How do you create a Gantt chart and AON network diagram from a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?

Break the WBS into activities, identify dependencies, draw the activity-on-node network, calculate dates, and display the activities on a Gantt chart.

What is the critical path in project management, and how is it calculated?

The critical path is the longest sequence of dependent activities that determines the project finish date. It is found using forward and backward passes to identify zero-slack activities.

What is the difference between top-down, bottom-up, parametric, and three-point estimating?

Top-down uses an overall estimate, bottom-up totals detailed task estimates, parametric uses historical rates, and three-point estimating combines optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic values.

Free Course Image Project Management Course

Free online course Project Management Course

Duration of the online course: 4 hours and 14 minutes

4.7

(19)

Plan, schedule and control projects with confidence in this free online course—learn WBS, Gantt charts, critical path and risk management to deliver on time.

In this free course, learn about

Core project management concepts: scope, planning, scheduling, and key phases after pre-project
How to build and use a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for schedule planning and control
Create network diagrams (AON) from a WBS/activity list, including activity sequencing steps
Develop Gantt charts and project schedules from network logic and WBS outputs
Estimate project work: top-down, bottom-up, parametric, and when estimating occurs in planning
Apply 3-point (PERT) estimating to improve duration/cost forecasts with uncertainty
Understand work effort, resource units, and activity duration; activity types in MS Project
Compute forward/backward passes, ES/EF/LS/LF, and slack on AON networks (with exercises)
Identify critical path (CPM) and determine which activities are critical to project duration
Use dependencies and leads/lags; choose SS or FF relationships for practical scheduling cases
Define project risk, types/categories, and distinguish risk vs uncertainty vs bad news
Run a risk management process; assess probability/impact, risk value, and severity matrices
Build and use a risk register to track, prioritize, and manage project risks
Handle resource constraints via resource leveling and understand their impact on schedules

About the free online course

Strong project management is a career multiplier in business and marketing: it helps you deliver initiatives on time, within budget, and with stakeholders aligned. This free online course builds the practical foundations you need to move from vague ideas to a structured plan you can actually execute. You will learn how to define scope clearly, translate goals into a workable plan, and make informed decisions when trade-offs appear across time, cost, quality, and resources.

The course guides you through core scheduling techniques used in real projects, showing how to break down work into manageable pieces and connect activities in a logical sequence. You will practice turning a Work Breakdown Structure into schedule artifacts such as network diagrams and Gantt charts, so you can visualize dependencies, understand how tasks flow, and communicate timelines with clarity. By working through realistic examples, you will get comfortable estimating effort and duration, choosing estimation approaches that fit your data, and improving accuracy with techniques like three-point estimation.

You will also develop the ability to spot schedule drivers and bottlenecks by identifying the critical path and calculating network times and slack. This perspective makes it easier to know where delays truly matter, where you have flexibility, and how to protect delivery dates when requirements or constraints shift. The course also introduces the smart use of lags and relationship types, enabling you to model real-world work patterns instead of forcing unrealistic assumptions into your schedule.

Because projects rarely go exactly as planned, you will strengthen your risk management skills as well. You will learn to define risks precisely, separate risks from uncertainties and issues, assess probability and impact, and organize responses using tools such as a risk register and severity matrix. Finally, you will explore the resource challenges that complicate even great schedules, including constraints and resource leveling considerations, so you can build plans that are not only logical but feasible. By the end, you will be better prepared to plan, communicate, and control projects with professional confidence in a variety of business contexts.

Course content

Video class: Lesson 1 - Project Management 101 - Intro to project management, scope, project planning, scheduling 05m
Exercise: What is the first phase in project management after the pre-project phase?
Video class: Lesson 2 - Project Scheduling 101 - Project schedule network diagram and Gantt Chart from the WBS 07m
Exercise: What is the purpose of using a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in project scheduling?
Video class: Lesson 3 - Project Network Diagram 101 - How to draw project schedule network AON diagram from WBS 09m
Exercise: _What are the three steps for activities sequencing during the project schedule?

Video class: Lesson 4 - Project risks 101 - what are the project risk types? Learn project risk management 13m
Exercise: What are the two main categories of project risks?
Video class: How to prepare Project Estimates? Top-down estimates, Bottom-up estimates, Parametric estimation 12m
Exercise: _At which step does the project manager estimate things?
Video class: What are Top-down and Bottom-up Estimates? Apply estimates to each WBS component Project Management 13m
Exercise: _What is the top-down estimate technique in project management?

Video class: What are 3-point estimates? Improve data collection in project management - Project PERT estimates 06m
Exercise: _What is the three-point estimate in project management?
Video class: Work effort, Resource units, and activity duration project management. Activity type in MS-Project 09m
Exercise: _What are the three major concepts we talk about in project management?
Video class: Pay attention to the critical path! What is the Critical Path - CPM? What activities are critical? 06m
Exercise: _What is the critical path in the project network?

Video class: From the WBS to AON easy peasy! How to draw Project AON network? What is Activity on node diagram? 06m
Exercise: What is the first step in drawing a project network from an activity list?
Video class: Lecture Snapshots - Project Management - How to prepare a Project Schedule? 06m
Exercise: What is the final step in developing a project schedule?
Video class: How to calculate the project network times? A real example of computing project AON times and slack 26m
Exercise: What is the critical path in a project network?

Video class: How to use LAGS in a project network? LAGS can prevent problems in the project schedule. 06m
Exercise: _What does it mean to apply legs in project management?
Video class: When to use START-TO-START or FINISH-TO-FINISH relationships in project scheduling and planning? 06m
Exercise: _When should you use finish to finish or start to start in a construction project?
Video class: Step-by-step exercise! Compute Forward and Backward passes, draw the Gantt chart. Project AON easy! 06m
Exercise: In a project management context, what is the duration of Activity C according to the forward pass?

Video class: Compute the times of an AON with multiple lags! Complex project network! Full exercise step by step! 21m
Exercise: _What is the relationship between task A and task B in Exercise 19 of the Project Management Course with Americo Cunha?
Video class: Can you define project risks? Project risk management is a critical definition to Project Management 11m
Exercise: _What is the difference between bad news, risk, and uncertainty?
Video class: The relation of project risks, triple constraint and the WBS. Project risk management made easy! 08m
Exercise: _What are the two major components of risk in project management?

Video class: Risk Management Process! Risk events on project activities affect the time, cost, scope, and quality 10m
Exercise: What is the third step in a typical risk management process?
Video class: Project Risk Severity Matrix! How to calculate the Risk Value and plot them in the Severity Matrix 16m
Exercise: How do you determine the probability of a risk occurrence?
Video class: What is a Project Risk Register? A simple, practical example of spreadsheet to manage project risks 20m

Video class: The resource problem in Project Scheduling! Resource levelling and constraints in Project Management 20m

This free course includes:

4 hours and 14 minutes of online video course

Digital certificate of course completion (Free)

Exercises to train your knowledge

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Course comments: Project Management Course

Students highly praised the course for its clear teaching, informative content, and practical usefulness. They gained valuable project management knowledge, improved their business profiles, and appreciated the professor’s helpful lessons.

top notch teacher and content. well explained!

i really appreciate the way you taught me about project management i have learn lot you make me to improve my business profile

Thank you sir

The course was very informative. Thank you

Thank you sir , your teachings are highly appreciated. They are very useful.

that's so nice

dear Americo Cunha PHD i am from Ethiopia to be honest those all lessons are very important and helpful .thank you very much for giving me good knowledge by sacrificing your valuable time .i wish you long life and good health