 5 5 0
3 4 3 5 4 1
*4 5 5 8 8 0
5 6 5 7 6 1
6 7 6 8 7 1
*7 8 8 9 9 0
* Critical Path
Latest Activity Start and Finish Times
Activity 3-5-6 together can
be delayed by 2 months and
not by 3 months.
Lay foundations
Build house
2 3 5
Start 4 5 8
2 3 5
3 5 8

1 0 3 7 8 9
1 0 3 1 8 9
Design house
and obtain 6 6 7 Finish work
financing 3 3 4
1 7 8
1 4 5 5 5 6
Select carpet
Order and receive 1 6 7
materials Select pain
 EXERCISE # 1

Data
Precedence
Activity Time Relationships
A 3
B 5
C 7 A
D 5 A
E 4 B,C
F 6 B
G 2 E,D
H 3 F
1. Develop a Gantt chart
2. Determine the total project completion time and critical path.
 Network Diagram

A D
G

End
Start C

E H
B

Critical path = A-C-E-G

Project length = 16 weeks
 Analysis

Activity Time ES EF LS LF Slack Critical?

A 3 0 3 0 3 0 Y
B 5 0 5 2 7 2 N
C 7 3 10 3 10 0 Y
D 5 3 8 9 14 6 N
E 4 10 14 10 14 0 Y
F 6 5 11 7 13 2 N
G 2 14 16 14 16 0 Y
H 3 11 14 13 16 2 N

Critical path = A-C-E-G

Project length = 16 weeks
 Exercise # 2

Data
Precedence
Activity Time Relationships
A 2
B 5
C 1
D 10 B
E 3 A,D
F 6 C
G 8 E,F

1. Develop a Gantt chart

2. Determine the total project completion time and critical path.
 Network Diagram

B D

E
Start

A G

F
C
 Analysis

Activity Time ES EF LS LF Slack Critical?

A 2 0 2 13 15 13 N
B 5 0 5 0 5 0 Y
C 1 0 1 11 12 11 N
D 10 5 15 5 15 0 Y
E 3 15 18 15 18 0 Y
F 6 1 7 12 18 11 N
G 8 18 26 18 26 0 Y

Critical path = B-D-E-G

Project length = 26 days
 Exercise # 3

Data
Activity Time Precedence Relationships
1 4
2 7
3 8 1
4 3 1
5 9 2
6 5 3
7 2 3
8 6 4 5 6
9 5 2
 Gantt Chart
Gantt Chart

7
Activity

0 5 10 15 20 25

Time
 Project Scheduling
Schedule
Early Early Late Late
Activity Start Finish Start Finish Slack
1 0 4 0 4 0
2 0 7 1 8 1
3 4 12 4 12 0
4 4 7 14 17 10
5 7 16 8 17 1
6 12 17 12 17 0
7 12 14 21 23 9
8 17 23 17 23 0
9 7 12 18 23 11
Duration 23