PERT & CPM

PERT = Program Evaluation and Review Techniques

CPM = Critical Path Method

1. Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT)

PERT is an important technique of network analysis. It is used to plan, schedule and control the project activities of large and complex projects. It shows inter-dependent of the activities and it also provides the basis for determination of uncertainties of the activities as well as the project as a whole.

It helps to identify critical activities, bottle-neck which need more care and watch other non-critical activities which don't affect the length of the project. In PERT analysis, it is assumes that the time to perform each activity is uncertain and three times estimate are used i.e. optimistic time, pessimistic time and most likely time.

It incorporates statistical analysis in determining the time. PERT helps to answer the following questions:

1. When will the project be finished?
2. What is each activity of the project to start and finish time?
3. Which one must be finished to start another?
4. Why should the management shift the resource from the non-critical activities to critical activities?

A project consisting of six inter-dependent activities is to be analyzed by using PERT, the following information is given:

 

2. Critical Path Method (CPM)

It is another powerful technique of network analysis which is used for planning, scheduling and controlling the project. It is focused on directly critical path and critical activities.

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