The Techniques used in Project Management

Assignment - 2

Vineeth Nagumantri, MBA- B - Previous

The Techniques used in Project Management:

There are two techniques in project management.

1. Critical Path Method(CPM)2. Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).

CPM was developed by E.L. Du Pont de Nemours & Company as an application to construction projects and was later extended by Mauchly Associates.

PERT was developed by a consulting firm for scheduling the research and development activities for the Polaris missile program of US Navy.

CPM - Critical Path Method

Definition: CPM Deals with project management involving deterministic time estimates.

In CPM activities are shown as a network of precedence relationships using activity-on-node network construction

– Single estimate of activity time– Deterministic activity times

USED IN: Production management - for the jobs of repetitive in nature where the activity time estimates can be predicted with considerable certainty due to the existence of past experience.

PERT - Project Evaluation & Review Techniques

Definition:

In PERT activities are shown as a network of precedence relationships using activity-on-arrow network construction

– Multiple time estimates – Probabilistic activity times

The following three estimates are used in PERT are

Optimistic Time (a): It is a time estimates if execution goes extremely good. Pessimistic Time (b): It is a time estimates if execution goes very badly.

Most Likely time (m): It is a time estimates if execution is normal.

The probabilistic data for project activities generally follow Beta Distribution. The formula for mean (µ) and variance (). The range for the time estimates is from a to b.

USED IN: Project management - for non-repetitive jobs (research and development work), where the time and cost estimates tend to be quite uncertain. This technique uses probabilistic time estimates.

These deficiencies can be eliminated to a large extent by showing the interdependence of various activities by means of connecting arrows called network technique.

Overtime CPM and PERT became one technique ADVANTAGES:

– Precedence relationships

– large projects

– more efficient

The Major Differences and Similarities between PERT and CPM

PERT and CPM are very similar in their approach; however, two distinctions are usually made.

The first relates to the way in which activity duration are estimated. In PERT, three estimates are used to form a weighted average of the expected completion time, based on a probability distribution of completion times. Therefore, PERT is considered a probabilistic tool.

In CPM, there is only one estimate of duration; that is, CPM is a deterministic tool. The second difference is that CPM allows an explicit estimate of costs in addition to time.

Thus, while PERT is basically a tool for planning and control of time, CPM can be used to control both the time and the cost of the project.

Extensions of both PERT and CPM allow the user to manage other resources in addition to time and money, to trade off resources, to analyze different types of schedules, and to balance the use of resources, tensions of both PERT and CPM allow the user to manage other resources in addition to time and money, to trade off resources, to analyze different types of schedules, and to balance the use of resources.