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Topic: Critical Path
In the simple example at above, Tasks 2 and 3 both start when Task 1 is complete, and Task 4 starts when tasks 2 and 3 are both complete. Since Task 2 takes 5 days, and Task 3 tasks only one day, it is obvious that Task 2 drives the start of Task 4, and thus the completion of the project. The Critical Path in this example is the sequence of tasks 1, 2, and 4. If any one of those lengthens (or shortens) by a day, the project's completion will change by that amount. Up to a point Task 3's duration does not affect the project completion; Task 3 is said to be 'Off the Critical Path". However, if Task 3 were to change to 6 days duration, it would now dictate the start of Task 4; Task 3 would be On the Critical Path, and Task 2 would be Off. It is common practice in this type of software to identify the Critical Path in RED to make it stand out, as shown in the diagram. The way to shorten a project's schedule is to focus on shortening the duration of the tasks on the critical path (i.e. paying more for expedited delivery of a crucial component.) Note: You can't make the Critical Path go away. - No matter how hard you work to shorten your projects schedule, the software will still always show a critical path somewhere. Shortening some tasks just moves the critical path over to other tasks that haven't been optimized yet. |
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