11-04-2019

TIME ANALYSIS

HOW TO TIME THE NETWORK ?

• Identify duration of each activity

• What is Activity Duration ?
– Time required to complete the task
– It is linked to resources
• Activity calendar or work pattern.
– On what days the resources or activity will
be working.

DIFFERENT CASES
1. The activity time is deterministic
2. The activity time is probabilistic

a) The probability density function is known

Parameters known or unknown
b) The probability density function is unknown
( Empirical distribution )

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THERE ARE DIFFERENT NETWORK

BASED METHODS
• CPM ( Critical Path Method)
• PERT ( Program Evaluation and Review
Technique)
• Critical Chain Method ( CCM by Goldart)
• GERT ( Graphical Evaluation and Review
Technique)
• VERT ( Venture Evaluation and Review
Technique
• PETRINETS

CPM

Scheduling with activity time

Activity Immediate Completion
predecessors Time (week)
A - 5
B - 6
C A 4
D A 3
E A 1
F E 4
G D,F 14
H B,C 12
I G,H 2
Total …… 51

This information indicates that the total time required to complete

activities is 51 weeks. However, we can see from the network that several
of the activities can be conducted simultaneously (A and B, for example).

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AOA Network with activity times

D 5
2 3

7
4
1 6

How many paths are there ? (ADGI (24); ACHI(23); AEFGI (26) ; BHI (20)
What is the longest path ? AEFGI (26) Critical Path
What is the significance of this path ?

FINDING CRITICAL PATH

Is it always desirable to trace all paths to find
the critical path ?

What if the network contains thousands of

activities ? (which is not uncommon)

WE NEED ALGORITHMS TO FIND THE CRITICAL

PATH

WE NEED ALGORITHMS TO FIND THE CRITICAL

PATH

The concept of slack ?

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Network with activity times

D 5
2 3

7
4
1 6

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What is the longest path ( AEFGI = 26)
How long, the longest path be delayed without affecting the completion
time of the project?
How long the other paths can be delayed ? BHI( 26- 20) etc.,
This difference is slack on the path
10 Critical path will have ZERO SLACK in this case (in general minimum)

AN ALGORITHM FOR FINDING

CRITICAL PATH
• We need to find

• EARLIEST START TIME

• LATEST START TIME
• EARLIEST FINISH TIME
• LATEST FINISH TIME

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CARRYOUT TIME ANALYSIS

For the project

• Start Date of the project

The date from which the project can start

• Finish date of the project

The target completion date of the project

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Find For Each Activity

• Early Start (EST) : Earliest time an activity can start-

> all the preceding activities must be completed

• Early Finish (EFT): Earliest time an activity can be completed

> Activity must have started on EST

• Late Start (LST): The latest date an activity can start to meet the
planned completion date.

• Late Finish (LFT) : The latest date an activity can finish to meet the
planned completion date.( with out delaying following activities)

• Target Start and Target Finish ?

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HOW TO FIND EST, EFT, EFT & LFT ?

• Carryout forward pass and backward pass

Forward Pass
For calculating the early start date (ES), and early
finish date (EF) for all activities.
>The start date of the project (day 0 or 1) is to be established
>Begin from the start activity

Backward Pass
For calculating the late start date ( LS ) and late finish date ( LF)
for all activities.
>The Finish date of the project( EFT of the end activity or any desired
date) is to be established
>Begin from the end activity

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Network with ES & EF time

D[5,8] 5
2 3

7
4
1 6

Earliest start time rule:

The earliest start time for an activity leaving a particular node is equal to
the largest of the earliest finish times for all activities entering the node.

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Network with LS & LF time

D[5,8] 5
2 3[7,10]

7
4
1 6

Latest finish time rule:

The latest finish time for an activity entering a particular node is equal to
the smallest of the latest start times for all activities leaving the node.
( the following activities cannot be delayed)

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IF THE NETWORK IS TOO LARGE ?

• We need to use the data in a Table form

How ?

Activity schedule for our example

Activity Imm. Earliest Earliest Immed. Latest Latest Slack Critical
and Pred. start finish Follower finish start (LS- path
duration and EF (ES) (EF) and LS (LF) (LS) ES)
CAN ? MUST?
A/5 Nil 0 5 C/8 5 0 0 Yes
D/7
E/5
B/6 Nil 0 6 H/12 12 6 6
C/4 A/5 5 9 H/12 12 8 3
D/3 A/5 5 8 G/10 10 7 2
E/1 A/5 5 6 F/6 6 5 0 Yes
F/4 E/6 6 10 G/10 10 6 0 Yes
G/14 D/8 10 24 I/24 24 10 0 Yes
F/10
H/12 B/6 9 21 I/24 24 12 3
C/9
I/2 G/24 24 26 Nil 26 24 0 Yes
H/21
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Slack or Free Time or Float

Slack is the length of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the
completion date for the entire project.
For example, slack for C = 3 weeks, i.e Activity C can be delayed up to 3
weeks
(start anywhere between weeks 5 and 8).
3
2
ES LS EF EF
5 8 9 12

LF-EF = 12 –9 =3

LS-ES = 8 – 5 = 3

LF-ES-t = 12-5-4 = 3

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IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
• What is the total time to complete the project?
– 26 weeks if the individual activities are completed on schedule.

• What are the scheduled start and completion times for each activity?
– ES, EF, LS, LF are given for each activity.

• What activities are critical and must be completed as scheduled in order to

keep the project on time?
– Critical path activities: A, E, F, G, and I.

• How long can non-critical activities be delayed before they cause a delay in
the project’s completion time
– Slack time available for all activities are given.

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Importance of Float (Slack) and Critical Path

1. Slack or Float shows how much allowance each activity has, i.e how
long it can be delayed without affecting completion date of project

2. Critical path is a sequence of activities from start to finish with zero

slack. Critical activities are activities on the critical path.

3. Critical path identifies the minimum time to complete project

4. If any activity on the critical path is shortened or extended, project

time will be shortened or extended accordingly

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Importance of Float (Slack) and Critical Path (cont)

5. So, a lot of effort should be put in trying to control activities along

this path, so that project can meet due date. If any activity is
lengthened, be aware that project will not meet deadline and some
action needs to be taken.

6. If can spend resources to speed up some activity, do so only for

critical activities.

7. Don’t waste resources on non-critical activity, it will not shorten the

project time.

8. If resources can be saved by lengthening some activities, do so for

non-critical activities, up to limit of float.

9. Total Float belongs to the path

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Practice Problems
• Draw the network , find the slacks and the
Critical Path

Activity Immediate Duration

Predecessor In days
A 6
B A 3
C A 8
D B,C 10
E C 2
F D 4
G E 2
H F,G 9

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Activity A B C D E F
G H I J
Immediate D,
Predecessor A, B, A,
C E, D G
B C B
F
Time in days
5 7 4 9 2 8 7 3 1 8

Activity K L M N
Immediate
Predecessor
G H K I,L

Time in days
2 5 6 9

EXAMPLE

Draw the network, find the floats and the critical path ?

Duration Preceding
Activity activity
A100 2 Start
A200 2 A 100
A300 1 A100
A400 4 A200
A500 3 A300
A600 2 A400,
A 500 26