Network flow models for project failure risk

Abstract

Project management is a thriving enterprise in business, engineering, industrial research and as will be pointed out in this paper, jurisprudence. Indeed, there are some academic programs exclusively devoted to project management. Program Evaluation and Review Technique and Critical Path Method are the two key mathematical tools used in project management. The focus of these tools revolves around the random times to complete the various activities in a project. By contrast, the focus of this paper is on the probability of completing the activities in a project within their allocated times. This allows one to assess the risk of project failure. To do the above, we represent projects as network flow models and invoke known results in network reliability theory, particularly those pertaining to network decomposition and node interdependence, to obtain the probability of project failure. Our work is expository; first, it brings synergy between project management and reliability and risk; )