• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.141-150
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• 2012

This paper suggests a critical path search algorithm that can easily draw PERT/GANTT chart which manages and plans a project schedule. In order to evaluate a critical path that determines the project schedule, Critical Path Method (CPM) is generally utilized. However, CPM undergoes 5 stages to calculate the critical path for a network diagram that is previously designed according to correlative relationship and execution period of project execution activities. And it may not correctly evaluate $T_E$ (The Earliest Time), since it does not suggest the way how to determine the sequence of the nodes activities that calculate the $T_E$. Also, the sequence of the network diagram activities obtained from CPM cannot be visually represented, and hence Lucko suggested an algorithm which undergoes 9 stages. On the other hand, the suggested algorithm, first of all, decides the sequence in advance, by reallocating the nodes into levels after Breadth-First Search of the network diagram that is previously designed. Next, it randomly chooses nodes of each level and immediately determines the critical path only after calculation of $T_E$. Finally, it enables the representation of the execution sequence of the project activity to be seen precisely visual by means of a small movement of $T_E$ of the nodes that are not belonging to the critical path, on basis of the $T_E$ of the nodes which belong to the critical path. The suggested algorithm has been proved its applicability to 10 real project data. It is able to get the critical path from all the projects, and precisely and visually represented the execution sequence of the activities. Also, this has advantages of, firstly, reducing 5 stages of CPM into 1, simplifying Lucko's 9 stages into 2 stages that are used to clearly express the execution sequence of the activities, and directly converting the representation into PERT/GANTT chart.