Question

Explain how the critical path of a network is identified? What are critical path activities and why are they important?

Answer 1

The critical path method provides a structured approach to project scheduling, allowing you to identify the operations most important for successful project completion. You have to know how to break down your project into tasks and how to arrange them so you can find the critical path. Once you have identified tasks that are critical, you can focus on them to ensure that they don't delay your project.

Break Down The Work

Start by breaking down the project work into separate operations. An operation is a self-contained task carried out by one person, one group or a supplier, and one to which you can assign a duration and a responsible supervisor. Ask yourself what tasks must be carried out to start the project and what tasks are next. Continue until you reach the tasks that indicate the project is finished. Arrange the tasks in a list, approximately in the sequence in which you have to carry out the work.

Arrange Tasks by Prerequisites

You can start some tasks right away without completing any other work, but other tasks rely on prerequisites or work that has to be completed first. Draw a column of boxes on the left side of a sheet of paper, one box for each task that has no prerequisites, and write the name of each task in one of the boxes. Draw a second column of boxes with the names of the tasks that you can start when the tasks of the first column are finished. For each task of the second column, draw lines back to the tasks of the first column that are its prerequisites. Continue with additional columns until you have placed all the tasks on your chart.

Estimate Task Duration

You have to know how long each task takes before you can schedule your project. Estimate the duration by calculating how long it takes based on known unit quantities, the duration of similar tasks and estimates by suppliers. For example, you can calculate how long it takes to install 16 lights if you know it takes an hour to install one. You can look at other projects and how long it took to complete similar work. Supplier quotes usually include an estimated delivery time. Add your estimated duration to the task boxes.

Find The Longest Path

Your critical path is the longest path from the first column through the lines showing prerequisites to the last column. It determines the project completion date because you must complete all tasks on the path within the estimated time or delay the project. For small projects of several dozen tasks, you can determine the critical path by following each path and adding the duration of the tasks. For large projects, you can enter the data from the boxes into a project management software program and have it calculate the criticial path.

Critical path allows teams to identify the most important tasks in a project. But, if you’re a seasoned project manager working on a familiar project, you may have no problem pinpointing these critical tasks.

Here are three more ways critical path can make your project a success, especially if you’re using Smartsheet:

• Shortened Timelines: When the critical path method is displayed as a bar chart, such as a Gantt chart, you can visualize the critical path activities as well as task durations and their sequences. In Smartsheet, critical path tasks are outlined in red, so they are easy to spot at a glance. This provides a higher level of insight into your project’s timeline and a correlation between tasks, giving you more understanding about which task durations you can modify, and which must stay the same. If you want to complete the project in a shorter time frame, it’s easy to see which tasks are the best candidates for duration reduction.

• Improved Resource Management: With so much going on, the critical path provides a clear direction and enhanced visibility into what must happen next and who needs to do it. Once you’ve identified these critical tasks and ownership expectations, you get rid of competing priorities or lack of direction. Everyone on the team is aware of the tasks that need to take place and the project manager can better allocate resources.

• Better Planning: The critical path method can also be used to compare planned progress with actual progress. Throughout a project, the PM can identify tasks that have already been completed, the predicted remaining duration for tasks in progress, and any planned changes to future task durations. The result will be an always updated schedule which, when displayed against the original project timeline, will provide a visual way of comparing planned with actual progress.

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