Chapter 12
Network Scheduling
Techniques
Scheduling Techniques
Gantt or bar charts
Milestone charts
Line of balance
Networks
– Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
– Arrow Diagram Method (ADM) [Sometimes called
the Critical Path Method (CPM)]
– Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique
(GERT)
– Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)
Bar (Gantt) Chart
MONTHS AFTER GO-AHEAD
TASKS 1 2 3 4 5
5
Milestone Chart
ACTIVITY
TESTING
ANALYSIS
REPORT
PRESENTATION
TIME
Standard PERT Nomenclature
3 WEEKS
6 3
COMPLETE TESTING COMPLETE FINAL REPORT
LEGEND
LEGEND
EVENT
ACTIVITY
Dependencies
31 31
26 18 18 26
7 7
BURST POINT SINK
Conversion From Bar To PERT
1 2
BAR CHART 3 4 5
6 7
TIME
3 2
1 2
1 2
PERT CHART 3 2 4 2 5
1
1 4
6 7
Simplified PERT Network
3
1 2 5 6 7 8 9
4
LEGEND: (TIME = WEEKS)
EVENT
ACTIVITY
CRITICAL PATH ACTIVITY
Dummy Activities
A PRECEDING
ACTIVITY ACTIVITY
DUMMY A -
B -
C B
B D A,B
C
Slack Identification
ACTIVITY EARLIEST START TIME
EARLIEST FINISH TIME
C (8,10)
2 (15,17)
LATEST FINISH TIME
TIME
LATEST START TIME
Types Of Slack
[ 20, 26 ] [ 30, 36 ]
[ 24, 30 ] [ 24, 30 ]
POSITIVE SLACK NEGATIVE SLACK
Negative Slack
FORWARD PASS
3 4
BACKWARD PASS
1 2
CUSTOMER’S CUSTOMER’S
START DATE FINISH DATE
Schedule Compression
Elimination of some parts of the project
Addition of more resources
Substitution of less time-consuming
components or activities
Parallelization of activities
Shortening critical path activities
Shortening early activities
Shortening longest activities
Schedule Compression
(Continued)
Shortening easiest activities
Shortening activities that are least costly
to speed up
Shortening activities for which you have
more resources
Increasing the number of work hours per
day
Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is an attempt to
eliminate the manpower peaks and
valleys by smoothing out the period-to-
period resource requirements. The ideal
situation is to do this without changing
the end date. However, in reality, the end
date moves out and additional costs are
incurred.
Resource Allocation
Resource allocation (or resource limited
planning) is an attempt to find the
shortest possible critical path based upon
the available or fixed resources. The
problem with this approach is that the
employees may not be qualified
technically to perform work on more than
one activity in a network.
Planning Objectives
(Primary)
Best time
Least cost
Least risk
Planning Objectives
(Secondary)
Studying alternatives
Optimum schedules
Effective use of resources
Communications
Refinement of the estimating process
Ease of project control
Ease of time or cost revisions
Planning Objectives
(Limitations)
Calendar completion
Cash or cash flow restrictions
Limited resources
Management approvals
Program Crashing Costs
ALL ACTIVITIES CRASHED
MINIMUM COST
160,000
TOTAL CRASH CRASH B
PROGRAM COST, $
150,000
CRASH E
140,000 CRASH F
130,000 CRASH A
NORMAL OPERATIONS
120,000
110,000
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
PROGRAM COMPLETION TIME, WEEKS
Precedence Network
MONTHS AFTER GO-AHEAD
TASKS 1 2 3 4 5
5
Types Of Precedence Charts
FINISH START
FINISH-TO-START ACTIVITY 1 ACTIVITY 2
START
START-TO-START ACTIVITY 1
START
ACTIVITY 2
Types Of Precedence Charts
FINISH
FINISH
FINISH-TO-FINISH ACTIVITY 1
ACTIVITY 2
PERCENT COMPLETE
ACTIVITY 1
50 %
20 %
ACTIVITY 2
ACTIVITY INFORMATION
EARLY START TIME DURATION EARLY FINISH
01/06/97 2 WORK-WEEKS 14/06/97
TOTAL
SLACK(TS)
ACTIVITY 4 $250,000
FREE SLACK
(FS)
LATE START COST/PROFIT LATE FINISH
15/06/97 CENTER 2810 28/06/97