Page 229 - DMGT521_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Project Management

Notes duration of zero (0). Then you draw each activity that does not have a predecessor activity (a and
b in this example) and connect them with an arrow. Next, since both c and d list a as a predecessor
activity, their nodes are drawn with arrows coming from a. Activity e is listed with b and c as
predecessor activities, so node e is drawn with arrows coming from both b and c, signifying that
e cannot begin until both b and c have been completed. Activity f has d as a predecessor activity,
so an arrow is drawn connecting the activities. Likewise, and arrow is drawn from e to g. Since
there are no activities that come after f or g, it is recommended (but again not necessary) to
connect them to a node labelled finish.

Figure 13.10: Network Diagram

A network diagram created using Microsoft Project (MSP).

A node like this one (from Microsoft Vision) can be used to display the activity name, duration,
ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack.
By itself, the network diagram pictured above does not give much more information than a
Gantt chart; however, it can be expanded to display more information. The most common
information shown is:
1. The activity name
2. The normal duration time

3. The early start time (ES)
4. The early finish time (EF)
5. The late start time (LS)
6. The late finish time (LF)

7. The slack
In order to determine this information it is assumed that the activities and normal duration
times are given. The first step is to determine the ES and EF. The ES is defined as the maximum
EF of all predecessor activities, unless the activity in question is the first activity, which the ES is
zero (0). The EF is the ES plus the task duration (EF = ES + duration).

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