CHAPTER 6: THE NETWORK DIAGRAM

INTRODUCTION
All kinds of project be it engineering, administrative or construction have their own
unique characteristics. However, there are certain basic characteristics, which are common to any
project. Every project is composed of works, activities, tasks or functions that are related to one
or the other in some manner. But generally, they all must be completed because the main goal is
to finish the project under the following objectives.
1. To complete the project at the earliest minimum time.
2. To use any available manpower, equipment and other resources
3. To complete the project with a minimum capital investment without causing undue delay.
For management to function effectively, the project planning system used must consider all
available alternatives. The options could be a possibility of utilizing its full resources such as
money, manpower, facilities and equipment. Only when the management knows and learned
how to use these options can it discharge its responsibilities.
This is a management problem of how to select the plan, which will utilize all resources
effectively as possible.
The answer is PERT/CPM. A basic tool, that will tell the management how to build a project on
a pre-determined activities and number of days at a projected cost.
Construction management basically consider TIME as the controlling factor of all available
resources from money, manpower, facilities and equipment. As the controlling factor:
Time versus manpower
Time versus number of equipment
Time versus peso

PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

In Planning, the logical sequence of the job to be performed must be formalized under
the following considerations:
1. The logic of its sequence must be reviewed for correctness.
2. A further review should be entertained to ascertain that all phases of works should
appear.
3. That the scope of work is correctly interpreted.
Resources which are required in performing each job must be in place and available
when needed. Resources can be time, manpower, equipment, facilities and money.
 Management must review the plans and the resource requirements and then select a
project plan that offers the best for the project.

Project objectives
The project manager’s objective in planning could be summarized as follows:
1. To represent graphically the specific job and the proper sequence of the job.
2. To establish a medium for estimating the time, manpower or other resources
necessary for each job.
3. To have available sequential arrangement of the jobs, an accurate estimate of
resources and the alternative plans based on the scope of work.
Scheduling – is only secondary to planning. It is the process of allocating calendar dates to jobs
based on the approved plan.
General time boundaries are determined for each job during the process of planning.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
In developing a Network Diagram, there are important terms that we must be familiar
with because of their importance and functions in the network. Unless these terms are known, we
will be lost in the process of network diagramming.
Critical path – is the longest route in the network of activities representing a project. The sum of
the activities duration along this route is the duration of the project.
In other words, the time required to complete a project is numerically equal to the length
of the route which is called critical path. Activities along the critical path are called Critical
Activities of the project and any delay in their completion may result in the delay of the entire
project.
There may be more than one critical path in a network and the critical path in a network
and the critical path may shift as the project moves toward the completion.
Earliest event – is the earliest time occurrence of an event sometimes called Earliest Event Time
or Early Event Time. It is the earliest time an event can happen without delaying the Earliest
Start of any activity.
The Earliest Event time is numerically equal to the longest path of activities in series
from the project start to the finish. Unless specified, the Earliest Event Time of the starting event
is assumed to be zero.
The Earliest Start of an activity cannot be earlier than the earliest event time of the
event. In other words, the Earliest Start of any activity is always equal to the Earliest Event at the
beginning of an arrow which is sometimes called i-node. The point of an arrow is called j-node.
i-node j-node

Early start is not necessarily the point in time that the activity will be over, but it is the earliest
time that it can occur.
It is the first day after the physical assumption of the activity.
The Earliest Finish of an activity is equal to its Earliest Start plus its duration or time.
Therefore:
ES = ES + Duration or
EF = Early Event + Duration

The Latest Event time – is the latest time in the event may occur without delaying project
completion.
It is numerically equal to the length of the critical path minus the longest path from the
project and event to the event in question.
The Latest Finish of an activity cannot be later than the latest event time of it j-node. In
Short, all activities with the same j-node have the same late finish which is the same as the latest
event time at their common node.
The Latest Start plus Duration is equals the Latest Finish.
LS + D = LF or
LS = LF – D
Activity Total Float or Activity Total Slack – is the span of time an activity can be
delayed after its earliest start time without delaying the project completion. It is numerically
equal to the total time for the activity duration.
LF – EF = Total Float or
LS + D – (ES + D) or
LS – ES = Total Float
The activity Free Float – is the span of time an activity can be delayed after its Early
Start without delaying the Earliest Start of any succeeding actual activity that may be availed of
and still allow its succeeding real activities to begin at their Earliest Start time.
 It is numerically equal to the ES of any of its succeeding real activities minus the Earliest
Finish (EF) of an activity in question.
Activity Free Float is equals to the Early Event time at the i-node of the next succeeding
real activity minus the EF of the activity.
FF = ES – (ES+D)
Independent Float – is that portion of the activities Free Float that would remain if all its
preceding activities used up all their float.
It is numerically equal to the ES of the succeeding real activities minus the LF of the
preceding activities minus the duration of activity in question.
IF = ES – (LF-D)
When the result of applying this formula is negative, it means that there is no independent
float. The independent float is equal to zero.

COMPUTING THE EARLY START AND THE EARLY FINISH

For large project networks which contain hundreds or even thousands of activities,
computers are used to analyze the programs considering that the computation is exceedingly
complex and time consuming which could not be done manually.
An algorithm is used to develop fur types of information about the network, they are:
ES= The Early Start of time activity. This is assuming that all preceding activities start
at the earliest time.
EF= Early Finish of time activity
LS = Latest time the activity can Start and not delay the project
LF = Latest time the activity can Finish and not delay the project
After determining the value of each activity, we can proceed to find the following.
1. Expected duration of the project
2. Slack time
3. Determine which activity falls under the critical path.

RULES IN COMPUTING THE ES AND THE EF

Rule No. 1: The Early Finish (EF) for any activity is equal to its earliest starting time
plus its expected duration time t.
EF = ES + t
 Rule No. 2: For nodes with one entering arrow, ES for activities at such node is equal to
EF of the entering arrow.
For nodes with multiple entering arrows, the ES for activities leaving such node is equals
to the largest EF of the entering arrow.

COMPUTING THE LAST START AND LAST FINISH

The Latest Start (LS) of an activity plus the duration is equals the Latest Finish (LF)
LF = LS + Duration or
LS = LF – Duration

The activity oriented CPM network diagram is made under the following Rules:

1. When an activity is the only predecessor of one or more successors, the activity’s Early
Finish (EF) is equal to the Early Start (ES) of any of its successor. This is true because a
successor activity cannot start until its predecessor activity has not been completed.
2. When two or more activities have common successor, the latters’s ES is equal to the
Latest Early Finish of its predecessors. This is true because an activity cannot start until
all of its predecessor activities have been completed.
3. When an activity has only one Successor Activity, its LF is equal to the LS of the
Successor. This is so because a Successor activity cannot start until its predecessor
activity have been finished.
4. When two or more activities have only one successor activity, the LS of the successor
activity is equal to the LF of any of its predecessor activities. This is true because a
successor activity can only start after all its predecessor activities have been completed,
and provided that their LF do not exceed the LS of their predecessor, project completion
will not be delayed.
5. When an activity has two or more successors, the Latest Finish (LF) of the activity is
equal to the Earliest of the Latest start of its successors activities. This is so because the
LF of an activity cannot be later than the Latest Start (LS) of any of its successor
activities.

SOLVING THE FLOAT OR SLACK TIME

The term Slack is used by PERT which is equivalent to Float of CPM network system.
Slack or Float is the word used for those activities which do not fall on the critical path.
Meaning, that these activities have scheduling Time Leeway that can be used without adverse
effect on the project time completion.
The Slack or Float Time is computed by using either of the following equations:
Float = LS – ES or
Float = LF -EF