a. 1. Describe how expected activity times and variances can be computed in a PERT network.
2. Define earliest start, earliest finish, latest finish, and latest start times.
3. Students are sometimes confused by the concept of critical path, and want to believe that it is the shortest path through a network. Convincingly explain why this is not so.
4. What are dummy activities? Why are they used in activity-on arrow (AOA) project networks?
b. 1. What are the three time estimates used with PERT?
2. Would a project manager ever consider crashing a noncritical activity in a project network? Explain convincingly.
3. How is the variance of the total project computed in PERT?
4. Describe the meaning of slack, and discuss how it can be determined.