Free Microsoft Project Tutorial - Critical path

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Project Management
with Microsoft Project

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The importance of tracking progress

For over 40 years project manages have been using
techniques to manage their projects effectively.
Some of these techniques were manual to begin with and
were later computerized.

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Two of those techniques were called Critical Path

Management (CPM) and Program Evaluation and
Review Techniques (PERT).
They were similar and you will now often find the technique
refered to as: CPM/PERT.

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Free Microsoft Project Tutorial - Critical path

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http://www.profsr.com/msproject/msproj05.htm

The technique involves using network models to trace the

links between tasks and to identify the tasks which are
critical to meeting the deadlines.
When you have a large number of tasks overlapping you
really have to use the right tool to show which tasks
can be delayed and which must be on time.
Once you've identified the critical path, any delay on any
part of the critical path will cause a delay in the whole
project.
It is where managers must concentrate their efforts.
In MS Project, you use the Tracking Gantt diagram to show
the critical path in red
and you can see the PERT diagram by looking at the Network
view.

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http://www.profsr.com/msproject/msproj05.htm

Finally for this section, you'll want to track the degree of

completion of each of the tasks.
You could do that every day as you go along. As soon as
something starts to go off track, you can react and adjust
accordingly.
It would be too long to go into the details of how to
compensate for delays and so on.
Get a good book on the subject and we'll call that Graduate
School.

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