Scheduling: Critical path, PERT and Gantt

Developed by Frank Almirudis, currently under construction

Under the aspect of Complexity in project management, Scheduling is the development and control of a plan which details when and how the products or services defined in a project scope will be delivered.

The resulting plan is known as a project schedule, which can also be used as a tool for management of stakeholders' expectations, means of communication and/or evaluating performance. Project data like planned dates, activities, resources, constraints, dependencies and activity sequence and duration are all inputs to the project schedule, and should be constantly monitored and updated by the project management team. To properly create and use the project schedule with the aforementioned inputs, the team must select the scheduling method that best suits the needs of their project.

Three scheduling methods are covered in this article:

• Critical path method (CPM)
• Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
• Gantt

The focus of this article is to help the reader:

• Know the definition, theory and purpose behind each scheduling method.
• Understand under what circumstances each method is best applied.
• Decide which scheduling method fits their case best.
• Apply their selected method.
• Understand the limitations of their selected method.