Question

what is a critical path in project planning? give a brief explanation on how to draw the critical path diagram

Answer 1

Determining the critical path by tracing the various paths from start to finish of a project. consider a table shown below for illustrations

Generate the table of “Activities, Duration and Precedence Relations”. This can be done as a team, especially for establishing/ estimating Duration and Precedence of activities. we already have a table that shows all the activities from the beginning to the end of the project

2. Find all activities that have no ‘precedence requirement’, and draw them using arrows emanating from the “start” event. Terminate these arrows with an “event” circle. Scratch these activities from your table.

3. Find all activities preceded by the activities drawn in the previous step. Place them as appropriate on the network diagram. Terminate them with an “event” circle, and scratch them from the table list.

4. Repeat step (3) and ‘iterate and backtrack’ if necessary.

5. All activities must eventually terminate at a single “End” event. 

by following the steps highlighted above, we come up with a critical path diagram shown below

 

 The critical path is defined as:

The sequence of activities from project start to project end, such that a delay in any one of those activities, will delay the completion of the entire project