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ABSTRACT
Traditional techniques of decision-making have hindered the technical efficiency of most professionals and executors of the public project in many developing countries such as Nigeria. The use of Gantt chart in project planning has continued to increase as a source of last resort in spite of its severe limitations for ineffective project management and delivery. CPM has gained widespread commendation and acceptance in the developed countries. This technique is yet to gain any appreciable acceptance for implementation of public projects in Nigeria. Professionals and executors of public projects in Nigeria have remained conscientiously to the Gantt chart. In order to address this problem of project planning, the CPM was applied to "construction of a complex building at Federal University of Technology, Yola." This paper describes a specific case study with real data and an application. The results show the effectiveness of the CPM in, planning, scheduling, and organizing, coordinating, managing, and controlling of project time and cost. The study concludes by arguing that, CPM is not difficult to apply and when applied it improves inter-departmental communications, gives clear definition of responsibilities and minimizes the occurrence of crisis management.
KEYWORPS: Developing countries, CPM, Nigeria, construction.
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1. INTROPUCTION
Planning, organizing and controlling are the three most important functions of the executive. Of these three, planning is the most intellectually demanding. Hence any scientific aid to the executive in the performance of the planning function, especially the planning of projects, is always a welcome relief. Since the 1900s, scientific models which aid in the planning, management, costing, and execution of large-scale, one-off, complex projects have been made available to decision-makers. One of the such is Gantt chart. Gantt chart was one of the earliest models made available to aid in project work (Chasse and Acquilano 1973). Gantt chart came into use through Henry Gantt, in the early 1900's (Nworuh 2002). As at then it was used worldwide for project planning, scheduling, coordination and control. Gantt chart (or bar chart) method of project planning has impeded the technical efficiency of most professionals and executors of public and private projects in many developing countries, including Nigeria. From the 1950s however, the need for more efficient and effective execution of large-scale, one-off, complex projects...