Critical Program Analysis

PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

Meaning:

The program evaluation and review technique commonly abbreviated PERT is a statistical tool used in project management which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks that involved in completing a given project. It identify the minimum time needed in the completion of a project. It was first developed in USA in October 1958 as a Management Aid for completing Polaris Ballistic Missile Project.

Definition:

Harold Kerzner in his book Project Management “PERT is basically a management planning and control tool. It can be considered as a road map for a particular program or project in which all of the major elements (events) have been completely identified, together with their corresponding

It is often applied to the analysis of a project network logic diagram to produce maximum practical efficiency.

Definition:

The Critical Path Method is a step-by-step project management technique for process planning that defines critical and non-critical tasks with the goal of preventing time-frame problems and process bottlenecks.

Processes of CPM:

1.Specify the individual activities- From the Work Breakdown Structure, a listing can be made of all the activities in the project as it can be used for adding sequence and duration information in the next steps.

2. Determine the sequence of those activities- The activities that are present in the project some are dependent upon the completion of others activities. Therefore a listing of the immediate predecessors of each activity is useful for the construction of CPM network diagram.

3. Estimate the completion time for each activity- The time required to complete each activity can be estimated using past experience. CPM is a deterministic model that does not take into account variation in the completion time so only one number can be used for an activity’s time

To know the needs regarding information- An analytical study of that information is made which are needed for the external parties related to the organizations.

2. To explain the objectives of MIS- It means to clearly define the objectives in terms of what one will do with the information received by him/her.

3. To determine the sources of information- There are several sources of information and they are internal and external. The internal sources are accounts, file, statistical papers, personal interviews, personal inspections etc and the external sources are commercial and government publications.

4. To set the method of collection and classification of information- In this part it is decided what will be the sources of information, frequency, quantity and time of information? After collection how it will be classified?

5. Method of giving information- It is decided to who the information is to be given, how many copies are to be prepared, when and what will be its frequency and in which form it is to be given.

6. Cost profit analysis- The cost to be incurred in information system should be assessed and the benefit should be estimated. The cost of information system includes the cost of its implementation, practicing it and its