Network :- It is a graphical flow plan of activities that must be accomplished for completing the project the project.

It arranges the activities in logical sequence, following the precedence succeeded relationship between the activities.
In other words a network is a graphical plan consisting of a certain configuration of arrows & nods for showing the logical sequence of various activities to be performed to achieve project objectives.
There are 2 basic network technique: 1) Critical Path Method (CPM) 2) Programme Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

Terminologies
1) Activity: An activity is any identifiable job that has a beginning & an end. An activity consumes time, manpower & material resources. Eg: building of house They have definite beginning & a definite end and they consumer resource ( time, manpower and material) Represented by a straight arrow with circle at both the ends. The direction of arrow indicates the direction of flow of the project.

There are three possible relationships between the different activities:1. Concurrent Activities 2. Preceding Activity: Activity that occurs immediately before it is its preceding activity. 3. Succeeding Activity: Activity that follows immediately after it, its succeeding activity. 4. Dummy Activity: A dummy activity is an imaginary activity in a network. Since it is not a real activity, it does not consume time, manpower, and material resources. It is included in a network to maintain the network logic & to avoid ambiguity. A dummy activity is represented by a dotted arrow. Eg:

Rules for drawing network diagram :1. All activities shall be represented by way of straight arrows pointing towards the right. This means that the flow of network shall be from the left towards the right. 2. There should not be any criss crossing of arrows. 3. The arrows of a network shall not form loops. In complex network problem, if the logical sequence of activities is not correctly followed, a loop network may be formed. 4. There shall not be unnecessary dummy activities in the network. Dummy activities shall be introduced only when it is absolutely necessary & without which the network diagram can not be completed.

5) Every activity in a network is given a name or symbol. The events are represented by circles at the beginning and at the end of an activity and are assigned number. Numbering reflect the logical sequence of events in the network.

Flot of an Activity: The float or free time is the length of time in which a non critical activity and/ or an event can be delayed or extended without delaying the total project completion time. It is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying project completion . In other words the computation of activity float tells us how long an activity time may be increased without increasing the project completion time. An activity has 3 types of estimates for float :1) Total Float: 2) Free Float 3) Independent Float

2) Free Float: Free float of an activity is the delay that can be permitted in an activity so that succeeding activities in the path are not affected. If the succeeding activities are to remain unaffected by the delay in a particular activity the Earliest Start Time (Te) of the head event of that activity shall not be exceeded.

Free float of activity= Te of head event Te of the tail event Duration of the activity

3. Independent Float This is the amount of Acceptable Delay in the completion of activity so, that it is neither affects its Predecessor nor the successor activities. Thus ,Independent Float is the amount of time.
Independent float of an activity is the share time available for that activity if that activity is started as late as possible and finished as early as possible . Independent float of activity= Te of the head event-Tlof the tail event-Duration of that activity.

Updating of the network

The network diagram that is prepared before the project implementation does not remain static but keeps changing. For the network diagram to remain meaningful, it thus corporate in itself one changes that takes place during the actual implementation of the project Once the changes that have taken place are incorporates, the original network diagram gets altered and the revised diagram becomes the one that is relevant for future control. The process of incorporating the changes that have already taken place and rescheduling the remaining activities in the form of the revised and updated network diagram is known as updating of network.

eg

General remark on network updation

The project manager should known when no update a network diagram. In project with longer duration updating is not required is not required in the initial stages of project implementation. This is because delays in in some activities can be affect by speeding up some other activities .So that net effect will be minimum.

 However as the project implementation programmes the leeway available will gradually get reduced and the project Managers has to stretch extra for meeting the schedule .Hence updating is required after the project implementation has programmes about halfway through for better control. As against ,a short duration projects needs the personal attention of the project manager right from the start and through out its duration.This is because of the reason that it may not be possible to absorb all the delays that may occur in one or more activities,Though the delay may be small Thus updated network offers the project manager with the latest information about the happenings till the date of updation and the revised future estimates of what is likely to happen.

Project cost control

The relationship between cost and time is not that simple. It can not be said that time reduction will always lead to cost reduction will always lead to cost reduction. If a particular activity can be completed at a certain cost in the normal time, the activity may cost less or more when its completion time is shortened. This depends upon the nature of the activity & the resource used for completing the activity. Usually the cost of a project time is reduced . The reason for the increase in cost is due to additional resources required to be engaged for bringing down the project time. Such additional resource normally cost proportionately higher which leads to the overall increase in the project cost.