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    Critical Path Method

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    Nymisa Ravuri
    The critical path method (CPM) is a technique used to schedule project activities. It involves identifying all tasks, determining their duration and sequence, building a network diagram to show dependencies, and calculating the earliest and latest start/finish times to identify the critical path of tasks that determine the project completion date. Updating the critical path diagram with actual progress provides visibility into whether the project is on track.

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    Critical Path Method

    Uploaded by

    Nymisa Ravuri
    150 views13 pages
    The critical path method (CPM) is a technique used to schedule project activities. It involves identifying all tasks, determining their duration and sequence, building a network diagram to show dependencies, and calculating the earliest and latest start/finish times to identify the critical path of tasks that determine the project completion date. Updating the critical path diagram with actual progress provides visibility into whether the project is on track.

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    The critical path method (CPM) is a technique used to schedule project activities. It involves identifying all tasks, determining their duration and sequence, building a network diagram to show dependencies, and calculating the earliest and latest start/finish times to identify the critical path of tasks that determine the project completion date. Updating the critical path diagram with actual progress provides visibility into whether the project is on track.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    150 views13 pages

    Critical Path Method

    Uploaded by

    Nymisa Ravuri
    The critical path method (CPM) is a technique used to schedule project activities. It involves identifying all tasks, determining their duration and sequence, building a network diagram to show dependencies, and calculating the earliest and latest start/finish times to identify the critical path of tasks that determine the project completion date. Updating the critical path diagram with actual progress provides visibility into whether the project is on track.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 13

    Critical Path Method

    Presented by K.A.Narayana
    • The critical path method (CPM) is a step-by-step project management
    technique for process planning that defines critical and non-
    critical tasks with the goal of preventing time-frame problems and
    process bottlenecks. ... Create a flowchart or other diagram showing
    each task in relation to the others.

    The critical path method (CPM), or critical path analysis (CPA),


    is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities.
    • The critical path method (CPM) is a project modeling technique developed
    in the late 1950s by Morgan R. Walker of DuPont and James E. Kelley Jr.
    of Remington Rand.
    • CPM is commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction,
    aerospace and defense, software development, research projects, product
    development, engineering, and plant maintenance, among others. Any
    project with interdependent activities can apply this method of
    mathematical analysis.
    • Components
    • The essential technique for using CPM: is to construct a model of the
    project that includes the following:
    • A list of all activities required to complete the project (typically
    categorized within a work breakdown structure),
    • The time (duration) that each activity will take to complete,
    • The dependencies between the activities and,
    • Logical end points such as milestones or deliverable items.
    • Using these values, CPM calculates the longest path of planned activities
    to logical end points or to the end of the project, and the earliest and
    latest that each activity can start and finish without making the project
    longer. This process determines which activities are "critical" (i.e., on the
    longest path) and which have "total float" (i.e., can be delayed without
    making the project longer). In project management, a critical path is the
    sequence of project network activities which add up to the longest overall
    duration, regardless if that longest duration has float or not. This
    determines the shortest time possible to complete the project. There can
    be 'total float' (unused time) within the critical path.
    Key Steps in Critical Path Method
    • Step 1: Activity specification
    • You can use the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to identify the
    activities involved in the project. This is the main input for the critical
    path method.
    • In activity specification, only the higher-level activities are selected
    for critical path method.
    • When detailed activities are used, the critical path method may
    become too complex to manage and maintain.
    • Step 2: Activity sequence establishment
    • In this step, the correct activity sequence is established. For that, you
    need to ask three questions for each task of your list.
    • Which tasks should take place before this task happens.
    • Which tasks should be completed at the same time as this task.
    • Which tasks should happen immediately after this task.
    • Step 3: Network diagram
    • Once the activity sequence is correctly identified, the network
    diagram can be drawn .
    • Although the early diagrams were drawn on paper, there are a
    number of computer softwares, such as Primavera, for this purpose
    nowadays.
    • Step 4: Estimates for each activity
    • This could be a direct input from the WBS based estimation sheet.
    Most of the companies use 3-point estimation method or COCOMO
    based (function points based) estimation methods for tasks
    estimation.
    • You can use such estimation information for this step of the process.
    • Step 5: Identification of the critical path
    • For this, you need to determine four parameters of each activity of
    the network.
    • Earliest start time (ES) - The earliest time an activity can start once the
    previous dependent activities are over.
    • Earliest finish time (EF) - ES + activity duration.
    • Latest finish time (LF) - The latest time an activity can finish without
    delaying the project.
    • Latest start time (LS) - LF - activity duration.
    • The float time for an activity is the time between the earliest (ES) and
    the latest (LS) start time or between the earliest (EF) and latest (LF)
    finish times.
    • During the float time, an activity can be delayed without delaying the
    project finish date.
    • The critical path is the longest path of the network diagram. The
    activities in the critical path have an effect on the deadline of the
    project. If an activity of this path is delayed, the project will be
    delayed.
    • In case if the project management needs to accelerate the project,
    the times for critical path activities should be reduced.

    • Step 6: Critical path diagram to show project progresses


    • Critical path diagram is a live artefact. Therefore, this diagram should
    be updated with actual values once the task is completed.
    • This gives more realistic figure for the deadline and the project
    management can know whether they are on track regarding the
    deliverables.
    • Advantages of Critical Path Method
    • Following are advantages of critical path methods:
    • Offers a visual representation of the project activities.
    • Presents the time to complete the tasks and the overall project.
    • Tracking of critical activities.
    • Conclusion
    • Critical path identification is required for any project-planning phase.
    This gives the project management the correct completion date of the
    overall project and the flexibility to float activities.
    • A critical path diagram should be constantly updated with actual
    information when the project progresses in order to refine the
    activity length/project duration predictions.

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