Page 134 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Project Scheduling

7.7 Summary Notes

CPM was the discovery of M.R. Walker of E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E. Kelly of
Remington Rand, circa 1957.

PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation
Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S. Navy.

There have been several extensions to both network and chart forms of project scheduling.
Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic Managerial
functions.

In our Social Project, the Project Manager is now not so certain that each activity will be
completed on the basis of the single estimate.
The Beta distribution is appropriate for calculation of activity durations.

One shortcoming of the PERT/CPM network method is that it does not allow for leads and
lags between two activities without greatly increasing the number of subactivities to
account for this

Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a focus around
which managers could brainstorm and put their ideas together.

There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning costs,
scheduling manpower and machine time.

7.8 Keywords

Free Float: It is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest possible
times and all succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible times.
PERT: PERT assumes that the expected length of a project (or a sequence of independent activities)
is simply the sum of their separate expected lengths.

Total Float: It is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at the earliest
possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the latest possible times.

7.9 Review Questions

1. Describe the brief history of CRM.

2. Explain the language of PERT/CPM.
3. Discuss precedence diagramming.
4. Briefly explain the planning, scheduling and control.
5. Discuss the framework of PERT and CPM.

6. Describe total float and free float.
7. Explain the PERT approach.
8. Describe the PERT calculations for the social project.
9. Explain the expected length of a project.

10. Discuss the rule “The Backward pass”.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 129