What are the Advantages and disadvantages of PERT and CPM?

The program evaluation and review technique (PERT) involves charts that display scheduled tasks for project completion. This type of flow chart is a common method used by project managers, and is part of the critical path analysis that focuses on essential tasks for project completion. Project managers often design PERT charts for specific parts of complex projects. Each chart begins with one node that branches out into networks of activities, emphasizing relationships among tasks. PERT has both advantages and disadvantages.

• A PERT chart makes planning large projects easier, according to the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences. It answers three key questions about each activity that help managers identify relationships between tasks and task dependencies. These questions involve how long it will take to complete an activity, and which other activities must occur immediately before and immediately after this activity for effective project completion. PERT is a good way of making these relationships visible in a diagram.

• The critical path includes all activities that cannot be delayed without affecting the project completion date. PERT makes the critical path visible, as explained by the University of Virginia. All tasks not on the critical path can have some slack time without affecting project completion time. When the project manager must delay one task to allocate more time to another, the critical path makes clear which tasks cannot be delayed.