Project Management School of Computing, Hamilton Campus

Network Analysis - Time Analysis

This technique establishes the overall completion time of projects by calculating what
is known as the critical path.

The critical path of a network gives the shortest time in which the whole project can
be completed. It is the chain of activities with the longest duration times. There may
be more than one critical path in a network and it is possible for the critical path to
run through a dummy. The following paragraphs give step by step, the procedure for
establishing the critical path.

Earliest start times (EST). Once the activities have been timed it is possible to
assess the total project time by calculating the EST's for each activity. The EST is
the earliest possible time at which a succeeding activity can start and the method of
calculation will be apparent from the following example.

Assume the following network has been drawn and the activity times estimated in
days.

D
B 4
2
0 1 3 4 5
A C E F
1 3 1 2
Figure 1

The EST's can be inserted as follows:

2
3
D
B 4
2
0 1 3 4 5
A C E F
0 1 1 4 1 7 9
3 2

Figure 2

1
Project Management School of Computing, Hamilton Campus

Notes on calculation of EST (termed the FORWARD PASS):

(a) The EST of a head event is obtained by adding onto the EST of the tail event,
the linking activity duration starting from Event 0, time 0 and working forward
through the network.
(b) Where two or more routes arrive at an event the LONGEST route time must
be taken, eg Activity F depends on completion of D and E. E is completed by
day 5 and D is not complete until day 7; therefore F cannot start before day 7.

(c) The EST in the finish event No. 5 is the project duration and is the shortest
time in which the whole project can be completed.

Latest start times (LST). To enable the critical path to be isolated, the LST for each
activity must be established. The LST is the latest possible time at which a
preceding activity can finish without increasing the project duration. Using the
example above the LSTs are as follows:

2
3 3
D
B 4
2
0 1 3 4 5
A C E F
0 0 1 1 1 4 6 1 7 7 9 9
3 2
Figure 3

Notes on calculating LST (termed the BACKWARD PASS):

(a) Starting at the finish event No. 5, insert the LST (ie day 9) and work
backwards through the network deducting each activity duration from the
previously calculated LST.

(b) Where the tails of activities B and C join event No. 1, the LST for C is day 3
and the LST for B is day 1. The lowest number is taken as the LST for event
No. 1 because if event no. 1 occurred at day 3 then activities B and C could
not be completed by day 7 as required and the project would be delayed.

2
Project Management School of Computing, Hamilton Campus

CRITICAL PATH

Examination of Figure 3 shows that one path through the network (A, B, D, F) has
EST's and LST's which are identical. This is the critical path which it should be
noted is the chain of activities which has the longest duration. The critical path can
be indicated on the network either by a different colour or by two small transverse
lines across the arrows along the path as follows:

2
3 3
D
B 4
2
0 1 3 4 5
A C E F
0 0 1 1 1 4 6 1 7 7 9 9
3 2

Figure 4

Critical path implications. The activities along the critical path are vital activities
which must be completed by their EST's/LST's otherwise the project will be delayed.
The non critical activities (in the example above, C and E) have spare time or float
available, ie C and/or E could take up to an additional two days in total without
delaying the project duration. If it is required to reduce the overall project duration
then the time of one or more of the activities on the critical path must be reduced
perhaps by using more labour, or more or better equipment or some other method of
reducing job times.

Note that for simple networks the critical path can be found by inspection, ie looking
for the longest route, but the above procedure is necessary for larger projects and
must be understood. The procedure is similar to that used by most computer
programs dealing with network analysis.

FLOAT

Float or spare time can only be associated with activities which are non-critical. By
definition, activities on the critical path cannot have float. There are three types of
float, Total Float, Free Float and Independent Float. To illustrate these types of
float, part of a network will be used together with a bar diagram of the timings, thus:

3
Project Management School of Computing, Hamilton Campus

J 5 K 6 N
10 20 40 50
10

Other parts of network

10 20 30 40 50
0 0 0 0 0
Max time available
Total float
K
float
K Free float
Independ
K float

Figure 5

(a) Total Float. This is the amount of time a path of activities could be delayed
without affecting the overall project duration. (For simplicity the path in this
example consists of one activity only, ie Activity K).

Total Float = Latest Head time - Earliest Tail time - Activity Duration

Total Float = 50 - 10 - 10
= 30 days

(b) Free Float. This is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without
affecting the commencement of a subsequent activity at its earliest start time,
but may affect float of a previous activity.

Free Float = Earliest Head Time - Earliest Tail time - Activity Duration

Free Float = 40 - 10 - 10
= 20 days

(c) Independent float. This is the amount of time an activity can be delayed
when all preceding activities are completed as late as possible and all
succeeding activities completed as early as possible. Independent float
therefore does not affect float of either preceding or subsequent activities.

Independent float = Earliest Head time - Latest Tail time - Activity Duration

Independent float = 40 - 20 - 10
= 10 days