Critical path analysis programming method without network diagram

Abstract

Project scheduling is an important task in project management which monitors the project duration, resource utilization and affects the benefit of project for all kinds of project such as construction, IT, renewable energy, product design and manufacturing etc. Among many methods for project management, critical path method (CPM) is one of the better-known planning and control techniques in project scheduling. In this study, CPM-based computerized program was developed together with modeling of step by step calculations of parameters of interest such as earliest starts and finishes, slack and float times of project activities resulting in determination of critical path for the project. One advantage of computer implementation of CPM using MATLAB in this study is that unlike conventional method, it eliminates necessity to conventionally draw network diagram to perform critical path analysis.