Project Management
•Project Manager have been planning , Scheduling, monitoring and
controlling large scale project .
•For last 50 years the management science techniques have been applied
on the project.
•They are two types
•Critical Path Method(CPM)
•Project Evaluation and Review Technique(PERT)
Example 2:
Rules for designing the Activity-on-Node network diagram:
• A project network should have only one start node
• A project network should have only one end node
• A node has a duration
• Links normally have no duration
• “Precedents” are the immediate preceding activities
• Time moves from left to right in the project network
• A network should not contain loops
• A network should not contain dangles
Node Representation:
Forward Pass
The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each activity may be started and completed.
• Activity A may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(A) = 0. It takes 6 weeks to complete
its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 6 i.e. EF(A) = 6.
• Activity B may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(B) = 0. It takes 4 weeks to complete
its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 4 i.e. EF(B) = 4.
• Activity F may start immediately. Hence, earliest date for its start is zero i.e. ES(F) = 0. It takes 10 weeks to complete
its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 10 i.e. EF(F) = 10.
• Activity C starts as soon as activity A completes its execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 6
i.e. ES(C) = 6. It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 9 i.e. EF(C) = 9.
• Activity D starts as soon as activity B completes its execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 4
i.e. ES(D) = 4. It takes 4 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 8 i.e. EF(D) = 8.
• Activity E starts as soon as activity B completes its execution. Hence, earliest week it can start its execution is week 4
i.e. ES(E) = 4. It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 7 i.e. EF(E) = 7.
• Activity G starts as soon as activity E and activity F completes their execution. Since, activity requires the completion
of both for starting its execution, we would consider the MAX(ES(E), ES(F)). Hence, earliest week it can start its
execution is week 10 i.e. ES(G) = 10. It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week
13 i.e. EF(G) = 13.
• Activity H starts as soon as activity C and activity D completes their execution. Since, activity requires the completion
of both for starting its execution, we would consider the MAX(ES(C), ES(D)). Hence, earliest week it can start its
execution is week 9 i.e. ES(H) = 9. It takes 2 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, earliest it can finish is week 11
i.e. EF(H) = 11.
Backward Pass
• The backward pass is carried out to calculate the latest dates on which each activity may be
started and finished without delaying the end date of the project.
Assumption: Latest finish date = Earliest Finish date (of project).
• Activity G’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish date of the precedent activity of finish
according to the assumption i.e. LF(G) = 13. It takes 3 weeks to complete its execution. Hence,
latest it can start is week 10 i.e. LS(G) = 10.
• Activity H’s latest finish date is equal to the earliest finish date of the precedent activity of finish
according to the assumption i.e. LF(H) = 13. It takes 2 weeks to complete its execution. Hence,
latest it can start is week 11 i.e. LS(H) = 11.
• The latest end date for activity C would be the latest start date of H i.e. LF(C) = 11. It takes 3 weeks
to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 8 i.e. LS(C) = 8.
• The latest end date for activity D would be the latest start date of H i.e. LF(D) = 11. It takes 4
weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(D) = 7.
• The latest end date for activity E would be the latest start date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 3
weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 7 i.e. LS(E) = 7.
• The latest end date for activity F would be the latest start date of G i.e. LF(G) = 10. It takes 10
weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 0 i.e. LS(F) = 0.
• The latest end date for activity A would be the latest start date of C i.e. LF(A) = 8. It takes 6 weeks
to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 2 i.e. LS(A) = 2.
• The latest end date for activity B would be the earliest of the latest start date of D and E i.e. LF(B)
= 7. It takes 4 weeks to complete its execution. Hence, latest it can start is week 3 i.e. LS(B) = 3.
Identifying Critical Path
• Critical path is the path which gives us or helps us to estimate the earliest time in
which the whole project can be completed. Any delay to an activity on this critical
path will lead to a delay in the completion of the whole project. In order to identify
the critical path, we need to calculate the activity float for each activity.
• Activity float is actually the difference between an activity’s Earliest start and its
latest start date or the difference between the activity’s Earliest finish and its latest
finish date and it indicates that how much the activity can be delayed without
delaying the completion of the whole project. If the float of an activity is zero, then
the activity is an critical activity and must be added to the critical path of the project
network. In this example, activity F and G have zero float and hence, are critical
activities.
Gantt Chart
• Generalized Activity Normalization Time Table (GANTT) chart is type of chart in which
series of horizontal lines are present that show the amount of work done or production
completed in given period of time in relation to amount planned for those projects.
• The purpose of Gantt chart is to emphasize scope of individual tasks. Hence set of tasks is
given as input to Gantt chart. Gantt chart is also known as timeline chart. It can be developed
for entire project or it can be developed for individual functions. In most of projects, after
generation of timeline chart, project tables are prepared. In project tables, all tasks are listed in
proper manner along with start date and end date and information related to it.
• Gantt chart represents following things :
All the tasks are listed at leftmost column.
The horizontal bars indicate or represent required time by corresponding particular task.
When occurring of multiple horizontal bars takes place at same time on calendar, then that
means concurrency can be applied for performing particular tasks.
The diamonds indicate milestones.
Advantages
• Simplify Project –
Gantt charts are generally used for simplifying complex projects.
• Establish Schedule –
It simply establishes initial project schedule in which it mentions who is going to do what, when, and how
much time it will take to complete it.
• Provide Efficiency –
It brings efficiency in planning and allows team to better coordinate project activities.
• Emphasize on scope –
It helps in emphasizing i.e., gives importance to scope of individual tasks.
• Ease at understanding –
It makes it for easy stakeholders to understand timeline and brings clarity of dates.
• Visualize project –
It helps in clearly visualizing project management, project tasks involved.
• Organize thoughts and Highly visible –
It organizes your thoughts and can be highly visible so that everyone in enterprises can have basic level of
understanding and have knowledge about what’s happening in project even if they are not involved in
working.
• Make Practical and Realistic planning –
It makes the project planning practical and realistic as realistic planning generally helps to avoid any kind of
delays and losses of many that can arise.
Example
Applications :
There are several professions, where use of gantt chart is very beneficial.
Some of them are given below:
• Advertising Manager –
Advertising Managers generally controls and supervises end result of
advertising companies, scheduling advertisements in different media,
etc.
• Operations Manager –
Operations Managers generally control and handle resources that are
essential for company operations.
• Project Manager –
Project Managers generally motivates project teams, collaborate with
team members, schedule task and complete that on time, and report to
stakeholders, etc.