Critical Path Method (CPM) and PERT for Project Scheduling

Project delays and scope creep often stem from poor initial scheduling and dependency mapping. This course provides a foundational understanding of the two most powerful classical scheduling tools, CPM and PERT, enabling you to build reliable timelines and analyze project risk before work begins. This course will teach you to construct accurate project schedules and make informed decisions about resource allocation. What you'll learn: * Understand the core concepts of CPM and PERT, including activity networks and dependency mapping. * Apply the Critical Path Method (CPM) to calculate the shortest possible project duration and identify tasks with zero float. * Practice calculating Earliest Start, Latest Finish, and Total Slack for every activity in complex network diagrams. * Utilize PERT's three-point estimation (optimistic, pessimistic, most likely) to quantify schedule risk and estimate completion probabilities. * Analyze project timelines to identify opportunities for resource considerations and schedule compression techniques (crashing). The course begins with defining key terminology and constructing network diagrams, then moves into the step-by-step calculations required for both CPM (deterministic) and PERT (probabilistic) analysis, concluding with practical application scenarios. This course is designed for aspiring project managers, engineering students, and anyone new to formal project scheduling. No prior knowledge of project management or statistical methods is required. Start building robust and predictable project schedules today.