What is the PERT chart?

The PERT diagram or program evaluation and review technique, it is an effective project management tool that is used in the analysis of the activities that are needed to complete a project. Its design is appropriate for large-scale projects, identifying the time it takes for each activity, calculating the requirements from low to high.

These diagrams offer a graphical compensation of time requirements of a project in a clear way and the dependencies between the different activities, also allow to make decisions related to the sequences of activities and the deadline.

Use this type of comprehensive map of dates and activities, allows the team to complete the project for a shorter time, leading to favorable results for both the team and the clients.

What is the PERT chart for

This diagram is used in companies today, due to its large number of functions, which help to have the knowledge of the end of the project. This will allow the establishment of an effective communication between the project executor and the client.

In this sense, it can be said that this method complies with the following aspects:

• Its main characteristic is the duration of the activities.
• Evaluate each of the changes during the development of the project.
• Try to meet specific deadlines.
• It works through the relationships that are obtained from the elements that make up the activities related to the order of execution.

How to make a PERT chart

In order to perform a PERT chart, you must have available all the activities that belong to the project, the duration time and the relationship between them. That is why, when making this type of diagram, you must use a graphical workspace and follow the following steps:

Sort the activities

• In the first step, the activities must be represented in an orderly manner both at the beginning and at the end of the project, the order of execution and the duration time in each of the projects must also be indicated by arrows. picture.
• Including this information makes it easier to understand and execute the diagram, this is because the first activities must be carried out once the project starts.
• The project ends when all activities that do not comprise subsequent activities have been completed. It is important to put the name and the activity time in the upper areas.

Perform the calculation of the first start date

• The first date is the one that is closest to the beginning where the activities begin to be carried out, taking into account the links that the preceding activities have.
• Inside of the PERT diagram Each of the activities can be seen in the lower right area.
• Making its calculation is very simple, for this you must start with the assignment of a 0 as the start date, this will indicate that the project begins on day 0. From there, the first date of an activity will be added plus the duration of the activity.
• If there is more than one preceding activity, the calculation must be made with all the activities and the one with the highest value will be displayed.

Calculate from last start date

• When you reach the end of the diagram, you have to do the calculation of the last start date, this value is within the lower left area of ​​each of the boxes.
• To make this calculation, the last start date must be assigned in the same way as the first start date and an operation similar to the previous one is performed.
• It is done from left to right and the last start date of the subsequent activity and the time that the activity lasts where the calculation is made is subtracted. If there is more than one activity, the calculation is performed with all subsequent activities and the lowest value has to be shown.

Enter the activities from the project diagram

• The activities should be incorporated into the diagram along with the scheduled time for their completion.
• Then, the PERT diagramwill facilitate a timeline graphically for the project and thus help determine the development of the project.

Advantages of the PERT diagram

One of the fundamental contributions of this model is to offer a comprehensive view of all processes. From there, a series of high-value benefits are created, such as the following when carrying out projects:

• Optimize decision making and project planning.
• It allows better ways of working.
• It facilitates the presentation of data and integration of those who are interested in the project.
• It takes into account the dependencies of the activities.
• Improves the execution time of evaluations.
• Allows planning to be more realistic and effective.
• Promote the execution of an effective plan for each project.
• Improve compliance with budgets and estimated deadlines.

Disadvantages of the PERT diagram

Like any model, this one also has some disadvantages such as those shown below:

• Schedules are not promoted flexibly.
• It requires a great effort when executed individually, this is because its development has different activities.
• It does not contain enough data when a PERT diagram online.
• It is a predictive model, however, it is not a quick method.
• One measure is the time factor, since when one of the data fails during the development of activities, deadlines, changes of dates or some other variation within the resource management, the network would completely collapse PERT.

The best of use a PERT chart, is that it has the possibility of satisfying employees and customers. Using the data from the diagrams effectively can slow down the decision-making process and give the team the responsibilities that the project requires.