Network Planning in Project Management

Abstract

Planning is a big part of project management, and the success of it is highly dependent on this step. The method Network planning will be used to reduce possible complexity of a project and smoothen the execution of the project planning. A project of a large scale that require coordination of multiple activities is a challenging task for a project manager. Succeeding a project is about simple forms of working and organising regardless the size of the project. The method will therefore be used as an integration approach where the different activities are separated to get an overview of the process. Understanding the dependencies of the project and setting up millstones is also ideal to motivate the employees involved in the project.

Project networking is investigating a project as sets of interconnected activities with the purpose of assisting in planning, managing, and controlling projects. This article will mainly focus on the most well know network planning techniques: the Critical path method (CPM) and the Program evaluation and review technique (PERT). CPM and PERT was developed in the 1950’s and has since that been used widely in operation research . The goal of the tool is to manage a project, meeting its deadlines with a minimum total cost. The tools will help organising the project, getting an overview of the activities and estimate the total length of the project. There can be multiple paths to the end of the project, but those tools can help the manager find the most effective one. Initially the methods will need three types of information to describe the project: activity, precedence, and time . This will be elaborated in the article followed by a description of the tool, an example of how to use the tool, other alternative planning tools and the limitations of the tool.

This article will stand out from the other network planning articles by elaborating the theory behind network/graphs and the focus on the comparison of different planning tools that are not focused on network planning specifically.

Network Theory

The first section will describe the terminology of network planning.

References

1. F. S. Hillier & G. J. Lieberman. (2015). Introduction to operation research.

2. J. Geraldi, C. Thuesen, & J. Oehmen. (2017). Doing Projects - Nordic flavour to managing projects.

3. Rand, Graham K. & Tavares, Luis Valadares. (2005). Network Planning: Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science.