Actually a PERT chart is a Network Diagram. But not all Network Diagrams are
PERT charts.
PERT stands for "Program Estimation and Review Technique".
It was developed by the US Navy and relies on user's entering optimistic,
expected and pessimistic values for task durations. Because the initial
steps are similar to CPM (Critical Path Method) some people have equated the
network diagram to being a PERT diagram. Breaking the project into tasks,
identifying dependencies and resources are the same in CPM and PERT. The
difference is in the duration estimation.
Project is primarily a CPM based tool, though it does have the option to do
some pert stuff. This capability has been neglected over the years as I
believe PERT has not become the dominant technique. In fact, I believe that
Monte Carlo Simulation has pretty much put the nail in the PERT coffin for
those people who want to perform any sort of stochastic scheduling.
