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The '''program ''' '''evaluation and review technique''' ('''PERT''') is a statistical tool used in [[project management]], which was designed to analyze and represent the [[task (project management)|tasks]] involved in completing a given [[project]].
PERT was originally developed by Charles FE. Clark for the [[United States Navy]] in 1958; it is commonly used in conjunction with the [[Critical Path Method]] (CPM), which was also introduced in 1958.<ref name="origins">{{cite journal |last1=Kelley |first1=James E. |last2=Walker |first2=Morgan R. |last3=Sayer |first3=John S. |title=The Origins of CPM: a personal history |journal=Project Management |date=February 1989 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=18 |url=https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/origins-cpm-personal-history-3762 |access-date=20 March 2024 |publisher=Project Management Institute }}</ref>
== Overview ==
PERT is a method of analyzing the tasks involved in completing a project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project. It incorporates uncertainty by making it possible to schedule a project while not knowing precisely the details and [[Duration (project management)|durations]] of all the activities. It is more event-oriented than start- and completion-oriented, and is used more for projects where time is the major constraint rather than cost. It is applied to very large-scale, one-time, complex, non-routine infrastructure projects, as well as [[R&D]] projects.
PERT offers a management tool,{{sfn|Kerzner|2009}}{{rp|497}} which relies "on arrow and node diagrams of ''activities'' and ''events'': arrows represent the ''activities'' or work necessary to reach the ''events'' or nodes that indicate each completed phase of the total project."<ref name="MB 1968" />
==History==
PERT was developed primarily to simplify the planning and scheduling of large and complex projects. It was developed forby the [[United States Navy Special Projects Office|U.S.]], Navy[[Lockheed SpecialAircraft]], Projectsand Office[[Booz Allen Hamilton]] to support the U.S. Navy's [[Polaris nuclear submarinemissile]] project.<ref name="MRCW 1959">Malcolm, Donald G.; Roseboom, John H.; Clark, Charles E.; [[Willard Fazar|Fazar, Willard]]; "Application of a Technique for Research and Development Program Evaluation", ''Operations Research'', vol. 7, no. 5, September–October 1959, pp. 646–669</ref><ref name="byte198205">{{Cite magazine |last1=Zimmerman |first1=Steve |last2=Conrad |first2=Leo M. |date=May 1982 |title=Programming PERT in BASIC |url=https://archive.org/details/eu_BYTE-1982-05_OCR/page/n466/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-12-29 |magazine=BYTE |pages=465–478}}</ref> It found applications throughout industry. An early example is the [[1968 Winter Olympics]] in [[Grenoble]] which used PERT from 1965 until the opening of the 1968 Games.<ref>[http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1968/or1968.pdf 1968 Winter Olympics official report], p. 49. Accessed 1 November 2010. {{in lang|en|fr}}</ref> This project model was the first of its kind, a revival for the [[scientific management]] of Frederick Taylor and later refined by Henry Ford ([[Fordism]]). [[DuPont]]'s CPM was invented at roughly the same time as PERT.
[[File:PERT Summary Report Phase 2, 1958.jpg|thumb|upright|''PERT Summary Report Phase 2'', 1958]]
[[Category:Booz Allen Hamilton]]
[[Category:Operations research]]
[[Category:Management cybernetics]]
[[Category:Engineering management]]
[[Category:Management science]]
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