Program Evaluation and Review Technique

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PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six activities (A through F).

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique commonly abbreviated PERT is a model for project management invented by United States Department of Defense's US Navy Special Projects Office in 1958 as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project. This project was a direct response to the Sputnik crisis.

PERT is basically a method for analyzing the tasks involved in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project.

Developed in the ‘50’s this primarily to simplify the planning and scheduling of large and detailed projects.

It was able to incorporate uncertainty in the sense that it was possible to schedule a project not knowing the details and durations of all the activities.

More of an event oriented technique rather than start and completion oriented.

This technique is used more in R&D type projects where Cost is not a major factor but Time is.

This project model was the first of its kind, a revival for scientific management, founded in Fordism and Taylorism. Though every company now has their own "project model" of some kind, they all resemble PERT in some respect. Only DuPont corporation's critical path method was invented at roughly the same time as PERT.

The most famous part of PERT is the "PERT Networks", charts of timelines that interconnect. PERT is intended for very large-scale, one-time, complex, non-routine projects.

Implementing PERT

Each task is modelled in the PERT framework using the following estimates: optimistic (O), most likely (M), and pessimistic (P).

Then:

The estimated time (expected value or mean) for the task = (O+4M+P)/6.Here assumption is made that time distribution is a beta distribution

The standard deviation of the task = (P - O)/6

See also

• project planning
• Beta distribution
• Triangular distribution
• Gantt chart

External links

• [Opensource software for making AOA diagram]
• [The rudiments of PERT]
• [More explanation of PERT]
• [3 Point Estimating Tutorial on VisionaryTools.com]

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