Arrow Diagram

Popa Shimon Petru

Politechnica University of Bucharest
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology
MSc Advanced Technologies in Automotive Electronics
AbstractOrganizations today are increasingly using
virtual project management teams. They are procuring
expertise and materials from all corners of the world.
Therefore, CPM and PERT process are even more
complicated than in the past. These environments also
create their own problems and bottleneck that have to be
also considered when studying and process the situation.
The need to increase profits and revenues has forced many
establishments to try to optimize their resources. Every
organization is created to serve and develop specific
functions, procedures, and responsibilities. If these goals
are achieved properly, the long-term stability of the
organization is accomplished; and, in many cases,
guaranteed. Increasing efficiency and productivity have
always been key factors in implementing any change.
Index TermsArrow diagram, AOA, AON, PERT, CPM,
duration, float, ES, EF, LS, LF.

I. INTRODUCTION
Managing and running organizations is an evolutionary
process over the ages. Such processes have been under going
many structural changes. Organizations have shifted from
functional managed structures to project based organizational
structures. Consequently, project management in organizations
is becoming increasingly important. Indeed, it is critical for the
success of the company. Most of the above mentioned process
changes have occurred in the last three decades. Irrespective of
the type of industry or the domain, the need for managerial and
structural change is being observed.[1]
When it comes to a project, the entire project is divided into
many interdependent tasks. In this set of tasks, the sequence or
the order of the tasks is quite important.If the sequence is
wrong, the end result of the project might not be what the
management expected.Some tasks in the projects can safely be
performed parallel to other tasks. In a project activity diagram,
the sequence of the tasks is simply illustrated.[2]

The main goal for any organization is to generate profits

and revenue for the stakeholders. The task of determining how
to run a lean and trim operation for any organization is
complicated by issues such as manufacturing and operational
lead times, replenishment cycles, unexpected surges in demand
of a product, review frequency and the failure of establishing
realistic target service levels by all involved in the operations.
[2]
II. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Project management is not a new concept for organizations
or managers. The concepts and ideas behind effective project
management are however constantly been undergoing
modification and improvement. A Dupont engineer, Morgan R.
Walker and a Remington-Rand computer expert, James E.
Kelly, Jr, initially conceived the Critical Path Method (CPM).
They created a unique way of representing the operations in the
system. Their methods involved using unique arrow filled
diagrams or network methods in 1957. (Archibald and
Villoria, 1966, Korman, 2004)
At approximately the same time, the U.S. Navy initiated a
project called PERT (Program Evaluation Research Task) in
order to provide naval management with an effective manner
by which they could periodically evaluate the information of
the new Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program. The US Navy
could obtain valid information of the progress of the project
and also have a reasonable accurate projection of the
completion of the project as desired. It is however, important to
note, that PERT deals only with the time constraints and does
not include the quantity, quality and cost information desired in
many projects; PERT should, therefore, be integrated with
other methods of planning and control. (Evarts, 1964).[2]
III. ARROW DIAGRAMMING METHOD
Arrow diagramming method (ADM) is a network
diagramming technique in which activities are represented by

arrows. ADM is also known as the activity-on-arrow (AOA)

method.
ADM is used for scheduling activities in a project plan.
Precedence relationships between activities are represented by
circles connected by one or more arrows. The length of the
arrow represents the duration of the relevant activity. ADM
only shows finish-to-start relationships, meaning that each
activity is completed before the successor activity starts.
Sometimes a "dummy task" is added, to represent a
dependency between tasks, which does not represent any actual
activity. The dummy task is added to indicate precedence that
can't be expressed using only the actual activities. Such a
dummy task often has a completion time of 0.[3]
Use of ADM as a common project management practice
has declined with the adoption of computer-based scheduling
tools. In addition, the precedence diagram method (PDM), or
activity-on-node (AON), is often favored over ADM. A Project
network diagram (PND)-AON- is a diagrammatic
representation of a program or plan for a particular project (or
part of a project) that shows the correct sequence and
relationship of activities and events required to achieve the end
objectives.[4]
ADM network drawing technique the start and end of each
node or event is connected to an arrow.The start of the arrow
comes out of a node while the tip of the arrow goes into a node.
Between the two nodes lies an arrow that represents the
activity.
The event represented by the circular node consumes neither
time nor resources.[3]
Advantage and disadvantage of AOA and AON[5]
Advantage:
Display logical relationship among various activity in
project
Helps the project manager see how the various
activity flow towards completion in chronological
orders.
Its provide how resource are utilized in a project for a
given time period which could help the manager to
perform resource leveling if necessary
Disadvantage:
Network diagram also do not clearly show time line
for a project.
Large networks require dedicated maintenance and
analysis.

Network diagram do not lead themselves to easy

reproduction / distribution.
Tools and system can be expensive to acquire and
maintain.

IV. PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE

The program (or project) evaluation and review technique,
commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool, used in
project management, which was designed to analyze and
represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. First
developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it is
commonly used in conjunction with the critical path
method (CPM).[6]
PERT uses a network representation to capture the
precedence or parallel relationships among the tasks in the
project. As an example of a precedence relationship, the frame
of a house must first be constructed before the roof can go on.
On the other hand, some activities can happen in parallel: the
electrical system can be installed by one crew at the same time
as the plumbing system is installed by a second crew[7].
For complex problems involving hundreds of activities,
computers are used to create and analyze the project networks.
The project information input into the computer includes the
earliest start time for each activity, earliest finish time for each
activity, latest start time for each activity, and latest finish time
for each activity without delaying the project completion. From
these values, a computer algorithm can determine the expected
project duration and the activities located on the critical path.
Managers can use this information to determine where
project time can be shortened by injecting additional resources,
like workers or equipment. Needless to say, the solution of the
algorithm is easy for the computer, but the resulting
information will only be as good as the estimates originally
made. Thus PERT depends on good estimates and sometimes
inspired guesses.[8]
The PERT formalism has these elements and rules[7]:
Directed arcs represent activities, each of which
has a specified duration. This is theactivity on
arc formalism; there is also a less-common
activity on node formalism.Note that activities
are considered to be uninterruptible once started.

Nodes are events or points in time.

The activities (arcs) leaving a node cannot begin

until all of the activities (arcs) entering a node are

completed. This is how precedence is shown. You

can also think of the node as enforcing a
rendezvous: no-one can leave until everyone has
arrived.
There is a single starting node which has only
outflow arcs, and a single ending node that has
only inflow arcs.
There are no cycles in the network. You can see
the difficulty here. If an outflow activity cannot
begin until all of the inflow activities have been
completed, a cycle meansthat the system can
never get started!

PERT Steps[9]:
1. Identify activities and milestones;
2. Setting the sequence of activities;
3. Building the network diagram;
4. It is estimated the time required for the activities;
5. Determine the critical path;
6. During the project the PERT technique is
updating.
Implementation[6]
The first step to scheduling the project is to determine the
tasks that the project requires and the order in which they must
be completed. The order may be easy to record for some tasks
while difficult for others. Additionally, the time estimates
usually reflect the normal, non-rushed time. Many times, the
time required to execute the task can be reduced for an
additional cost or a reduction in the quality.
Some tasks can be done concurrently , while others cannot
be done until their predecessor task is complete. Additionally,
each task has three time estimates: the optimistic time estimateO (it appears in 1 of 20 ), the most likely or normal time
estimate M(uses a distribution), and the pessimistic time
estimate P (it appears also in 1 of 20). The expected time (TE)
is computed using the formula:

T E=

O+ 4 M + P
6

Advantages

PERT chart explicitly defines and makes visible

dependencies (precedence relationships) between

the work breakdown structure (commonly WBS)

elements.
PERT facilitates identification of the critical path
and makes this visible.
PERT facilitates identification of early start, late
start, and slack for each activity.
PERT provides for potentially reduced project
duration due to better understanding of
dependencies leading to improved overlapping of
activities and tasks where feasible.
The large amount of project data can be organized
& presented in diagram for use in decision
making.
PERT can provide a probability of completing
before a given time.

Disadvantages

There can be potentially hundreds or thousands of

activities and individual dependency relationships.
PERT is not easily scalable for smaller projects.
The network charts tend to be large and unwieldy
requiring several pages to print and requiring
specially sized paper.
The lack of a timeframe on most PERT/CPM
charts makes it harder to show status although
colours can help.
V. CRITICAL

PATH METHOD

CPM as a management methodology has been used from

the mid 50s. The main objective of the CPM implementation
was to determine how best to reduce the time required to
perform routine and repetitive tasks that are needed to support
an organization. Initially this methodology was identified to
conduct routine tasks such as plant overhaul, maintenance and
construction.[1]
Critical path is the sequential activities from start to the end
of a project. Although many projects have only one critical
path, some projects may have more than one critical paths
depending on the flow logic used in the project.[11]
Resource planning and tracking project schedules is very
important for any project to be successful. Resource leveling is
concept in project management that takes into account that the
project might have many tasks that have to be completed
concurrently for different projects at the same time.[1]

CPM is a network diagramming technique used to predict

total project duration. CPM is an analysis technique with three
main purposes:
To calculate the projects finish date;

To identify to what extent each activity in the

schedule can slip without delaying the project;
To identify the activities with the highest risk that
cannot slip without changing the project finish
date.
To calculate the projects overall duration , the CPM uses
two calculations:
Forward Pass Calculation Calculates Early Start
and Early Finish dates
Backward Pass Calculation-Calculates Late Start
and Late finish dates
Early Start(ES)- In the critical path method, the earliest
possible point in time on which the uncompleted portions of a
schedule activity (or the project) can start, based on the
schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule
constraints.
Late Start (LS) - In the critical path method, the latest
possible point in time that a schedule activity may begin based
upon the schedule network logic, the project completion date,
and any constraints assigned to the schedule activities without
violating a schedule constraint or delaying the project
completion date.

LS=LFD
Early Finish (EF) - In the critical path method, the earliest
possible point in time on which the uncompleted portions of a
schedule activity (or the project) can finish, based on the
schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule
constraints.

EF =ES+ D
D-duration
Late Finish (LF) - In the critical path method, the latest
possible point in time that a schedule activity may be
completed based upon the schedule network logic, the project
completion date, and any constraints assigned to the schedule
activities without violating a schedule constraint or delaying
the project completion date.
Example:

Figure 1

We assuming 0 days for the start milestone, 0 days for the

start of activities A and D, the earliest time that the activity A
can be completed is 2 days, because activity A takes 2 days to
be complete. The activity D will take 5 days to be complete.
Activity A and D are predecessors of the activity B , B cannot
start until activity a and D is finished.
The earliest time that the activities A and D can finish is 5
days, so the earliest time the activity B can start is 5 days.
By continuing the forward pass calculation, it can be seen
that the earliest time that the project can be completed is 15
days.
For the backward pass we will start from the finish
milestone. The latest finish date for the finish milestone is 15
days, and the late start for finish is also 15 days. For the
activity F , the latest finish date will be 15 days . The late finish
date for activity E is also 15. The late start date for activity E
and
F
will
be
:
LS for E=154=11LS for F=152=13 . In
the backward pass , activity C is depending on activities E and
F. So , the LF of activity C is either 11 days or 13 days. If
activity C finishes anytime later than 11 days , activity E will
exceed 15 days, which is the project completion day. So , on
the backward pass, LF is the minimum of all the succesors.
The purpose of backward pass is to find the float. Float is
the amount of time an activity can be delayed or lengthened. It
is also called slack. One of the most important floats in project
scheduling is total float. Total float is the amount of time an
activity can be delayed or extended without extending the
overall projects completion time. It is described be 2 formulas:

TF=LS ES
TF=LFEF
Another important float in project scheduling is free float.
The free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed
without delaying the early start date of its subsequent tasks.
Free Float = ES (successor task) - EF (predecessor task)

The critical path is made of activities that cannot be

delayed without delaying the final date of the project. If an
item is on critical path , it has zero float. the critical path is the
path with longest duration. It is possible to have more than one
critical path. In our example the critical path is :Start-D-C-EFinish. The length of the critical path is 15 days. [10]
Advantages

Helpful for scheduling, monitoring and controlling

project.
Shows the activities and outcome as a network.

Determine slack and float times.

Can define multiple or equally critical path.

Understanding the true scope and extent of the project is

often the primary and critical step to build a sound project
management foundation for any undertaking. Projects differ
considerable. Some projects might be very short while other
might stretch for years. In addition, some projects might be
routine and the company and the project team might undertake
similar projects periodicallyhome construction is one
example of this type of project.
The usage of scientifically method such as AOA, AON,
PERT and CPM are compulsory in order to get the large
project completed timely. Other than that, a project manager of
an project should consider their ability on qualitative skill that
they have, to make sure the project completion development
will go smootly. Cost factor is another agenda that needs to be
highlighted and it is need to be tackle thoroughly in order to
reduce the unnecessary cost incurs.

REFERENCES

Disadvantages

Can be complicated and complexity increase for

large project.
Dose not handle the scheduling of personal or the
allocation of resources.
Estimating activity completion times can be
difficult.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Every successful project is characterized by sound project
analysis using some form of network diagram that breaks up
even very massive projects into small and manageable discrete
tasks that can be performed.

[1] http://www.iiuedu.eu/press/journals/sds/sds1_july_2008/05_SE
CC_01.pdf, Projects Analysis through CPM (Critical Path
Method), Peter Stelth (MSc)
[2] http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_ac
tivity_diagram.htm.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_diagramming_method
[4] https://www.scribd.com/doc/47657934/Managing-Projects.
[5] PROJECT MANAGEMENT, Steparies Martin, Zita Dewi
L.R.M Robert.
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_evaluation_and_review_te
chnique
[7] http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/po/Chapter11.pdf
[8] http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/program-evaluation-andreview-technique-pert.html
[9] Laborator Tehnici de estimare, Prof Ioan Sacala, ACS.
[10] Critical Path Method, Shohreh Ghorbani
[11] http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/critical_pa
th_method.htm