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FA - Chapter 6

BUSI 2550

10/24/2018

Developing a Project Plan

Developing the Project Network
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Used for planning, scheduling and monitoring project progress
Presents a graphic display of the flow and sequence of work through a project
Basis for scheduling labor/equipment, enhances communication, estimate of duration, activity
start, finish, slack (delay), etc
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either work or wait
o Can include one or more work packages
Networks are built using nodes (boxes) and arrows (lines)
Management often fails in integrating work packages and network because:
o Different groups of people used to define work packages/activities
o WBS poorly constructed
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Manager decides whether
or not to have parallel activities occur simultaneously
o Path – sequence of connected, dependent activities
o Critical path – longest activity path on network
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If an activity on the CP is delayed, project is delayed same amount
of time
o Burst activity – has more than one activity immediately following it
8 rules to follow when developing project networks
o 1 – networks flow typically from left to right
o 2 – activity cannot begin until all preceding connected activities are complete
o 3 – arrows indicate precedence and flow
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Similarly,
single project end node can be used to indicate clear ending

Activity-On-Node (AON) Fundamentals
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2 methods used to develop project networks
o AON – Activity-on-node (activity is shown on node/rectangle)
 3 basic relationships for activities
 Predecessor activities - before
 Successor activities - after
 Concurrent/parallel activities - during
o AOA – Activity-on-arrow (activity is shown on arrow)

Network Computation Process
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Forward pass – earliest times
o Early start (ES) = largest EF of
predecessors
o Early finish (EF) = ES + DUR
o Expected time (TE)
Backward pass – Latest times
o Late start – LS = LF - DUR
o Late finish – LF = smallest LS of
successors
o Critical Path – CP
o Slack/Float – SL = LS - ES
Total slack – time an activity can be
delayed without affecting project duration
o TS = LS – ES
o TS = LF – EF
o Negative slack is when critical path is delayed
Sensitivity – function of number of critical paths or near-critical paths
o Insensitive - network schedule has 1 CP and noncritical activities with significant slack
o Sensitive – 1+ CP and noncritical activities with very little slack
Free Slack/Float (FS) – max time activity can be delayed from ES without affecting ES of any
successor(s)
o Can never be negative
o Only activities at end of chain (merge activities) can have free slack

Practical Considerations
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Activity numbering
o Activities can have gaps between their ID numbers to add missing/new activities later
Gantt charts are used during planning, resource scheduling and status reporting
o Extended lines from bars represent slack
o Bar indicates ES, EF, LF, slack

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FA - Chapter 6

BUSI 2550

10/24/2018

Extended Network Techniques to Come Closer to Reality
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Laddering – when one activity overlaps another and has a long duration
o When activity has long duration and will delay following activity, it is broken down into
segments and drawn using a laddering approach so following activity can begin without
delays

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Use of lags to reduce schedule detail and product duration
o Lag – minimum amount of time a dependent activity must be delayed to begin or end
o 2 reasons lag occurs:
 long duration activities delay start/finish of successor activities

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