Transparent CPM

Over the past few years, there has been much discussion of the use and over-use of the many features available in CPM scheduling software. As software packages and the schedules that they are used to create have become more complex, the underlying calculations that are performed have become obscured. In 2003, some experts were critical of the trend toward schedules produced with the precedence diagramming method (PDM), stating that when the PDM technique is used "the logic behind the schedule then is not apparent on its face." Some scheduling experts have noted that the use of the PDM technique makes the logic behind a CPM schedule less transparent, and would argue that the solution to the preceding problem is to disallow all but finish-to-start relationships. Scheduling professionals should not be content to sit back and wait for commercial software vendors to develop tools that will make CPM scheduling calculations more transparent.