Pert network software

Critical path diagram with time estimates in LucidChart Source. Ultimately, you can use your PERT chart to help determine and visually indicate the critical path when project planning.

One of the challenges with PERT charts is that they show a lot of detailed information for each task including:. This level of detail can quickly get out of hand when dealing with long, complex projects that have a high volume of tasks with multiple phases and milestones.

The most common way project managers create PERT charts is manually drawing them or using a spreadsheet tool, such as Excel. However, there are several software solutions available that can simplify and automate the creation of PERT charts. For more information about project planning software, visit our Buyers Guide to read reviews and compare solutions.

Not all project management software includes PERT chart capabilities, so you may also want to look at our diagramming or org chart software catalog to find a program you can use in conjunction with your project management software. Or, call our project management experts at for a free consultation. Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations.

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By listing all your tasks in the table, you get a clear overview of all the steps which you can subsequently expand by adding information on sequence and the time necessary to complete each activity. While it easy to predict the order of some activities, other tasks may require more in-depth analysis which will help you determine their order more easily. Once you established the sequence of activities, you can represent both serial and parallel activities in the diagram.

Each activity should represent a node in the network, and you can use arrows to show relationships between activities. What distinguishes PERT from other techniques is its ability to deal with uncertainty in activity completion time. There are three-time estimates this model typically uses for each activity:.

After you identified the time estimates, you can calculate the expected time for each activity by using the following weighted average:. For example, imagine you are building a cottage. Drilling and planting the posts has an optimistic duration of 7 hours, an expected duration of 10 hours, and a pessimistic duration of 12 hours.

The optimistic duration is counted once, the most likely time is counted four times and the pessimistic time is counted once.

By adding the times for the activities and determining the longest path, you create a critical path. The critical path involves the total amount of time necessary to complete the project. At its core, PERT gives you the ability to control complex and ambitious projects whose objectives can be highly critical in nature.

It helps you determine the fastest possible route to complete the projects. PERT helps project managers identify responsible departments and delegate roles to their team workers. By gathering information from multiple sources, you can easily coordinate project activities and leverage communication between departments.

Through efficient planning and decision-making, you encourage your team to truly invest their time and energy into delivering the best results. Even though PERT has proven to be effective in terms of reducing the expected project completion time, there are still some limitations we need to be aware of:.