The Network Diagram

Introduction:

All kinds of project be it engineering, administrative or construction projects have their own
unique characteristics.

Every project is composed of works, activities, task or functions that are related one to
another in some manner. But generally they must all 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 minimum capital investment without causing delay.

For management to function effectively, the project planning system must consider all
alternatives available.

The options could be possibility of utilizing its full resources such as money, manpower,
facilities and equipment. Only when the management knows how to use the options can
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 predetermined 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 number of 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.

Project managers objective in planning:

To represent graphically the specific job and the proper sequence of the job.

To establish a medium for estimating the time, manpower or other resources necessary
for each job.

To have available sequential arrangement of the jobs, an accurate estimate of resources

and the alternative plans based on the scope of work.

Scheduling

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

CRITICAL PATH

- Is the longest route network of activities representing a project?

-The time required to complete a project is numerically equal to the length of the route.
-Activities along the critical path are called Critical Activities of the project and any delay in their
competition may result in the delay of the entire project.

EARLIEST EVENT

Is the earliest time occurrence of an event sometimes Earliest Event or Early Event Time?

It is the earliest time an event can happen without delaying the Earliest Start of any activity.

The Earliest Start of an activity cannot be earlier 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.
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 the event may occur without delaying project
completion.

It is numerically equal 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 its 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 equal the Latest Finish.

LS + D + LF or
LS = LF D
Activity Total Float or Activity Total Slack- Is the span of time as activity can be delayed after its
earliest start time without delaying the project completion. It is numerically equal to the total time
fro the activity minus 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 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 proceeding activities used up all their float.

It is numerically equal to the ES of the succeeding real activities minus the duration of
activity in question.
LF = ES (LF - D)

When the result of applying the formula is negative, it means that there is no independent float.
The independent float. The independent float is equal to zero.

COMPUTING THE EARLY START AND 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 the time consuming which could not be done manually.

An algorithm is used to develop four types of information about the network activities, they
are:
ES The Early Start of time activity. This is assuming that all proceeding activities start at the
earliest time.
EF Early Finish of time Activity.
LS- 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. The Slack time

3. Determine which activity falls under the critical path.

RULES IN COMPUTING THE ES AND THE EF

Rule No. 1: The Earliest 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, ES for activities such node is equals the
largest EF of the entering arrow.

SOLVING 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 Es
ILLUSTRATION 1:
From the following diagram, determine each of the following:
a) The length of each path
b) The critical path, and
c) The amount of float time for each path.

PATH

LENGTH IN WEEKS

FLOAT/SLACK TIME

1-2-4-5-6
1-2-5-6
1-3-5-6

10+8+4+2= 24
10+13+2= 25
6+12+2= 20

25-24= 1
25-25= 0
25-20= 5

CRITICAL PATH

SOLUTION:
We have two options to use in solving the value of Float by the use of formula (LS-ES)
OR (LF-EF)
Referring to the previous tabulation of activities in illustrations we can tabulate the result
of LS and ES to find the value of Float as follows:

Activity
1-2
1-3
2-4
2-5
3-5
4-5
5-6

LS
0
5
11
10
11
19
23

ES
0
0
10
10
6
18
23

Float
LS-ES
0
5
1
0
5
1
0

The Critical Path using the activities with Zero Float Time.
Thus, activities 1-2; 2-5; and 5-6 are all critical activities.
Knowing the float time, the manager has a wider detail for planning the allocation of
limited resources and for directing control towards those activities that are susceptible to
delaying the project.

The activity float time are based on the assumption that all of the activities on the same
path should be started as early as possible and never to exceed their expected time.
If two activities are both on the same path like activities 1-3 and 3-5 with a float of 5 and
activities 24 and 4-5 with float of one week respectively, those number of weeks will be the total
float available for both activities. In other words, said activities have a Shared Slack or Shared
Float.

ILLUSTRATION 2:

From the following network diagram, prepare a data sheet development showing:
a)
b)
c)
d)

Earliest and Latest start

Earliest and Latest finish
Total and Free Float or Slack, and
Critical activities

SOLUTION:

*Determine the number of path in the network.

Path
1-2-6-8-10
1-2-6-10
1-3-6-10
1-3-6-7-9-10
1-4-7-9-10

Activity time
8+7+9+8
8+7+12
5+10+12
5+10+6+3+2
6+7+3+2

Duration weeks
32
27
27
26
18

A. Determine the value of ES and EF by working forward from node 1-10

(EF= ES D)
Activity time
1-2
1-3
1-4
2-6
3-4
3-6
4-5
4-7
5-7
6-7
6-8
6-10
7-9
8-10
9-10

EARLY START
+DURATION=
0+8
0+5
0+6
8+7
5+0
5+10
6+5
6+7
11+0
15+6
15+9
15+12
21+3
24+8
24+2

Earliest finish
8
5
6
15
5
15
11
13
11
21
24
27
24
32
26

1. The Late Start (LS) is the deadline date by which time activity must start if the project
is to be completed on time.

2. The Late Finish (LF) is the date that the work or activity must be finished if the project
is not to be delayed. It is the time duration after the Last Start (LS). Like the Late
Start, it is a deadline date for an activity. It is the day after the physical completion of
the activity.
3. Take note the entries for the ES and LS; the EF and LF which are practically the
same, these are the critical activities having a total float equals to zero, for noncritical activities where the difference between the ES and the LS is not zero is called
Float or Slack Time.

B. Determine the LS and the LF by working back from node 10 1.

(LS = LF D)
Activity time
10-9
10-8
10-6
9-7
8-6

LATEST FINISH DURATION

32-2
32-8
32-12
30-3
24-9

LATEST START
30
24
20
27
15

7-6
7-5
7-4
6-3
6-2
5-4
4-3
4-1
3-1
2-1

27-6
27-0
27-7
15-10
15-7
27-5
20-0
20-6
5-5
8-8

21
27
20
5
8
22
20
14
0
0

Free Float- the free float refers to the amount of extra time that exists for an activity when all
activities preceding it start at their Early Start (ES) date. In short, this is an extra time gained
when an activity start immediately on the Earliest time.

Total Float- the Total Float is the amount of float that is shared by all the activities on a noncritical path. Once this float is used on activity, it no longer exist. Time that was consumed is lost
forever. For instance, if the total float is 8 days and there are 5 activities in the project, the
project engineer decides on how to allocate 8 days on the 5 activities with only one objective- to
finish the project on or before the target date.

C. Tabulate the result of ES EF and LS-LF. To find the total float, free float, and
D. Critical activities.
Activity
1-2
1-3
1-4
2-6
3-4
3-6
4-5
4-7
5-7
6-7
6-8
6-10
7-9
8-10
9-10

Estimated
time
8
5
6
7
0
10
5
7
0
6
9
12
3
8
2

START
ES
LS
0
0
0
0
0
14
8
8
5
20
5
5
6
22
6
20
11
27
15
21
15
15
15
20
21
27
24
24
24
30

FINISH
EF
LF
8
8
5
5
6
20
15
15
5
20
15
15
11
27
13
27
11
27
21
27
24
24
27
32
24
30
32
32
26
32

FLOAT
TOTAL FREE
0
0
0
0
14
0
0
0
15
1
0
0
16
0
14
8
16
10
6
0
0
0
5
5
6
0
0
0
6
6

CRITICAL
ACTIVITY
-