Question

Assume activity A will actually take 5 weeks, what is the new critical path and new expected duration? (4 Marks

Answer 1

The critical path method is to avoid project delays by identifying the tasks that are critical for the project schedule. By establishing the duration of each activity on the critical path it helps to determine the project completion time. While problems in non-critical work may delay the project, any delays in activities on the critical path delay the project completion time by an equal amount unless corrective action are taken.

Activities

Before work on scheduling, to break down the project into individual activities. A second group of tasks depends on the completion of the first tasks, and subsequent tasks depend on particular predecessors. By dividing the project into separate activities in this way, establish a network of tasks including those at the beginning, those in the middle that depend on prerequisites and those at the end, with no successors. The network is made up of parallel sequences of tasks from each of the first activities to those at the end.

Duration

Once  broken down the project into discrete activities, it can assign a duration to each one. For activities you contract out to sub-contractors, such as installation or site preparation work, they can provide you with estimates of how long their work takes. For internal tasks, you have to assign enough employees and resources to get the duration you need. If you manufacture certain components yourself, your operations employees can tell you how long that takes. For externally ordered equipment, you can establish contractual delivery times.

Critical Path

When you examine the sequences of activities of the project schedule that shows the individual tasks and their duration, you can add the times on each sequence and get a total duration for that sequence. The sequence that takes the longest is the critical path. Besides having the longest total duration, the critical path activities follow each other immediately, without gaps. If one of the critical path activities takes longer than anticipated, the project is delayed as well.

Completion Time

When calculated the duration of the critical path, it can determine the completion time of the project. Adding the time it takes to complete the tasks on the critical path to the starting date gives you the completion date. You can maintain this date as long as you complete every critical activity within its projected duration.

At the same time, you have to monitor the other activities of the project for delays. If there is a substantial problem in one particular area, the task sequences affected may take longer. In some cases, one of these delayed sequences may become the one with the highest total duration and replace the original critical path. The project may suffer delays unless you can reschedule tasks and reassign resources to reduce the duration of some of the critical activities.