PERT CPM

Project management is a necessary tool for any company to maintain a competitive edge in today's economy. Project management requires understanding nature of problems in applying solutions with an adequate time measures. Program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM) allow project managers certain methods for developing adequate solutions for individual business problems. The purpose of this essay is to examine how project management can influence the entirety of a network organization, within our company McDonald's, while exploring the difficulties and limitations of implementing PERT and CPM in the organization.

PERT is an effective tool when used as a problem-solving technique that applies to general and overreaching problems. The three main tasks for any project manager includes, planning, scheduling and controlling, are actually addressed within this technique. Project managers need to understand and have a basic realization of what the problem is within any organization before it can be solved. Within this approach, specific goals and deadlines can be easily understood and therefore met. Gantt chart's milestone charts coupled with cash flow schedules easily synchronize the issues for companies like ours.

PERT will not solve the companies entire set of McDonald's problems. There are many assumptions and probability statistics that require analysis and guesswork in order to properly apply them in a practical manner. It should be remembered that the role of project manager is to be a gatherer of all information and ideas and synchronize them into a cease and flowing project. This is difficult to do when assumptions based upon unknown quantities such as market conditions and other completely unpredictable events of human existence often dictate the manner in which these techniques are applied.

CPM, while often discussed as an associated term of PERT, also has its positive characteristics that can affect a company as well. CPM is best used when applied to a specific mechanical issue with any larger project. The nature of this technique requires several diagrams and explicit relationships drawn out in a visual manner. In our company, McDonald's, the size of this organization limits the effectiveness of CPM. Additionally project managers face this struggle throughout the entire organization. Planning scheduling and controlling numbers of people this large requires a dispersion of managerial talent and effective leadership.