Question

Describe the different types of project slack and how each is calculated. Why is it important to determine the critical path of a project? What happens if activities on this path are delayed? What happens if activities on this path are accelerated?

Answer 1

The project slacks are of two types=

Free slack= The free slack can be defined as the time that a certain activity can be delayed without having any effect on the activity to be followed.

Free slack = Early Finish date of the activity - the Early Start date of the next activity

Total Slack= Total slack can be defined as the time by which a certain activity can be delayed without delaying the entire project completion time.

Total slack=Late Start time - the Early Start time

These slacks are important to determine in the critical path as it will help in deciding how long the activity can be crashed without affecting the critical path duration that is without changing the project completion time.

If the activity on the critical path is delayed, then it will increase the project completion time and the overall project cost will increase. on the other hand, if the activity on the critical path are accelerated then ether a new critical path can be formed in the project or it can result in increased project cost due to the crash cost of the critical activity to complete the project before the actual project completion time.