PERT/CPM

Introduction

The reticular analysis enables design and planning of a project, at all levels of details, regarding the duration of each activity, the order of priority, the review of the program when changes or delays happen and finally the cost of the project. The methods of reticular analysis which are used to optimize the design and planning of a project are PERT and CPM. These methodologies were developed independently of each other in late 50s. Researchers have used PERT method for handling problems with stochastic activities times while they have used CPM method for problems with deterministic times. Essentially, this difference resulted because these two methods encountered problems of different nature during the period they were developed. There were also differences in the way in which the two methods depicting activities with a network form. In PERT networks, the activities were represented with edges while in CPM networks the nodes symbolized the activities. In any case, these differences do not exist anymore. The way of representation of the activities is based on the user selection while the methodology is merged in a common method which is called PERT/CPM method. According to this, all the networks which are obtained by this method, they are called PERT/CPM networks.

Application

The key questions that can be answered and moreover the general the information which can be acquired by the project manager and by extension, the execution group by constructing the PERT/CPM network, are the followings: