NETWORK REPRESENTATION, NETWORK

ANALYSIS, PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION OF

CPM, NETWORK CRASHING.
Faculty In charge
Nishan Nabeel
KMEA CoA
NETWORK
Network
 Graphical representation of activities showing logical dependence between them
 Consists of nodes and arrows
 Two types of networks used in construction planning:
a) Activity on Arrow (AOA)
b) Activity on Node (AON)
/AON Network
When 2 or more activities merge
into a node

When 2 or more activities emerge

from one node
Occur when 2 or more activities share the same
predecessor and same successor, therefore making
their start and finish nodes the same. They have
zero duration. No resources are assigned to them.
Activity on Node (AON)/ Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
 Activities are denoted by nodes & the immediate predecessor relationship between
2 activities is shown by an arrow connecting 2 nodes
 The main benefit of Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is that it shows the
activity dependencies
Activity on Arrow (AOA)/ Arrow
Diagramming Method (ADM)
Activity on Arrow (AOA)/ Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
 Activities are shown as arrows leading from one node to another and nodes here
can be looked upon as either the starting or the end point of an activity.
 This is based on the events (nodes) at the start and end of each activity.

Basic Rules:
An activity cannot start until its preceding event is
achieved.
An event is not achieved until all of its preceding
activities are complete.
Event
 A point in time when certain conditions have been fulfilled such as the
start/completion of one or more activities
 Does not consume time/any other resource
 It only expresses a state of system/project
Activity
 Takes place between events
 An activity is defined as any function or decision in the project that: consumes time,
resources, and cost.
 An item of work involving consumption of a final quantity of resources and it
produces quantitative results
 AOA Network

ACTIVITY &
DURATION

EVENT

START FINISH
DATE DATE
FLOAT
CRITICAL PATH METHOD - CPM
CRITICAL PATH METHOD - CPM
 The most widely used scheduling technique
 This method calculates the minimum completion time for a project along
with the possible start and finish times for the project activities
 The critical path itself represents the set or sequence of activities which
will take the longest time to complete.
 The duration of the critical path is the sum of the activities' durations along
the path.
 Thus, the critical path can be defined as the longest possible path through
the "network" of project activities.
 The duration of the critical path represents the minimum time required to
complete a project.
 Any delays along the critical path would imply that additional time would be
required to complete the project.
 There may be more than one critical path among all the project activities,
so completion of the entire project could be delayed by delaying activities
along any one of the critical paths.
 An additional parallel path through the network with the total durations
shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or non-critical path.
Key Dates - Definitions
 The early start, early finish, late start, and late finish dates of a
project schedule are the primary dates that are calculated in any
project schedule.
 The early start dates of the project schedule are the earliest that
any activity in the schedule can be scheduled to start given the logic
and constraints of the schedule.
 The early finish of an activity in the schedule is the earliest that the
activity can be scheduled to be completed given the logic and
constraints of the schedule.
 The late start of an activity is the latest that a project activity can be
scheduled to be started without having to reschedule the calculated
early finish of the project.
 The late finish of an activity is the latest that a project activity can be
finished without having to reschedule the late finish of the project.
 The late finish of the project is the late finish of the last activity to
be completed in the project.
RELATIONSHIPS
 a) Finish to start (FS). The successor activity can begin only when the
current activity completes.
 b) Finish to finish (FF). The finish of the successor activity depends on the
finish of the current activity.
 c) Start to start (SS). The start of the successor activity depends on the
start of the current activity.
 d)Start to finish (SF). The successor activity cannot finish until the current
activity starts.
RELATIONSHIPS
 Finish to Start (FS)
 For example, to paint a wall first you need to build a wall. In this case, first
activity is building the wall and second activity will be painting. You can not start
painting the wall unless the wall is ready.
 Start to Start(SS)
 For instance, in a construction project, building the mainframe of the
construction will start with the procurement of materials. In this case, these
activities will be shown as start-to-start dependent in the network diagram.
 Start to Finish (SF)
 For example, let us say you have to move into a new home, and your old home
has to be demolished. In this case, you can not move to your new home until it
is ready. Hence, the second activity (construction of new home) must be
finished before the first activity starts (you start moving into new home); i.e. if
you are moving into your new home, you cannot start vacating your old home
until the new house is completely ready.
 Although, this type of dependency is not very commonly used, you as a project
manager must know about the all types of dependencies.
Overlap or lag
 Overlap between activities (negative lag) is defined as
how much a particular activity must be completed before
a succeeding activity may start. The absence of overlap
means that the first activity must finish before the second
may start. A negative overlap (lag) means a delay is
required between the two activities (Figure1.10)
Floats
 Total Float (TF)
 The amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early
start without delaying the project finish date. Total float is a mathematical
calculation and can change as the project progresses and changes are made
to the project plan. Also called "float," "slack," and "path float.“
 Simple formula to calculate total float is our usual formula i.e. LS (Late
Start) – ES (Early Start) or LF (Late, Finish) – EF (Early Finish)
 Free float (FF)
 The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early
start of any immediate successor activities.
 Simple formula to calculate Free Float is ES (of successor) – EF of current
activity
Floats
 Independent Float
 Independent float is that portion of the total float within
which an activity can be delayed for start without
affecting the float of the preceding activities. It is
computed for an activity by subtracting the tail event
slack from its total float.
 Thus, independent float can be calculated as under:
Independent Float = Total Float – Tail Event Slack
 Interfering Float
 The part of total float which is not free is called
interfering float
Calculation of Floats