What is PERT? How to use PERT in Project Management?

Introduction

What is PERT?

Pert, which stands for Program Evolution Review Technique, is a visual technical tool used in project management for project planning. PERT is used to help project managers automatically calculate the considerable time required to successfully complete a project.

PERTs are used in the form of a chart to represent the project planning, which makes it easier to schedule and organize project tasks and team members. By identifying the start and finish dates of a project, project planners will become aware of the need to organize every project task involving an individual team member.

After organizing all the data, the information is displayed in the form of a chart in a network pattern. An example mentioned below might help you understand.

 

What is Project Management?

Project tasks in an organization can be difficult to manage, so organizations hire project managers to manage, organize, schedule, and plan project tasks in accordance with team members and project milestones.

Project management is a management process that involves the planning and scheduling of project tasks according to the project deadline and the resources available. Project management can also be referred to as a study that is practiced to apply all the concepts and methodologies to minimize project time and maximize productivity.

 

What is the main concept of PERT in Project Management?

As previously stated, the Program Evolution Review Technique (PERT) is a visual tool used for PERT in project management to design and organize project tasks. PERT in project management is a visual tool. The data and information after origination are displayed in the form of a chart.

PERT in project management is basically used to schedule every task involved in a project in coordination. It also helps in tracking the real-time progress of the overall project.

In any project, irrespective of the size of the project, estimating the time required to execute the project is crucial to predicting and managing other aspects such as resources and budget. Hence, using PERT charts helps in determining realistic estimations.

 

PERT charts

A flowchart is used to depict all the evaluated results. Descriptions of the details obtained using the Program Evolution Review Technique is called PERT charts.

It is a flowchart with nodes representing the events that indicate the initial and end stages or activities of a project task. The directional lines connecting the nodes indicate the tasks of the project, while the arrows show the hierarchical sequence of project activities.

This network diagram of tasks not only allows project managers to create an organized set of project schedules but also helps team members track through project tasks. The main objective of a PERT chart is to represent an estimation of the project timeline and task duration and to identify task dependencies and critical paths.

These tools tend to behave more powerfully when combined with online project management tools. These help you make a schedule that updates in real-time.

The workings of a PERT chart are very simple if you consider understanding its outlines.

A PERT chart is basically made up of nodes and directional arrow lines. Nodes represent events in the project and are basically drawn with numbered circles or boxes. The arrows direct the flow of work along with the task that is to be completed before moving on to the next task.

A PER chart is a visualization of project tasks and dependencies. This helps provide a framework for structuring project work. This helps provide a framework for structuring project work. Overviews of the tasks that must be marked essential to be completed are also easy to estimate and provide to the team members.

A PERT chart can assist project managers in performing such tasks because the main goal of project managers is to design a project plan that can reduce unnecessary time and budget. 

 

PERT Charts vs Gantt Charts

Since PERT charts and Gantt charts serve their unique purposes, it is hard to decide to compare these both most used and powerful tools.

The purpose of a PERT chart is to design a planes structure for the project that serves all necessary tracking details that explain team members the priority of project tasks and allows project managers to track the progress.

A Gantt chart is basically used for constructing an ongoing roadmap for the project that will be assigned to a project team. This allows managers and team members to adjust project tasks according to changes happening in the scope of the project.

Following are some differences that make PERT and Gantt unique in their own ways.

 

How to create a PERT chart?

To work on a PERT chart for a project, one must clearly understand the requirements for creating a PERT chart. Pert in project management helps in clarifying all necessary details about project tasks, project milestones, the progress of the project, and many other such concepts.

Here are a few steps that one can follow while designing a PERT chart.

 

- Break down Your Project Scope

First, identify the project milestone and the project tasks required to achieve it. This helps you identify the sequence of project activities, tasks, and dependencies.

The details then obtained can be listed out for categories, and you can use these elements to create a PERT chart. These elements or details will be more than sufficient to start creating a PETR chart.

A PERT chart can be created manually or by using Project Management software tools.

 

- Creating a PERT chart

With all the details listed up, you can now make a PERT layout as shown in the reference. Multiple references are already available online. This helps you save time when creating a new chart layout from scratch.

The most important task while creating a PERT chart layout is to sequence the tasks so that the elements representing project tasks can follow the same sequence. This diagram helps in estimating the time required to complete each task.

 

- Estimating Duration

Now that the sequence of project tasks and activities has been determined, it is time to create a project schedule. Making use of the PERT chart formula, time estimated for completing each project task can help in estimating the project duration.

One can create chart haste free, by using Project Manager Software tools. Online tools or software help you automatically design an interactive schedule chart. These charts also help you identify task dependencies, task milestones, project deadlines, and more.

 

- Find Critical Paths

Once the chart is completely done including all the necessary details, you can now calculate all possible critical paths and identify the flows in the flow of project. By eliminating these flaws, your required PERT chart is finally done.

 

As the chart is now done, it is important to remember that this project schedule management chart is a documentation that requires your attention as the project progresses.

 

PERT Chart Advantages

- Complex project simplification

- Engage subject-matter experts from a variety of departments

- Investigate the Speculative

 

Conclusion

Program Evolution Review Technique, or PERT in project management, is a visual technical technique used for project planning in project management. PERT is used to describe project planning in the form of a chart, which makes it simpler to schedule and arrange project tasks and team members.

The primary purpose of PERT in project management is to coordinate the scheduling of all tasks involved in a project. Furthermore, it assists in monitoring the overall project's development in real time.

To share an update on the ongoing project, you can make use of various tools, and the progress can be telecast in real-time. The submissions of the project can be precisely estimated since the work progress is being updated in real-time.

In case of any failure of the project, the manager takes full responsibility for deciding the hierarchy of the tasks involved in the project. Also, by not utilizing the right tools and proper procedures, the project can go wrong at any time.

If you want to learn more about project schedule management and the role of PERT charts and tools in project management, enroll in the CAPM (Certified Associate Project Management) Certification Training Course and get certified by PMI.

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