ICP4131/51

Project Management

Network Diagrams: Critical Path Analysis

Critical Path Analysis (CPA) Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) As with Gantt Charts, Critical Path Analysis (CPA) helps you to plan all tasks that must be completed as part of a project. CPA helps you to see where remedial action needs to be taken to get a project back on course. The benefit of using CPA over Gantt Charts is that Critical Path Analysis formally identifies tasks which must be completed on time for the whole project to be completed on time. History PERT: Developed in 1958 by the US Navy as a means for monitoring and controlling the Polaris missile program. The Navy found that PERT enabled them to determine time schedules and resource requirements for each activity, as well as helping Navy personnel work with contractors. It provided a graphic means for showing the negative effects of delays on a project. CPA: Around the same time that the US Navy built its Polaris missiles using PERT, the large chemical company E.I. du Pont de Nemours devised its own network diagram for the construction of several chemical plants. They needed a system that would tell them whether work was falling behind schedule at any given time, and whether to take action to bring work back on schedule. CPA Suppose you need to schedule a large number of activities (=jobs/=tasks) that are interlinked. A table is given, listing each activity, its duration and the prior activities needed. For example, consider a project consisting of the following set of activities Activity A B C D E F Duration 3 5 2 4 1 2 Preceding activities needed B A and C C D and E

1. Draw a network diagram to illustrate the dependency between activities

(Figure 1). The nodes of the network mark the beginning and the end of each activity; the edges represent the activities. Give the nodes consecutive numbers. Use dashed lines for dummy activities.

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1 A 0 B 2 C 3

F 7

Figure 1: Network dependency diagram for the 6 activities

2. Work out the earliest time

that each activity can be started. To do this, replace each node in the dependency diagram with a subdivided disc. Redraw the diagram starting from node 0 and filling in the earliest starting time, ei. (Figure 2)
Earliest starting time

Node number

i ei li
Latest starting time

1 3

dummy 0 max (3,7) 7

D
4 11

A
3 0 0 5

dummy 0

dummy

max (8,11)

7 11

F
2

8 13

B
2 5

dummy

C
2 7

E
1 8

0 Total time for the project

Figure 2: Network diagram for the 6 activities with earliest starting times

Note that when two or more activities lead to the same node, the earliest time for the activity beginning at this node is the maximum of the incoming times. For example, since activity D requires both A and C, D can start at time max (3+0,7+0) = max (3,7) = 7.

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3. Work out the latest time going backwards from the end, to the beginning of
the project. Fill in the missing parts of the nodes with the latest times. For example, for the project to finish in time 13, activity F should be started at the latest at time 13 2 = 11. (Figure 3)

1 3 7

dummy 0 7

4 7

D
4

5 11 11 dummy 0

A
3 0 0 0 5 min (7-3,5-5) dummy 0 min (7-0,11-1)

7 11 11

F
2

8 13

B
2 5 5

dummy

C
2 7

3 7

E
1 8

6 11

Figure 3: Network diagram for the 6 activities with latest times

When two or more activities start from the same node, the latest time is determined as the minimum latest time among these activities. For example, the latest time of visiting node 3 depends on the latest time of visiting nodes 6 and 4. Activity E takes time 1 to be completed, therefore, the latest visit of node 3 may be 11 1 = 10. On the other hand, the dummy activity leading to node 4 takes 0 time, therefore the latest time of visiting node 3 in order to arrive at the latest possible time at node 4 is 7 0 = 7. Any time after 7 will mean that node 4 will be visited LATER than its LATEST time. Therefore the latest time for node 6 is min(7 0,11 1) = min (7,10) = 7.

4. Find the critical path. This is the path taking exactly the same time as the
project length. To find this path, identify all nodes that have the same earliest and latest times. The path that has only such nodes in it is the critical path. For the example above the critical path goes through nodes 0-2-3-4-5-7-8. Ignoring the auxiliary edges labelled as dummy activities, the critical path contains activities B-C-D-F, in this order (sketched in Figure 4).
D

A 0 B

5 F 7 8

Figure 4: Illustration of the critical path.

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Crashing the Project Crashing the project means that the project needs to be done in a shorter time. The only way to ensure that the total time is reduced is to reduce the time on some activities on the critical path. There may be more than one critical path in the same project. In that case, some activities will have to be sped up on all critical paths. For the example above, activities A and E can be delayed without any harm to the total time. Activity A can be delayed by 4 time units (either started later or prolonged). The delay is calculated by latest earliest time at the end node of A from Figure 3. Similarly, activity E can be delayed by 3 time units without increasing the total project time. Suppose that by putting more resources in, activity B can be completed within 1 time unit. The resources needed for be are taken from A, which now requires 4 time units to be completed. Will this change the total time of the project? Will this lead to a new critical path? To answer these questions, recalculate the times in the network diagram (Figure 5).

1 4 4

dummy 0 4

4 4

D
4 8

5 8 dummy 0

A
4 0 0 0 1 dummy 0

7 8 dummy 8

F
2

8 10

B
2 1 2

C
2 3

3 4

E
1 4

6 8

Figure 5: Network diagram for the crashed project

Answer: The total time will change to 10. The new critical path is A-D-F.

Key points Critical Path Analysis formally identifies tasks which must be completed on time for the whole project to be completed on time (activities on the critical path), and also identifies which tasks can be delayed for a while if resource needs to be reallocated. By crashing the project the total time can be reduced. To accomplish this, the activities on the critical path must be sped up.

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