 What is PERT and what is CPM?
PERT AND CPM
 PERT means Program Evaluation and
Review Technique
 CPM means Critical Path Method
 PERT and CPM were developed independently in
the later part of 1950’s . These two are networks.
Techniques , used for planning and coordinating
large scale projects.
PERT
 The use of PERT began in 1958 through the joint
efforts of the Lockhead Aircraft, the U.S. Navy
Special Project Office and the consulting from
the Booz , Allen and Hamilton in the efforts of the
U.S. government to speed up the Polaris Missile
project.
 The U.S. government’s apprehension that the
Soviet Union, might gain nuclear superiority over
the U.S., early completion of the project was
given top priority. A special operations research
team was directed to formulate a new approach
considering that the management concepts and
methods at that time were not adequate. The
concept was formulated by the research team
and is then called Program Evaluation and
Review Technique, which is simply called PERT.
 The Polaris Missile project is a large one involving
over 3,000 contractors and 11,000 sub-
contractors with several thousand of work
activities. The use of PERT in this large scale
project was proven successful in shortening the
length of the project completion time.
CPM
 In 1956, prior to the development of PERT, the
Critical Path Method which is simply called CPM
was developed by J.E. Kelly of the Remington
Rand Corp. and M.R. Walker of Du Pont in an
effort by commercial industry to make an
advanced scheduling and cost control methods.
By April 1958, CPM in application was
demonstrated in a real success.
 CPM was designed as a tool for planning,
scheduling, and control of construction work. Its
emphasis was on the work or activities to be
managed. The network diagram defined and
focused attention on the job to be accomplished.
The schedule derives the earliest and the latest
times for their start and finish.
 PERT was developed as a result of looking for an
improved method of planning and evaluating
progress of a large scale research and
development program. It was designed to
provide the management a periodic reporting of
current status and an outlook for the future on
meeting approved plans and schedules. It
answers the questions such as: “Is this a feasible
schedule?” and “What are the probabilities of
making it?
 For instance , PERT originally stressed
probabilistic activity time estimate because the
field in which it was developed was typified by
high uncertainty. In contrast, CPM originally
made no provisions for variable time estimates.
However , from a conceptual analysis, most of
these differences are the same. For practical
purposes, the two techniques are the same.
Thus, comments and procedure described will
apply to both PERT and CPM project analysis.
 PERT/CPM is a control tool for defining the parts
of construction job and then putting them
together in a network form. It serves as an aid to
the construction manager but it does not make
decision for him it guarantee good management.
PERT/CPM only serves the project manager to
see the whole picture of the entire job. It
encourages periodic re-evaluation and providing
an accurate measure of progress. Thus, a person
in charge of each work and the project manager
know what is supposed to happen and when it is
supposed to happen.
 Under Presidential Decree (PD) 1594, Prescribing
Policies, Guidelines, Rules and Regulations for
government infrastructure contracts provides that:
“The program of work shall include, among other
things, estimates of the work items, quantities, costs
and PERT/CPM network of the project activities ,,, in
the preparation of the bidding documents, the
government shall make and estimate of the actual
number of working days required to complete the
project through PERT/CPM analysis of the project
activities and corrected for holidays and weekends”
 On January 27, 1968, president Ferdinand E. Marcos
issued Memorandum Circular No. 153 which
provides that:
“In order that the performance discipline on the field
could be controlled and easy reporting system could be
made to facilitate the monitoring, evaluation, inspection
completion of infrastructure projects, all heads of
departments and chief of bureaus and offices concerned
are hereby required to change the old system of
preparing the work programs of said projects from the
Grantt Chart to the PERT/CPM network. Strict
compliance herewith is enjoined.”
 On June 19, 1968, the Executive Committee for
Infrastructure Program implemented the
Presidential Order in a letter to all implementing
agencies to wit:
“ Your attention is invited to a Presidential Order
requiring the preparation of a PERT/CPM
diagram for every major project prior to their
actual construction”
 Section 6 of R.A. 5979 requires the application of
PERT/CPM technique to all projects with an
estimated cost of P100,000 or more. Thus,
PERT/CPM now has become an integral part as
requirement of project construction
management.
 With the use of PERT/CPM, the project manager
can easily obtain the following information:
o The graphical display of project activities
o An estimate of how long will the project
last
o Determine which activities are the most
critical to timely project completion.
o Determine how long any activity can be
delayed without lengthening the
project.
 Three Phases of PERT/CPM
o Planning
o Scheduling
o Control-Monitor
 PLANNING- It is defined as determining the
relationship between the work operation and
the sequence in which they are to be performed.
 Scheduling- is defined as the process of
translating the arrow diagram into time table of
calendar days.
 The PERT/CPM diagram should be updated
periodically to account for:
o Time discrepancies
o Deliveries
o Weather
o Change orders
o Unexpected events or conditions
 Precedence diagram- clearly indicate which of
the activities must be performed independently
with each other.
 Network diagram- composed of a number of
arrows and nodes
 The Nodes in the AOA approach represents the
beginning and the end of activities, which are
called event.
 Activities can be referred to in two ways:
o By their end points such as activity 1-2
o By a letter assigned to an arrow such as
activity a,b,c, etc
Principle No. 1

That everything in the network or arrow diagram must

have a meaning.

a) Every arrow represents a item of work and is called

Activity.

b) An Event is the starting point of an activity

represented by a circle , square or any geometrical form.

c) An Activity is dependent upon and cannot begin until

after the completion of all preceding Activities.

d) All activities that start with same event cannot begin

until after the completion of all activities that enter that
event

Principle No. 2

That an activity has a single definite starting point and

a single definite ending point.

Principle No. 3

The network (arrow diagram) does not describe time

relationships but rather dependency relationships.