.2pt;text-indent:-43.2pt;mso-hyphenate: none;tab-stops:-72.0pt -36.0pt 43.2pt 64.8pt 79.2pt”>13.1 PERT and CPM are quantitative analysis tools designed to schedule and control large projects.
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13.2 PERT is a deterministic analysis tool allowing for precise times of activities within a project.
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13.3 PERT had its beginnings in a military department of the United States.
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13.4 CPM is a probabilistic analysis of managing a project.
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13.5 The first step in planning and scheduling a project is to develop the work breakdown structure.
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13.6 A PERT/CPM network is a graphical display of a project that connects activities.
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13.7 The optimistic time is the greatest amount of time that could be required to complete an activity.
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13.8 PERT is a network technique similar to CPM, but PERT allows for project crashing, whereas CPM does not.
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13.9 In PERT, the most likely completion time of an activity is used to represent that activitys time within a project.
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13.10 The expected completion time and variance of an activity is approximated by the normal distribution in a PERT analysis.
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13.11 PERT was developed for a project for which activity or task times were uncertain.
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13.12 CPM was developed for use in managing projects about which we have good information about activity or task completion times.
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13.13 With PERT, we are able to calculate the probability of finishing the project on a particular day.
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13.14 With CPM, we are able to calculate the probability of finishing the project on a particular day.
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13.15 Both PERT and CPM networks show activities and activity sequences.
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13.16 The identification of the project activities and their time, cost, resource requirements, predecessors, and person(s) responsible is called PERT planning.
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13.17 Before drawing a PERT or CPM network, we must identify all activities and their predecessors.
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13.18 The three time estimates employed in PERT are optimistic time, average time, and pessimistic time.
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13.19 Given the variability of the activity completion times, the original critical path we identify in our PERT analysis may not always be the actual critical path as the project takes place.
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13.20 In PERT, the earliest start time for an activity is equal to the latest of the earliest finish times of all of its immediate predecessors.
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13.21 PERT stands for Probabilistic Evaluation and Review Technique.
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13.22 One of the most significant benefits of PERT is that it forces the project manager to sit down and plan the project in great detail and thus come to an understanding of relationships between the activities.
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13.23 Slack is the time an activity can be delayed without impacting the completion time of the project.
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13.24 The variance of the project completion time is equal to the sum of the variances of all the activities.
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13.25 In PERT, we assume that the project completion time can be modeled by the normal distribution.
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13.26 One PERT/COST assumption is that money is spent at a constant rate over the time taken to complete an activity.
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13.27 CPM stands for Comprehensive Project Method.
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13.28 The longest time path through a PERT/CPM network is called the critical path.
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13.29 In CPM, crashing an activity that is not on the critical path increases the cost of the project.
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13.30 Through the use of PERT/CPM, astute managers can derive flexibility by identifying noncritical activities and replanning, rescheduling, and reallocating resources such as personnel and finances.
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13.31 In PERT, the variance in completion time is equal to the variance of the most time consuming activity on the critical path.
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13.32 Given the assumptions in PERT, the probability that a project will be completed in less time than required by the activities on the critical path is approximately 50%.
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13.33 Gantt charts and PERT diagrams provide the same information, just in different formats.
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13.34 Gantt charts contain information about the time taken by each activity, but not about the sequential dependencies of the activities.
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MULTIPLE CHOICE
13.35 The critical path of a network is the
(a) shortest time path through the network.
(b) path with the fewest activities.
(c) path with the most activities.
(d) longest time path through the network.
(e) none of the above
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13.36 In a PERT network, the earliest (activity) start time is the
(a) earliest time that an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project.
(b) latest time that an activity can be started without delaying the entire project.
(c) earliest time that an activity can start without violation of precedence requirements.
(d) latest time that an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project.
(e) none of the above
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13.37 Slack time in a network is the ______________________________________
(a) amount of time that an activity would take assuming very unfavorable conditions.
(b) shortest amount of time that could be required to complete the activity.
(c) amount of time that you would expect it would take to complete the activity.
(d) difference between the expected completion time of the project using pessimistic times and the expected completion time of the project using optimistic times.
(e) amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the entire project.
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13.38 The first step in planning and scheduling a project is to develop the _______________.
(a) employee scheduling plan
(b) PERT/CPM network diagram
(c) critical path
(d) work breakdown structure
(e) variance calculations for each activity
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13.39 Which of the following is not a concept associated with CPM?
(a) normal time
(b) probability
(c) normal cost
(d) crash cost
(e) deterministic network
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13.40 PERT
(a) assumes that we do not know ahead of time what activities must be completed.
(b) assumes that activity time estimates follow the normal probability distribution.
(c) is a network technique that uses three time estimates for each activity in a project.
(d) is a deterministic network technique that allows for project crashing.
(e) none of the above