HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF MANUFACTURING
Dep’t of Industrial Engineering

Lecture Notes on
Project Management
(Prepared by: Instructor Sitotaw A.)

March 2020
 CHAPTER THREE
Network Logic and Construction
Introduction
A network used to represent a project is called a project network. A project network
consists of a number of nodes(typically shown as small circles or rectangles) and a
number of arcs(shown as arrows) that connect two different nodes.
As project becomes larger and more complex, the Gantt chart was found to be lacking
for a planning and control tool, because it could not indicate the logical relationships
between activities. Due to this reason a logical networking diagram is developed.
The two best-known techniques for network analysis are
 Programme Evaluation and review Technique (PERT) and
 Critical Path Method (CPM).
These two techniques were developed almost simultaneously during 1956-1958.
PERT was developed for US navy for scheduling the research and development
activities for Polaris missiles programme. CPM was developed by E.I. du Pont
de Nemours & Company as an application to construction project.
 …cont.

Both CPM and PERT describe the work plan of project where
arrows and circles respectively indicate the activities and events in
the project.
Event : is defined as an instant in time. It marks the initiation of an
activity, and the completion of an activity.
It is represented by a circle ‘o’ in a network which is also known as a node
or connector.

Examples: Design completed, pipe line laid, electricity installed, etc.

An event can be further classified into the following categories:
 …cont.

a. Merge event: When more than one activity come and join an event,
b. Burst event: When more than one activity leave an event,
c. Merge and burst event: An activity may be a merge and burst event at
the same time
 …cont.

Activity: Any individual operation, which utilizes resources and has a

beginning and an end. It is represented by an arrow with its head
indicating the direction of progress in the project.
A
Predecessor activity: Activities that must be completed immediately prior
to the start of another activity
Successor activity: Activities that cannot be started until one or more of
other activities are completed, but immediately succeed them
Dummy activity: An activity which does not consume any kind of
resource but merely depicts dependence of activity. It is represented by
arrow headed broken line.
The dummy activity is inserted in the network to clarify the activity
pattern in the following two ways:
 …cont.
i. To make the activities with common starting and finishing points
distinguishable, and
ii. To identify and maintain the proper precedence relationship
between activities that are not connected with arrows
For example, consider a situation where A and B are concurrent activities,
C is dependent on A, and D is dependent on A and B both.
Such a situation can be handled by using a dummy activity.
 …cont.
Another situation, consider a case where B and C have the
same job reference and they can be started independently
on completion of A.
But, D could be started only completion of B and C.
 …cont.

Steps For Network Analysis

The six steps of network analysis are as follows.
1. Prepare the list of activities
2. Define the inter relationship among the activities.
3. Estimate the activity duration
4. Assemble the activities in the form of a flow diagram
5. Draw the network
6. Analyze the network i.e. compute EST and LST;
identify critical events, critical path and critical
activities.
 …cont.
Rules for Drawing Network Diagram
In order to draw a network diagram, the following general rules have to
be considered:
a) Each activity is represented only by one arrow in the network:
This implies that no single activity can be represented twice in the
network.
b) No two activities can be identified by the same events
For example, activities a and b have the same end events. The procedure
is to introduce a dummy activity either between a and one of end events
or between b and one of the events.
Modified representations after introducing a dummy activity d is shown
in figure
 …cont.

As a result of using the dummy, activities a and b can now be identified by

unique end events.
 …cont.
c) In order to ensure the correct precedence relationships in arrow diagram the
following questions must be checked.
 What activity must be completed immediately before this activity can start?
 What activities must follow this activity?
 What activities must occur simultaneously with this activity?
d) The arrows depicting various activities should be indicative of
logical precedence only, hence length and bearing of the arrows are
not significance
e) Use arrows from left to right, vertical and standing arrows may
be used if necessary and avoid arrows which cross each other.
f) Use dummy activities freely in rough draft but final network
should not have any redundant dummies.
g) The network has only one entry point (start event) and one point
of emergence (end event).
 …cont.

Example 1: A project consists of six activities designated from A to F with

the following relationships.
i) Activity A is the first activity performed
ii) Activities B&C can be done concurrently and must follow activity A
iii) Activity B must precede activity D
iv) Activity E must succeed activity C but can not be started until
activity B is completed
v) Activity F is the last activity dependent on completion of activities
D&E
Then draw the network diagram.
 …cont.

Solution: let’s draw precedence table as follows

Activity A B C D E F
predecess - A A B B,C D,E
or

3 D
B

1 A
2 D F
5
C 6
E
4
 …cont.

Example 2: draw the network diagram for the following activities

 …cont.

Solution
 Activity Times and level of Detail
CPM method of single time estimate
Introduction
CPM was initially set-up to address the time cost trade-off
dilemma, where there is a complex relationship between
project time to complete and cost to complete.
In the critical path method, the critical activities of a
program or a project are identified. These are the activities
that have a direct impact on the completion date of the
project.
Terms in CPM:
An activity time: is a forecast of the time an activity is
expected to take from its starting point to its completion
under normal conditions.
 …cont.
Float for each activity, i.e., the amount of time by which the
completion of an activity can be delayed without delaying the
total project completion.
Key Steps in Critical Path Method
Let's have a look at how critical path method is used in practice.
The process of using critical path method in project planning
phase has six steps.
Step 1. Activity specification
We can use the Work Breakdown Structure WBS to identify
the activities involved in the project.
This is the main input for the critical path method. In activity
specification, only the higher-level activities are selected for
critical path method otherwise the critical path method may
become too complex to manage and maintain.
 …cont.
Step 2: Activity sequence establishment
In this step, the correct activity sequence is established. For
that, you need to ask three questions for each task of your list.
 Which tasks should take place before this task happens.
 Which tasks should be completed at the same time as this
task.
 Which tasks should happen immediately after this task .
Step 3: Network diagram
Once the activity sequence is correctly identified, the network
diagram can be drawn by putting the estimated duration on the
arrow.
Step 4: Identification of the critical path
Here the path which have longer duration is identified and
termed as critical path.
 …cont.

For this, you need to determine four parameters of

each activity of the network.
Earliest start time ES - The earliest time an activity can
start once the previous dependent activities are over.
Earliest finish time EF = ES + activity duration.
Latest finish time LF The latest time an activity can
finish without delaying the project.
Latest start time LS = LF - activity duration.
The float time for an activity is the time between the
earliest ES and the latest LS start time or between the
earliest EF and latest LF finish times.
 …cont.

Starting time for project = 0.

Since activity A starts Reliable project, we have
Activity A: ES = 0,
EF = 0 + duration (2 weeks) = 2,
Activity B can start as soon as activity A finishes, so
Activity B: ES = EF for activity A = 2,
EF = 2 + duration (4 weeks) = 6.
If an activity has only a single immediate
predecessor, then ES for the activity = EF for the
immediate predecessor.
 …cont.
If an “activity” has more than one predecessor the
earliest start time (ES) of that activity is the largest
earliest finish (EF) of all predecessor activities.
And EF time of the activity is ES of the activity
plus duration of the activity.
Note: both earliest start (ES) time and earliest finish
(EF) can be computed using forward computation /
forward pass method only.
 Example

Consider the network below

 …cont.

Solution : by forward computation method

 …cont.

Put these values on the network diagram

 Backward Computation Method
Using backward computation method the latest finish and
latest start time can be computed.
Latest finish (LF) time: The latest time an activity can
finish without delaying the project.
LF time for an activity is the smallest of the latest start time
of all the successor activities i.e. compare the LS times of all
the successor activities and select which ever is smaller.
Latest start (LS) time: is the latest time an activity can start
without delaying critical path time. LSij = LFij – t ij, Where;
(i,j) = Activity (i, j) with tail event i and head event j.
 For ending event assume latest finish time is equal to

earliest finish time

 Determination of Float and Slack Times

The float/slack/free time: The amount of time by

which the completion of an activity could be
delayed beyond the earliest expected completion
time without affecting the overall project duration
time.
Mathematically, the total float of an activity (i , j)
is the difference between the latest start time and
the earliest start time of that activity. Hence the
total float for an activity (i , j), denoted by
(T f ) ij  ( Latest start  Earliest start)
( T f ) ij  ( L S ) ij  ( E S ) ij
 …cont.

Event slacks: For any given event, the event slack is

defined as the difference between the latest event and
earliest event times.
Mathematically, for a given activity (i, j),
Tail event slack  Li  E i
Head event slack  L j  E j

Free float: is part of total float which can be used

without affecting the float of succeeding activity
Free float = Es of succeeding activity – EF of this
activity
 Determination of the Critical Path

Critical event: the events with zero slack times are called
critical events.
Since the slack of an event is the difference between the
latest and earliest event times. i.e.,
Slack ( i )  L i  E i E i  L i

In other words, the event i is said to be critical if:-

Critical activity: Since the difference between the latest
start time and earliest start time of an activity is usually
called as total float, the activities with zero total float are
known as critical activities. Any delay in these activities
leads to delay of the entire project.
 …cont.

Critical path: The sequence of critical activities in a

network is called the critical path. It is the path with
longer duration and it determines the project’s duration.
If the activities on a critical path are delayed by a day, the
project would also be delayed by a day unless the times of
the future critical activities are reduced by a day by
different means.
Note: if a particular activity has only one successor activity, the
latest start time of successor activity becomes the latest finish
time for that particular activity.
if a particular activity has more than one successor activity, the
latest finish time of that activity becomes the minimum latest
start time among successor activities.
 Illustrative example

Consider the network below and use backward pass

method to calculate the latest time
 …cont.

Then label these information on the network

The Project Network Calculating Activity Slack Time

Activity LS ES LF EF Slack Total float Free float

s (LF-EF) = LS-
ES
1-2 0 0 3 3 0 3-3 =0  
2-3 3 3 5 5 0 5-5 = 0  
2-4 4 3 5 4 1 5-4 = 1  
3-4 5 5 5 5 0 5-5 = 0  
4-5 6 5 7 6 1 7-6 =1  
4-6 5 5 8 8 0 8-8 = 0  
5-6 7 6 8 7 1 8-7 = 1  
6-7 8 8 9 9 0 9-9 = 0  
 Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT)

PERT is a technique that statistically present knowledge

about the activities and the activity uncertainties.
The PERT technique was developed to apply a statistical
treatment to the possible range of activity time durations.
PERT system is preferred those projects in which correct
time determination for various activities cannot be made.
PERT application is favorable in projects where much of
their design and Construction or production requires new
developments in materials and technology. All this is to
say that there is a large amount of uncertainties in the
development of new systems.
 …cont.

In this estimate, two more time estimates are considered:

 The pessimistic estimate and
 The optimistic estimate
 The most likely time estimate
1. The optimistic time estimate(to):- This is the shortest
possible time in which an activity can be completed, under
ideal conditions. That means complete the activity or job if
everything went along perfectly, with no problems or adverse
conditions.
2. The pessimistic time estimate(tp):- It is the best guess of the
maximum time that would be required to complete the
activity.
 …cont.
This a time to complete a particular activity if every thing went
wrong and abnormal situations prevailed (in case climatic
conditions, explosions, accidents, etc., come into effect to retard
the activity).
3. The most likely time estimate(tL):- The most likely time or
most probable time is the time that, in the mind of the
estimator, represents the time the activity would most often
require if normal conditions prevail.
This time estimate lies between the optimistic and pessimistic
time estimates.
In order to know the duration of a particular activity it is better
to find average time of these three estimates. The average of
these time estimates is referred to as the expected time.
 …cont.

In computing the expected time, a weight of 1 is

given to the optimistic time to, weight of 4 to the
most likely time(tL) and weight of 1 to the most
pessimistic time (tp)  a 4mb
6
=

2 t - t 
2
 b- a  p o
varience,v

 
  

 6  6
   
 
 …cont.

Example: consider the following table

2
b - a 

v 
 

6 