How to draw an Activity Network - Worked Example
About this Video
Unlock the secrets of project management with our comprehensive guide on drawing an Activity Network. This worked example will walk you through the process of visualizing tasks and dependencies in project planning. Learn how to organize and present frequency for grouped data effectively, enhancing your ability to oversee complex projects with ease. Perfect for students and professionals alike, this tutorial is your step-by-step companion to mastering Activity Networks. Tune in to streamline your project management skills today!
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Rules of Drawing Networks
Network analysis refers to a family of related techniques developed to aid management to plan and control projects.
Network analysis is used to evaluate projects that are large and complex; where restrictions in terms of time and resources exist.
Importance of network analysis
At the planning stage, network analysis helps managers to plan on how to get started on the project by identifying the activities of the project.
It helps in showing the inter-relationship of various jobs or tasks which make-up the overall project and identifying the time durations for each.
It clearly identifies the critical parts of the project.
Provides planning and control of information on time, cost and resource aspects of a project.
Network analysis helps in determining the total completion time to the project if everything goes as to the plan.
Rules for drawing networks
A complete network should have only one point of entry – a start event and only one point of exit i.e. a finish event.
Every activity must have one preceding or ‘tail’ event and one succeeding or ‘head’ event. Several activities may use the same tail event and heat event.
No activity can start until its tail event is reached.
An event is not complete until all activities leading into it are complete.
Loops .i.e. a series of activities which lead back to the same event, are not allowed since networks are a progression of activities always moving onwards in time.
All activities must be tied into the network.
Other guiding conventions
Networks proceed from left to right
Networks are not drawn to scale i.e. the length of the arrow does not represent time elapsed.