(Online Course) Public Administration for IAS Mains Exams
Topic: Techniques of Administrative Improvement: Critical Path Method (CPM)
CPM was developed by the engineers of the Du Pont Company in the 1950’s for its application in all scheduling work, construction projects, research and development programmes and in many other situation that require estimates of time and performance.
Main Features
- A network of events and activities is presented pictorially in CPM with the help of several circles and arrows.
- Each circle represents an event and each arrow represents an activity.
- An event signifies the beginning of one activity and the end of another activity.
- Events are assigned serial numbers for expressing their sequence and their separate identification.
- An activity, on the other hand, implies time-consuming efforts or actions required for achieving an event. The flow of sequential activities is indicated by the arrow-head, and such flow calls for estimating time in number of days or weeks in respect of each activity between any two events. That is, there must be an elapsed timed for each activity between events.