The Network Fundamentals
And Activity is dependent upon and cannot begin until after the
Network Conventions
The making and reading of a network diagram requires some
familiarity of the network conventions.
Precedence Diagram
A key in solving typical problems
Indicates which of the activities must be performed in the
sequence and which can be performed independently with
each other
Composed of a number of arrows and nodes
Different Conventions for Making a Network Diagram
1. Activity on Arrow (AOA) Using arrows to designate
activities
2. Activity on Node (AON) Using nodes to designate
Activities
The Elements of Network Diagramming
Work B cannot start until after work A is
finished
C cannot start until both A and B are
finished
A must be completed before either B or
C can start
Both A and B must be completed before
either
Both A and B must be completed before
C can start. D depends only on B and A.
X is called a dummy.
D depends on A and B. C depends on A
only. Y is a dummy.
Principle No. 1
a. Every arrow represents an item of work and is called an activity
b. An event is the starting point of an activity represented by a circle,
square or any other geometrical form
c.
completion of all preceding activities
d. All activities that start with the same event cannot begin until the
completion of all activities that enter that event
Principle No. 2
An arrow in the network must satisfy two basic questions:
1. What activities must be completed before this one can
start?
2. What activities cannot be started if this one is not
completed?
Principle No. 3
The network (arrow diagram) does not describe time
relationships but rather dependency relationships.
The length and direction of an activity arrow has no
relationship with the amount of time required to accomplish the
work presented by it.
Principle No. 4
The network (arrow diagram) is hardly ever done by a single
person.
Several people who have an influence in the project should be
consulted when making the network. Likewise, subcontractors and
suppliers should be asked to review the network to make sure that
the activities affecting their participation is accurately and
realistically described.
Fundamental Elements of PERT/CPM Networking
1. Activity the work operations required to complete a task.
The actual work between the events
The Arrows should always point to the right. Arrows which
represents an activity is identified by a numbered circle at its tail and
another number circle at its point. The activity description is written
along the arrow.
Activities can either be:
1. By their end points, such as 1-2, 2-4, etc.
2. By letter assigned to an arrow such as: a, b, c, etc.
2. Events a point in time signifying the beginning or the end of an If an activity must precede B and C, the diagram will be as follows:
activity. The event is indicated on the network as a circle, square,
ellipse, or any form of geometrical shape with a number written
therein for identification.

1. Numbering of the events follows the construction of the

network.

2. No two events shall have the same identification number

in the network.

3. For this reason, one or more dummy activities may be When several activities enter a node, it means that all those
used in a activities must be completed before any activities that will begin at
that node can be started. Thus in the following diagram, activity A
3. Dummy Activity is an arrow on a network showing the and B must be finished first before either activity C or D can start.
dependent relationship between two activities. Dummy activities
however does not represent actual work efforts and may be used to
distinguish between two parallel activities.

4. Duration of an activity time it takes for an activity to be

finished. It is the span of time from Early start to Early finish or Late
start to Late finish.

5. Path a path is the sequence of activities that leads from the

starting node to the finishing node.
Comments:
1. The length or time of any path can be determined by
adding the expected time of the activities along that path.
When two activities have the same start and ending nodes, a
dummy node and activity is used to preserve the different identity of
each activity. In the following diagram, activity A and activity B must
be completed first before activity C begins.

2. The path with the longest time, catches management

interest because it governs the project completion time.

3. The expected duration of the project is equal to the

expected time of the longest path.

4. If delays are encountered in the longest path, there is also

a delay in the completion time.

5. Any attempt to shorten the project completion time must

concentrate on the longest sequence of activities.
6. The longest path is the critical path and the activities are
called critical activities.
7. Paths that are shorter may experience some delay but
should not affect the overall completion time unless the
ultimate path time exceeds the length of the critical path.
Most computer program identify activities by their end points, thus
separate identities are particularly important for computer analysis.
Activities with the same end points could not be distinguished from
each other although they might have different expected time.
Dummy activities has several number of different uses and the
following are commonly used.

8. The allowable slippage is called the Path slack or Float

time. It indicates the length of difference between the
critical path and the length of the given path

9. The critical path has zero slack or float.

In the following figure, activity A must be completed first before

activity B can be started. Likewise, activity B must be completed
In the network shown, activities A and B both precede activity C. but
before activity C can be started.
Ds start is only dependent on the completion of activity B and not
As. similarly E is dependent on C.

In the diagram, both activity A and B must be completed first before

activity C can begin. A and B could be done at the same time and
Performance of either task doesnt affect one another.
Starting and ending arrows are sometimes used during development
of a network diagram for more clarity.

Rules for Numbering Events in a Network Diagram

1. All events should be numbered from left to right.

2. No event number should be lower than the number of

events preceding it. (left to right direction)

3. Event number shall increase from left to right.

4. Events should be numbered from top to bottom. Similarly

increasing of values should be consistent from top to
bottom or from bottom to top.

When a group of N parallel activities start from the same event and
ends with the same subsequent event, N-1 parallel activities in the
group should be joined to the subsequent event with dummy
activities for identification purposes.