PERT Chart Expert is a project management application which generates PERT charts. The PERT charts are also called by other names such as network charts, Logic or precedence diagrams, etc. This tool is used to create the PERT chart, which first defines and then displays the dependency between various tasks. By defining the order of the tasks and showing its relationship, this tool reduces a lot of unnecessary planning. The tool allows the user to drag and drop the tasks and create relationships between them. The user can add schedules to any task by double clicking them and defining the properties such as start time, finish time, duration, cost, work, etc. This tool contains a critical path scheduling engine that helps the user to calculate the critical and non-critical paths in the project. The most mentionable feature of this tool is that, the plans generated from this can be maintained as separate files, or can be transformed to Microsoft Project or to any application capable of supporting ‘MPX’ file format.

The tool takes care to supply all project related information to Microsoft project application with just a click of the button. There is also reverse compatibility between this tool and Microsoft Project. This tool can be directly installed on MS Project application and we can use this tool to generate PERT charts from the data already existing in MS Project. The integration between this tool and MS Project is seamless and bi-directional; meaning, any change in one will be reflected in the base data of the other product. This is a very valuable feature of this tool. Apart from the features mentioned above, the tool contains a complete calendar that helps the user to plan for any period, helps us to prepare time-scaled PERT charts using any units such as days, weeks, months, etc. The grouping of tasks in to horizontal bands using fields of our selection helps in detailed analysis. The tool also has a feature to display hidden dependencies to those tasks that are currently not shown.

It is built intelligently to adjust to page breaks, where by tasks are not broken. It allows the user to save in different formats such as web pages, picture formats, etc. This tool also supports non-English versions of Microsoft Project, which makes its integration with MS Project very efficient. It runs on all OS of Microsoft and does not require MS Project explicitly. The tool requires only 3MB of hard disk and requires very little memory. All these features make this tool a preferred one by any project management professional as well as any management student.