Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In any given project, you may have hundreds of tasks and dozens of dependencies. It can feel almost impossible to identify the most important tasks; the ones
that, if missed, will impact your whole project. In other words, the ones you really need to worry about to make sure you meet your deadlines.
The critical path method, a project management technique created in the 1950s, allows you to identify these important tasks and stay on track throughout your
project. Starting as hand-drawn diagrams and evolving into automated software, the critical path method has become an essential part of planning a project.
Share
(http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartsheet.com%2Fcritical-path-method)
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartsheet.com%2Fcritical-path-method&text=&hashtags=smartsheet)
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartsheet.com%2Fcritical-path-method)
(http://twitter.com/share?
(https://plus.google.com/share?
(http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?
mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartsheet.com%2Fcritical-path-method)
(mailto:?
Subject=The%20Ultimate%20Guide%20to%20the%20Critical%20Path%20Method%20&Body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartsheet.com%2Fcritical-path-method)
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), an internationally recognized collection of processes and knowledge areas accepted as best practice for
the project management profession, denes the critical path as the sequence of scheduled activities that determines the duration of the project. It is the longest
sequence of tasks in a project plan that must be completed on time in order for the project to meet its deadline. If there is a delay in any task on the critical path,
then your whole project will be delayed. Although many projects have only one critical path, some projects may have multiple critical paths.
The critical path method is a step-by-step project management technique to identify activities on the critical path. It is an approach to project scheduling that
breaks the project into several work tasks, displays them in a ow chart, and then calculates the project duration based on estimated durations for each task. It
identies tasks that are critical, time-wise, in completing the project.
Dr. Larry Bennett (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/f-lawrence-bennett/5b/521/b99), a civil engineer, project manager, and author of four books, including a guide on
critical path written in 1978 and titled, Critical Path Precedence Networks (http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Precedence-Networks-LawrenceBennett/dp/0442121903/ref=la_B001HMQP5Y_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434480925&sr=1-3), explains that the critical path method helps manage projects in
two different ways: It produces a planned schedule to guide the project team, and it forms the basis for tracking project schedule performance by comparing
actual with planned task progress.
"The critical path is just a fancy way of saying 'How long does each task take before you can nish the project? Use this information to gure out the project's end
date.'If a task takes longer than anticipated, the end date is pushed back. There are some tasks that don't immediately impact the project's end date that can be
pushed back for some time. There are a whole bunch of calculations that go into guring out what-ifs, forecasting, and scheduling, but that's where project
management software comes in and makes everyone's lives easier. "
Rachel Burger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelmwburger), Capterra Construction
Twitter:@CapterraBuilder (https://twitter.com/CapterraBuilder)
"Some of the activities must happen in parallel.For example, if you tried to make a fried breakfast by doing one task at a time, and one after the other, things would
go wrong. The plates need to be warming while other activities are going on. The toast needs to be toasting while the sausages are frying, and at the same time
the bacon and sausages are under the grill. The eggs need to be fried last. A critical path analysis is a diagrammatical representation of what needs to be done
and when. Timescales and costs can be applied to each activity and resource."
Terence Jackson (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/terence-jackson-ph-d/10/184/576), Ph.D and CEO/Managing Partner at WEpiphany LLC
Dr. Bennett is no stranger to critical path. He has applied critical path scheduling to a wide variety of projects since 1965. He has also spent 29 years on the
engineering faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in technical management, including project management
and scheduling.
In addition to hisbooks (http://www.amazon.com/F.-Lawrence-Bennett/e/B001HMQP5Y), he has written more than 50 professional papers and articles on topics
ranging from construction management to network techniques for project scheduling.
Dr. Bennett points out that critical path has come a long way. In fact, the original critical path method was done by hand. As Dr. Bennett describes it:
The original critical path method used arrows to represent tasks and tied them together by connecting their beginning and end at nodes, so that proper
sequencing was developed. This approach persisted for a decade, when a different method, with the same results, became popular.Professor John W. Fondahl, a
professor of construction management at Stanford University, proposed in a 1961 paper that each task be represented by a node square, circle, or oval and the
nodes be tied together with lines or arrows representing the sequence between tasks. This approach, referred to as the activity-on-node (AON) or precedence
method, caught on rapidly and has supplanted the earlier activity-on-arrow (AOA) method in nearly all uses.
"For me, the biggest advantage of the critical path method is that it makes risk assessment easy. If Ive got dependencies laid out and plans change, its very easy
to say, 'Because you missed that deadline, the next deliverable is going to be late by X days, and that puts us beyond our plan by Y days.'Simple. That said, I dont
think you have to fully adopt a method like critical path to do this on projects. Its best to adopt the parts of any method that work for your project and your team
being adaptable as a PM will help you nd true success."
Brett Harned,digital project management consultant (http://brettharned.com/), writer, speaker, and community builder.
Twitter:@BrettHarned (https://twitter.com/brettharned)
"Two issues that continue to plague projects are the competing priorities of cross functional team members and distractions from 'noise' on the project. With so
much activity, the critical path enables a clear, pointed view of what must happen next and 'who is on the clock' for meeting project commitments."
Robert Kelly, co-founder of@PMChat (https://twitter.com/PMChat)and managing partner ofKelly Solutions (http://kellyprojectsolutions.com/), a project management
rm.
Twitter:@rkelly976 (https://twitter.com/rkelly976)
"I especially like the 'unintended benets'critical path (CP) analysis brings, including discoveries of hidden dependencies and resource conicts.CP analysis also
often leads to better prioritization and redistribution of team-members. And CP can expose the needs / opportunities for inserting lags / leads to further improve
the schedule."
Jeff Furman, PMP, author of"The Project Management Answer Book" (http://www.amazon.com/Project-Management-Answer-BookSecond/dp/1567264468/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417492519&sr=8-2&keywords=JEFF+FURMAN)
Twitter:@PMAnswerBook (https://twitter.com/pmanswerbook)
Product
"The critical path method brings an important level of clarity to your project. It is a visual depiction of the fragility of the balance of your constraints: If one of the
activities on the path gets delayed,
your project gets delayed. It is also a great way to determine where to invest resources if the project has fallen behind
Solutions
schedule."
Enterprise
Cesar Abeid,host of the Project Management for the Masses Podcast (http://pmforthemasses.com/)
Twitter:@PM4TM (https://twitter.com/pm4tm)
Customers
(https://www.smartsheet.com/customers)
Using the work breakdown structure, you need to identify each activity (or task) involved in the project. This activity specication list should only include higherPricingare
(https://www.smartsheet.com/pricing)
level activities. When detailed activities
used, the critical path analysis may become too complex to manage and maintain.
Company
Contact Us (https://www.smartsheet.com/contact)
or call +1 (844) 324-2360 (tel:1-844-324-2360)
Once youhave identied the activities and their dependencies, you can draw the critical path analysis chart (CPA), known as the network diagram. The network
diagram is a visual representation of the order of your activities based on dependencies.
This critical path diagram used to be drawn by-hand, but there are now software programs that can create this diagram for you.
The second way of using these values is known as Triangular Distribution. The main difference is that this method doesnt put more weight on the Most Likely
value. The formula is as below. E stands for Estimate, and the 3 represents the standard method.
E = (a + m + b)/3
There are two ways you can now identify the critical path. You can eyeball your network diagram and simply identify the longest path throughout the network -- the
longest sequence of activities on the path. Be sure to look for the longest path in terms of longest duration in days, not the path with the most boxes or nodes.
You can also identify critical activities with the Forward Pass/Backward Pass technique, identifying the earliest start and nish times, and the latest start and nish
times for each activity.
If you have multiple critical paths, you will run into network sensitivity. A project schedule is considered sensitive if the critical path is likely to change once the
project begins. The more critical paths in a project, the higher the probability of a change in schedule.
A schedule created from the critical path method naturally involves a lot of uctuation because you have to use best-guess estimates to calculate time. If one
mistake is made in activity completion time, your whole critical path schedule could change. Or, you may need to purposefully delay project activities due to
resource constraints.
Sorting out these delays and determining what caused them can help you avoid similar issues in the future. An important part of your post-project plan is the As
Built Critical Path, which analyzes the specic causes and impacts of changes between the planned schedule and actual schedule implemented. The As-Built
Critical Path is a schedule that shows the dates that the activities actually occurred and allocates time by determining the responsibility for the delays on the critical
path.
What is PERT?
Critical path method and PERT are often used in the same contexts and scenarios. Although they are similar, you should understand each concept and their
differences.
A PERT chart, or activity-on-arrow diagram, is a visual representation of your projects schedule, showing the sequence of tasks and which can be completed at the
same time. A PERT chart is made with a lot of the same information that is used in the critical path method, like earliest and latest start dates, earliest and latest
nish dates, and slack (or oat) between activities.
But, the biggest difference between the critical path method and PERT is in time estimation. In the critical path method, time variance is not accounted for. Youre
using best-guess estimates for completion time, and those times may change. With PERT, youre putting more weight on the most realistic completion time.
A PERT chart is drawn with circles for each activity, with the name of the activity and estimated duration in each circle. Arrows represent the paths that relate to
dependencies.
To nd the critical path on the PERT chart, rst identify how many paths you can take from start to nish. Then, add up the total duration of activities on that path.
For example,
Path 1 duration: 12 days (task 1 and task 3)
Path 2 duration: 11 days (task 2 and task 3)
Path 3 duration: 10 days (task 4)
In this case, the critical path is task 1 and task 3 because it has the longest duration.
Rather than relying on hand-draw diagrams, there are a number of project management software programs available today that will do the work for you and
identify the critical path with the click of a button.
Here are two different toolswith critical path features:
In a network diagram, tasks on the critical path automatically show up in red. No highlighting is needed.
Entire subprojects can be on the critical path when youre managing a master project. To identify subprojects on the critical path, you can adjust Microsoft Project
to treat the subprojects like summary tasks.
Click File > Options.
Select Schedule and then scroll down to the Calculation options for this project.
Make sure the Inserted projects are calculated like summary tasks box is selected.
Smartsheet, a work management and collaboration tool in a spreadsheet layout, offers a pre-formatted Gantt chart template (https://www.smartsheet.com/ganttchart-software)to make it even easier to nd the critical path.
With this pre-made Gantt chart template, complete with sections, sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks already formatted, all you need to do is enter your own project
planning information. A Gantt chart will automatically be made for you, and with the click of a button, you can identify the critical path on the Gantt chart.
Heres how to nd the critical path in Smartsheet, using a Gantt chart template:
On the left side of each row, you can attach les directly to a task or start a discussion with a colleague about a task, adding more context to your project.
You can also manually enter a date in the cell. Smartsheet will automatically calculate the duration of each task for you.
5. Establish Predecessors
Predecessors are used to create dependencies between tasks (identifying which tasks need to happen before or after another task).
On the far-left of the sheet, each row is assigned a number. In the Predecessor column, enter the row number that represents the row of the preceding task. This
will create a link from the current row (the dependent task) to the specied row (the predecessor task).
Enter the row numbers of all other predecessors in the Predecessor column.
You can also create predecessor dependencies from the Gantt chart on the right. Drag the bottom, right-corner of a Gantt bar down to the Gantt bar of the task
that should follow it. The Predecessor column will be automatically updated.
Click Select, choose the le you would like to import, and click Open.
Click Continue and an Import Settings form appears. Select the row in the form that contains your column headers (it will probably be the rst row) and click Import.
The imported le will appear as a new sheet within Smartsheet. Click on the sheet name to open it.
Studying for the PMP Exam? Heres What You Need to Know about the Critical Path Method
Learn Critical Path Method (CPM) for PMP Exam
To earn your Project Management Professional (PMP) credential, you need to pass the PMP exam, a 200-question, multiple choice test offered by the Project
Management Institute (PMI).
Critical path is an important part of the PMP Exam and there will certainly be questions about it on the test. Youll need to be able to draw a network diagram,
identify the critical path, use the Forward Pass/Backward Pass technique, and calculate slack.
Here is an overview of the most important things to know about the critical path method to help you pass the PMP exam:
After you have drawn the network diagram, you will be able to nd the critical path. Remember: the critical path is the longest duration path throughout the
network in days, not the path with the most boxes.
In this example, the critical path is Design Tank Project, Construct Tank Foundation, Assemble Tank, and Test & Commission Tank, with a total duration of 54 days.
You can identify the critical path by eyeballing the diagram to nd the longest duration in days, or you could use the Forward Pass/Backward Pass Technique
outlined in the next section.
How to Do the Forward Pass: Finding the Earliest Start Time and Finish Time
There are two formulas in the Forward Pass/Backward Pass technique. The rst is the Forward Pass formula for you to use as you move from beginning to end in
your network diagram (from your rst activity to your last). This formula will nd the earliest start time (ES) and the earliest nish time (EF) for each activity.
To start the Forward Pass, make the ES of the rst task zero. For all other tasks, the ES is the same as its immediate predecessors EF.
Use this formula to calculate EF:
EF = ES + Duration
So, for Design Tank Project, the ES is zero and, the EF is 10 (10+ duration of 0). We also know that the ES for Select Tank Supplier is 10 and the EF is 18 (10 +
duration of 8). Continue like this throughout the network diagram.
How to Do the Backward Pass: Finding the Latest Start Time and Finish Time
The second formula is for Backward Pass, when you are moving from the last activity to the rst activity (you are moving backwards). This formula will nd the
latest start time (LS) and latest nish time (LF) for each activity.
To start the Backward Pass, make the last activities LF the same as its EF. For all other tasks, the LF is the same as its immediate predecessors LS.
Use this formula to calculate LS:
LS = LF - Duration
For the Test & Commission Tank, the LF is 54 and, the LS is 50 (54 - duration of 4). For Assemble Tank, the LF is also 50 and, the LS is 35 (50 - duration of 15 days).
Continue this formula throughout the network diagram.
To check that youve done Backward Pass correctly, the rst activity (Activity A) should have an LS (latest start time) of 0.
Heres the completed Forward Pass/Backward Pass technique:
The nal gure below shows the slack values for each task. You can see that the four tasks on the critical path have zero slack -- Design Tank Project, Construct
Tank Foundation, Assemble Tank, and Test & Commission Tank.
The critical path method is one of the most frequently used and most effective techniques in project planning. When youre managing dozens of tasks,
dependencies, and people, the critical path method helps you keep your project on track and on budget, providing visibility into the most important tasks of your
project.
The good news is that nding the critical path in your project continues to get easier and easier. Traditionally drawn by hand, you can now nd the critical path in
seconds with project management software.
When it comes to the right tools, Smartsheet is the easiest, fastest way to identify critical path. Smartsheet is a cloud-based work collaboration tool that is powerful
enough for project managers, yet easy enough for anyone to use. Built with a familiar, spreadsheet-inspired layout, Smartsheet enables you to coordinate
anything: creating project plans, sharing content, providing visibility, and of course, nding the critical path.
Experience rsthand how easy it is to use Smartsheet in your project planning and sign up for a free 30-day trial (https://www.smartsheet.com/try-it?trp=8514).
There is no obligation and trial users have access to a number of templates, training, and support resources to get started in minutes.
If you liked this article, visit our Resources page (http://www.smartsheet.com/resources) for more tips and best practices in project management.
Comments
Risk and Change (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/37756#comment-37756)
Submitted by Dave Schnell (not veried) (https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/author/dave-schnell) on Mon, 08/31/2015 - 09:12
Permalink (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/37756#comment-37756)
From a "battle-scarred veteran," CPM is a great tool, I've used it on almost all of my projects. However, some additional considerations for the novice-on any large
and/or complex, especially long duration projects, the CP will change, sometimes weekly. The CPM is only as good as the estimates of the task resources and
effort, so it's critical to continuously reevaluate the CP and task estimates and not just chase the initial critical path. Especially on technology projects, where
percent complete is often a matter of speculation. Also, consider task risk. Some high risk tasks may not show up on the CP until the risk is realized, so be sure to
ag these high risk tasks and watch them as well. Finally, I've also encountered some PMs who thought, if a task wasn't on the CP, it didn't need to be completed
(go gure)...if you're thinking this, then ask why are you doing the task at all?
reply (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/reply/3717/37756)
Submitted by Dr. Paul D. Gia... (not veried) (https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/author/dr.-paul-d.-giammalvo) on Wed, 12/02/2015 - 04:39
Permalink (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/38399#comment-38399)
Question Dave...... Why do we continue to contravene standard mathematical convention by putting the Early dates (the subtrahend) on the TOP and the Late
dates (Minuend) on the bottom? I've done some research and it appears that the only reason John Fondahl did it this way is because it was how the US Navy did it
to schedule their ships. Other than that, there is no logical or rational reason so why should we continue to perpetuate a practice that totally contravenes
mathematical convention?
reply (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/reply/3717/38399)
CPM (https://www.smartsheet.com/comment/38437#comment-38437)
Save
Contact Us (https://www.smartsheet.com/contact)
or call +1 (844) 324-2360 (tel:18443242360)
Follow Us
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartsheet
(http://www.facebook.com/smartsheet)
(http://twitter.com/smartsheet)
(https://plus.google.com/+smartsheet/posts)
com)
(http://www.youtube.com/user/Sm
Download our Mobile App
Language: English
(//privacy.truste.com/privacy-seal/Smartsheet,-Inc-/validation?rid=fc25c0bf-a7a4-425b-a6c0-77cb0b376cf2)