Program Evaluation and Review Technique/Critical path method Essay

Project management triangle is the symbol that represents the money, time and scope items in a project, which has been modeled by Harold Kerzner. Given the wide range of project management tools available, the key to selecting the right one is to understand that different tools are needed along the different stages of a project life cycle. Graphical displays such as gantt-charts usually make the information easy to identify; and we can easily use it for tracking cost, schedule and performance. Gantt charts are used for exhibiting program progress or defining specific work required to accomplish an objective. They often include such items as listing of activities, activity duration, schedule dates, and progress-to-date. PERT also is used which stands for â€Å"Program evaluation and review technique†. It is also called â€Å"critical path method†. It is an event-oriented planning aid, usually computerized used to estimate project duration when there is uncertainty in estimates of duration times for individual activities. It helps the project team to order the activities that must be completed to implement a decision. A Work Breakdown Structure is a results-oriented family tree that captures all the work of a project in an organized way. WBS breaks down project into major modules by breaking down into activities and, finally, into individual tasks. Identifies activities, tasks, resource requirements and relationships between modules and activities. The prime benefit of WBS is its effective aid in the planning process. As WBS evolves, it becomes easier to revise and update plans. Responsibilities can be assigned at different points of the WBS hierarchical tree, both managerial and technological. The main rationale behind crashing activities is to analyze the normal activity costs and costs under maximum crashing and to find the shortest times with crashing. And we must realize that new paths may become critical and make sure that all of the alternatives are true. And the main rationale to use PERT or CPM is the approach of timing. With CPM, we define that activities have certain completion times with minimal deviations. With PERT approach, we assume that activities have average completion times with a standard deviation, therefore time is an uncertainty.