Project Scheduling

CPM
Objectives
By the end of the lesson students should be able to:-
► Determine critical path using CPM algorithm
► Determine shortest project time through activity crashing
► Determine optimum direct cost of crashed activities
► Determine total project costs
► Provide an analysis of CPM

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Recap- Planning Essentials
Scope
What is the problem?
Schedule
► How long will it take?
Budget
► How much will it cost?
Resources
► How much and many people will it take?
Risk
► What might go wrong/ right?
Quality
► What standards should we comply with?
Stakeholders
► Who is affected?
Project Scheduling Principles:-
▪ Compartmentalization
(work package principle)
▪ Interdependency
(parallel/ sequential)
▪ Time Allocation (start & end dates)
▪ Defined Responsibilities
(specific owner)
▪ Defined Outcomes (work product)
▪ Defined Milestones
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Schedule Development
► Schedule development involves:
► Activity definition
► Activity sequencing
► Activity resource estimating
► Activity duration estimating

► Iterative, Continuous

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Network Analysis
► Network analysis is the technique that generates the
project schedule
► Network analysis may use several different analysis
methods e. g. :-
► Gantt Charts
► Critical Path Method (CPM)
► PERT (Explore this method)
Network Analysis
Traditional (Formal) Project management techniques
Critical Path Method (CPM)
► Systematic approach for allocating resources among activities to achieve the
greatest reduction in project duration at the least cost
► DuPont Company (1957) , originator
► Project represented using graph theory, Task is a node or an arc,

CPM Assumptions:-
► Project consists of a collection of well defined tasks
► Project ends when all jobs are completed
► Tasks may be started and stopped independently of each other
within a given sequence (no “continuous-flow” processes)
► Tasks are ordered, “there exists a technological sequence”
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CPM Task Representations
Tasks as Nodes of a Graph
► Circles ES Duration EF
► Boxes (Preferred) Task ID
LS slack LF

A,5

Tasks as arcs of a graph

► Tasks are uni-directional arrows
► Nodes now represent “states” of a project
► Kelley-Walker form
A,5
Broken Fixed

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 Activity on Node Diagram (CPM)
Activity concerns:
► Establish predecessors
► Establish successors
► Check for sequential/ parallel execution

Determinants:
► Mandatory: rigid by logic.
► Discretionary: matter of choice
► External: based on external forces, not part of network
diagram
CPM Project Graph
► Each task is drawn on a graph as a box (previous slide)
► Connect each task with immediate predecessor(s) using
unidirectional arrows
► Tasks with no predecessor connect to “Start”
► Tasks with no successors connect to “Finish”
► “Start” and “Finish” are pseudo-tasks of length 0
► A finite number of “arrow paths” from “Start” to
“Finish” will be the result
► Total time of each path is the sum of task times
► Path with the longest total time is the “critical path”
► There can be multiple critical paths i.e. minimum time
to complete project

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Critical Path (CP)
► CP is the “bottleneck route”
► Shortening or lengthening tasks on the critical path directly affects
project finish
► Duration of “non-critical” tasks is irrelevant
► “Crashing” all tasks is ineffective, focus on the few % of tasks that
are on the CP
► “Crashing” tasks can shift the CP to a different set of tasks
► Shortening tasks is a technical and economical challenge
► How can it be done?
► Previous non-critical tasks can become critical
► Lengthening of non-critical tasks can also shift the critical path

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CP Algorithm
► For large projects there are many paths
► Need an algorithm to identify the CP efficiently
► Develop information about each task in context of the
overall project
Task Times
► Start time (S)
► For each job: Earliest Start (ES)
► Earliest start time of a job if all its predecessors start at
ES
► Job duration: t
► Earliest Finish (EF)=(ES)+t
► Finish time (F) – earliest finish time of the overall project
► Use Forward pass to obtain task ES and EF times

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Latest Start and Finish Times
► Set target finish time for project: T >= F
► Usually target is a specific calendar date, e.g. October 31,
2021
► When is the latest date the project can be started?
► Late Finish (LF) - latest time a job can be finished, without
delaying the project beyond its target time (T)
► Late Start: LS = LF-t
► Use Backward Pass to obtain latest start times

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Slack
► Some tasks have ES=LS --> no slack
► Total Slack of a task TS=LS-ES
► Maximum amount of time a task may be delayed beyond its
early start without delaying project completion
► Slack time is precious … managerial freedom, don’t squander it
unnecessarily
► e.g. resource, work load smoothing
► When T=F then all critical tasks have TS=0
► At least one path from Start->Finish with critical jobs only
► When T>F, then all critical tasks have TS=T-F

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Task Times Detail - Task i
ES(i) LS(i) EF(i) LF(i)

Duration t(i)
Duration t(i)

Total slack (i)

Free slack (i) ES (j)

► j is the immediate successor of i with the smallest ES; j > i

► Free Slack (FS) is the amount a job can be delayed without

delaying the Early Start (ES) of any other job.
FS<=TS always
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Example Problem
A project starts with (A,5). Task (B,10) can start after A is
completed. This is also true for task (E,5). Task (C,8)
depends only on (B,10), while task (F,10) depends on both
(B,10) and (E,5). Task (D,5) is the last task in the project
and it can start once (C,8) and (F,10) have been finished.
What is the project completion time?
Answer ?
A 20
B 22
C 25
D 27
E 30

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Practice: Produce an AON
Activity Predecessor Duration
A - 4
B A 6
C A 3
D B 6
E D 14
F C 5
G E&F 2
H G 2
I G 3
J H&I 4
K J 2
Crashing Tasks
► What if we want to speed up project completion?
Options
► Work overtime
► Put more resources on the critical tasks
► Parallelize tasks that are really serial

Cost of speedup?
► Is there a net savings resulting from reduction in overall
project time?

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Time – Cost Relationship in CPM
► t(i) is variable dependent on effort & resources applied
► Resources (labour, equipment, capital) can shorten t(i)
► Work normally done at a normal pace, normal time, Tn
and normal cost, Cn = least costly pace
► Activity crashing => max effort to complete activity at shortest
possible time => most costly point
► Time – cost relationship (cost slope) – line connecting normal pace
and activity crash
► Cost Slope = Cc – Cn
Tc - Tn where Cc is crash cost, Tc, crash time
Cn is normal cost, Tn, normal time
► Cost slope is how much the cost of the activity would change per unit
time if activities were sped up or slowed down.
► Every activity has a unique crash point, some activities cannot be
crashed
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 Activity Time – Cost relationship

Each week the activity duration is reduced (sped up) from the normal time
of 8 weeks, the additional cost will be $3K.
Completing the activity 1 week earlier (from 8 to 7 weeks) would increase
Cn ($9K) to the “sped up” cost of $9K + $3K = $12K;
Completing it in 6 weeks would increase the cost to $12K + $3K20 = $15K;
Completing it in 5 weeks would increase the cost to $18K.
Cost – Slope in Project time
reduction
► Produce a network diagram to compute normal time for a
project
► Reduce project time by reducing critical activity time
► Minimise cost by crashing activity with the least cost slope
► Iterate the crashing process, at the same time looking out
for new critical paths
► If more than one critical paths exist, pick activities with
the least costs from all paths for crashing
► An activity cannot be crashed beyond its crash time

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Time–cost trade-off for example network
Activity Pred. Tn Cn ($K) Tc Cc Slack Cost
$K Slope

A - 9 10 6 16 0 2

B - 8 9 5 18 2 3

C A 5 7 4 8 2 1

D A 8 9 6 19 0 5

E B 7 7 3 15 3 2

F C 5 5 5 5 3

G D,E 5 8 2 23 0 5

A-D-G = Critical path, provides candidate activities for crashing

A is the critical path with the least cost slope, best activity to be
22 crashed

Reducing A by 1 week gives total project cost of $55K + $2K = 57K

Reducing A by another week gives cost of $57K + $2K = $59K
Time–cost trade off for example
network
Step Duration CP activities with Project cost
(TE, weeks) least cost slope ($K)
1 Tn = 22 Cn = $55K
2 21 A ($2K) $55K + $2K = $57K
3 20 A($2K) $57K + $2K = $59K
4 19 A($2K), E($2K) $59K +$2K +$2K = $63K
5,6,7 18,17,16 G($5K) $63+$5K+$5K + $5K = $78K
8 15 E($2K), D($5K), $78K + $2K + $5K + $1K =
C($1K) $86K

A recursive crashing of critical activities results in all project slack being used
causing all activities to be on the critical path
Next crash should pick an activity from all the critical paths
An activity cannot be shortened beyond its critical time 23

This gives the shortest duration that can be achieved with activity crashing
Shortest Project Time
► Project time can be reduced by using the activity crash times to
derive the network
► This yields the shortest time but is of high cost
► Why?
► How can we minimise cost using this approach?
► Stretch crashed non-critical path activities
► Start with those with the greatest cost slope
► Stretch activity until all slack is used or normal time is reached
► Reduce cost as activity time is increased

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 Shortest Project Time
► To obtain the shortest project duration, start by crashing all
activities
► Produce a network diagram for the crashed activities
► Stretch the noncritical activities with the greatest cost slopes
first to use up available slack
► An activity can be stretched up to its normal time, which is
assumed to be its least costly time
► The project cost is the total crash cost minus cost savings
obtained from stretching non critical activities

Problem
Compute the cost of the project in the previous example using this
approach
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CPM Analysis
Pros
► Focuses attention on a subset of critical tasks
► Determine effect of shortening/lengthening
tasks
► Evaluate costs of a ”crash” program
Cons
► Doesn’t capture task iterations, in fact …
► Prohibits iterations = “cycle error”
► Treats task durations as deterministic
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CPM Summary
► CPM is useful, despite criticism, to identify the
critical path - focus on a subset of the project
► Slack (TS and FS) is precious
► Apply flexibility to smooth resource/schedules
► CPM does not allow for task iterations
► To reduce the length of the project (crashing), we
need to know the critical path of the project and
the cost of reducing individual activity times.
Crashing activities that are not on the critical path
typically does not reduce project completion
time.

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