Statistical PERT: Decomposing a Project Network

Statistical PERT is a new procedure for obtaining information about the distribution of a projects completion time when the project is comprised of a large number of activities and the time required to complete an individual activity once it can be begun is a random variable. The project is represented as an acyclic network whose arcs correspond to the project activities. This network is simplified by replacing various activity configurations by single equivalent activities and then decomposed into several subnetworks. This report documents two computer programs. The first program BREAKUP decomposes a project network into several subnetworks which are connected in either series or parallel in the project network. The second program LOOP checks a given project network for loops cycles since any loop would contradict the assumed acyclic structure of the project network.