Project managers frequently face the task of controlling projects that contain unknown and unpredictable factors. When the projects are not complex, bar charts can be used to plan and control project activities. These charts divide the project into discrete activities or tasks and analyze each task individually to indicate weekly manpower requirements. As the work goes forward, progress is charted and estimates are made on the effects of any delays or difficulties encountered during the completion of the project.

In the mid-1950s more sophisticated methods of project planning and control were developed. Two systems based on a network portrayal of the activities that make up the project emerged at about the same time. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) was first used in the development of submarines capable of firing Polaris missiles. CPM (the Critical Path Method) was used to manage the annual maintenance work in an oil and chemical refinery. Many variations and extensions of the two original techniques are now in use, and they have proved particularly valuable for projects requiring the coordinated work of hundreds of separate contractors. The use of project planning and control techniques based on PERT or CPM are now common in all types of civil engineering and construction work, as well as for large developmental projects such as the manufacture of aircraft, missiles, space vehicles, and large mainframe computer systems.

A simple example of a network, or “arrow diagram,” used in developing an electronic component for a complex system, is shown in thefigure. Each circle on the diagram represents a task or well-defined activity that is part of the project. The number in each circle represents the expected time required to complete the task.

Task A requires two weeks to complete and might, for example, represent the development of general specifications for an electronic unit in question. Tasks B and E might represent two related parts of the design of the unit’s power supply, C and F the design of the main functional circuits, and D and G the design of the control circuitry. Arrows indicate the precedence of relationships and depict which tasks must be completed before subsequent tasks can begin. In this example, tasks B, C, and D cannot be started until A has been completed (that is, no one can design specific component items before the general specifications are agreed upon).

Task H requires two weeks to complete but cannot be started until the designs of the power supply and the functional and control circuits have been completed. This task might represent the design of the unit’s case or cover, and the case cannot be made final until all of the component designs are completed.

The arrow diagram is an invaluable planning aid for determining how long a project will take to complete. Adding all of the task times together in the example indicates that there are 24 weeks of work to be completed. Note, however, that several tasks can be done simultaneously. For example, once task A has been completed, B, C, and D can be started and worked on concurrently. Thus, the earliest completion date can be determined by looking at all possible “paths” through the network and choosing the longest one, or the one with tasks requiring the most total time. In this example the longest, or “critical,” path is A–C–F–H, requiring a total time of 11 weeks.

The arrow diagram yields additional information to the project planner. The earliest possible time that task H can be started is nine weeks after the start of the project (that is, after tasks A, C, and F have been completed). When task A is completed at the end of week 2, tasks B and E do not have to be started immediately in order to complete the project in the minimum possible time; B and E each have three weeks of “slack.” The diagram shows that if activity B is started three weeks later than its earliest possible start time (at week 5), it would be completed at the end of week 5; E would then start at the beginning of week 6 and be completed in time for H to begin at its earliest time, the beginning of week 10.

The notion of slack in a project network is a powerful concept that allows planners to schedule scarce resources efficiently and manage people and equipment so that critical activities are kept on schedule and slack activities are delayed without placing the project in jeopardy.

This simple example is based on CPM logic; it uses single-point task time estimates and assumes that the completion time for the project is the simple sum of the task times along the critical path. PERT logic assumes probabilistic estimates for each task time, with pessimistic, realistic, and optimistic estimates for the completion times of each task.

In actual projects the relationships among the required tasks are often complex, and the arrow diagram for the project might cover the entire wall of an office. Even though it is a time-consuming job to work out arrow diagrams, precedence relationships, task time estimates, and so on for large projects, CPM or PERT is an invaluable aid to planning and control. The proliferation of computer programs that handle critical path and slack time calculations and the development of computer systems capable of handling cost estimates, budget control, resource allocation, and time scheduling promise to make CPM and PERT even more valuable than in the past.