Article: Do you know what your critical path is?

[harrywaldron]

The determination of the project's critical path is important regardless of which PMM is used. Below is a good short article describing the need to determine a project's critical path

[url=http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878-5868989.html]Do you know what your critical path is?[/url]

"Critical path" refers to the sequence of activities that must be completed on schedule for the entire project to be completed on schedule. In fact, the activities on the critical path may not be very important at all. The critical path may include very mundane activities. The critical path is "critical" because it drives the end date. If the end date for the project has slipped, it is because at least one activity on the critical path did not complete on time.

[pmkb]

Thanks Harry. Here's another article along the same theme as the thread's title, but coming from a slightly different angle:

One of the reasons for starting the college is disconcerting. What is described as a CPM schedule these days sometimes isn't one at all, the four experts claim. If that claim is true, it says a lot about how personal computers have transformed scheduling and what could be in store as technology reshapes other phases of the construction process.

[url=http://www.pmicos.org/fse.asp]Critics Can't Find the Logic in Many of Today's CPM Schedules[/url]

[mulikrahul]

Dear All,

I do agree with both of you, i would like to put my views across for discussion,

1. Project Critical path should have High Risk tasks (Attributable to Client) & Low Risk tasks (Attributable to Contractor)

2. Critical Path shall have minimum possible number of activities,

3. Critical Path shall not have Forced / negative / SF lags,

4. Path to be frozen as "Critical" shall be Constrcted by Experienced Planner and agreed by The Project Manager, for that project. Basis of deciding any path to be critical, shall be Resourse Allocation Criticality Issues.

5. Project should not have 2nd Critical Path in close proximity of 1st one (in terms of Total Float).

Your Expert comments are expected.

[davilara]

Critical path is dynamic, is an error to freeze critical path. Critical path must take into account all constraints.

If all constraints are not taken in consideration for the determination of critical path then you will get wrong and biased results. It is not only about logical links, but also about limited resources, about contractual constraints, about financial constraints (I suppose if you run out of money, you are going nowhere).

[url]http://www.aacei.org/technical/rps/49R-06.pdf[/url]

[url]http://www.scribd.com/doc/35337541/Critical-Path[/url]

[url]http://www.spiderproject.ru/library/pmie01_rcp.pdf[/url]

[url]http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr_29_2_09.pdf[/url]

By the way, some software can already display resource links, look at the attachment and look for "create resource dependencies", when created they will show in dotted lines. These links will come and go as resource dependencies vary, is not like hard logic links that are valid always. I bleieve some even call them phantom links.

Best regards,
Rafael

[michaelmz]

Any PM worth his salt will know what a critical path is whether they are aware of the term or not. Years of experience will teach you that you can look back at a project and see that really it is made up of a series of critical events. Those events are what drives the project forward.