Question

Why might a person wish to be involved with a critical path activity? What are some of the reasons one might have for not wanting this type of association? Explain your rationale with an example.

Answer 1

A critical path activity has longest time associated with it. With a critical path, there is ample slack time which provides flexibility to the tasks and working is less stressful for an employee. For a beginner, the slack time gives opportunity to learn on the job while performing the tasks.It is a high visibility path, with important activities thereby offering the person a prominent position in th project.

The reason for not involving in critical path activity is the avoidnce of risk where a delay in critical path activity may hamper the project schedule, as there is no longer path than this. Some events like demand of an early closure of the project by the client need to crash the activities ( reduce the time) or fasttracking the project.

An example of working on a critical path activity is to take a peripheral route that is not busy in comparison to the regular busy route to reach the destination while you don't have much driving experience to avoid risk and still reach on time.