Republic of the Philippines

State Universities and Colleges

GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

Subject: ED 217–THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATIONAL

MANAGEMENT
Topic: ED 217 – CRITICAL PATH METHOD
Professor: LENIE A. ADUANA, PhD
Reporter: JOEY V. FRANCISCO
Critical Path Method (CPM)
It is a step-by-step project management technique for process planning that
defines critical and non-critical tasks with the goal of preventing time-frame problems
and process bottlenecks. The CPM is ideally suited to projects consisting of numerous
activities that interact in a complex manner. In project management, the critical path is
the longest sequence of tasks that must be completed to complete a project. The tasks
on the critical path are called critical activities because if they’re delayed, the whole
project completion will be delayed. The CPM method, also known as critical path
analysis (CPA), consists in using a network diagram to visually represent the sequences
of tasks needed to complete a project. Once these task sequences or paths are defined,
their duration is calculated to identify the critical path, which determines the total
duration of the project.
Finding the critical path is very important for project managers because it allows them
to:
 Accurately estimate the total project duration
 Identify task dependencies, resource constraints and project risks
 Prioritize tasks and create realistic project schedules
Importance of CPM in Project Management
Project management can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming in its complexity,
but there are systems in place to make it easier to navigate and simpler to estimate.
Since deadlines are so important, and duration directly impacts budget, it’s important to
have an accurate and reliable way to map out your timeline. Therein lies the importance
of the critical path method in project management. To learn more, continue reading
below.
One of the most essential aspects of project management is timeliness. All tasks
take time, but some are more time consuming and labor intensive than others. Mapping
out a precise day-to-day plan of what jobs to prioritize needs something more
dependable than a mere judgment call. The critical path method is a good tool to use. It
gives you an assessment of actual time versus planned time, so you can see where you
currently are in your progress. This allows you to identify which items are taking longer
than expected, which are ahead and schedule, and which jobs are right on track. This
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State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

can enable you to transfer personnel if needed, and it allows you to produce a much
more detailed calendar of events. Naturally, this will benefit you in terms of resource
management, but it also provides warning signs if you’re going to be running behind on
your expected milestones and dates of completion.
Critical Path Method (CPM) Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of Critical Path Method (CPM):
 It figures out the activities which can run parallel to each other.
 It helps the project manager in identifying the most critical elements of the
project.
 It gives a practical and disciplined base which helps in determining how to
reach the objectives.
 CPM is effective in new project management.
 CPM provides demonstration of dependencies which helps in the
scheduling of individual activities.
 It shows the activities and their outcomes as a network diagram.
 It gives a fair and concise procedure of documenting of project.
 It helps in determining the slack time.
 An explicit and clear approach of communicating project plans, schedules,
time and cost performance is developed.
 It helps in optimization by determining the project duration.
Disadvantages of Critical Path Method (CPM):
 The scheduling of personnel is not handled by the CPM.
 It is difficult to estimate the completion time of an activity.
 The critical path is not always clear in CPM.
 For bigger projects, CPM networks can be complicated.
 It does not handle the scheduling of the resource allocation.
 The critical path needs to be calculated precisely.

Critical Path Method CPM History

CPM was developed more than 60 years ago in the US. Its authors — James E.
Kelley and Morgan R. Walker — used it for agricultural projects and construction work.
They wanted to find ways to reduce the costs associated with plant shutdowns and
restarts caused by inefficient scheduling. They quickly realized that excess costs could
be avoided, instead of saturating the problem with additional labor.
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State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

The interest in the critical path method had diminished by the early 1960s.
However, some companies began to utilize it to oversee complex projects (for example,
Catalytic Construction and Mauchly Associates). Today the method is conveniently
adapted to various fields, including software development. Nowadays, you can save
valuable time and avoid composing tables using the online critical path software
solutions.
Critical Path Method CPM Components
 Management is all about staying on top of everything whether you are managing
projects or just the employees within a company. Through critical path method,
you are actually on top of everything and have a perspicacity of all the processes
making the project move forward. If you are not in that position, you will definitely
have to compromise on the quality of work and delay the project from its actual
deadline.
 People who are making things possible need the most care when you are
working on a project. With the critical path method, you have know-how of your
resources. If you think that an area needs more deployment of your resources,
you can do that to achieve the best results. If you don’t do that, you are definitely
on your way to delaying the project. Furthermore, if the process delaying is one
of the critical ones, your entire project will suffer.
 No matter how many difficulties you have to face in the completion of a project,
people look at the outcome of it. So, if you have been dealing with a lot of
difficulties and couldn’t meet the deadline, there are high chances that you will
face criticism. At the same time, if your project was an easy one but ended well,
you will be exalted. With critical path method, you make even the most difficult
tasks easier and take care of all the factors that could delay the project in
advance.
 The critical path method holds an employee or an individual responsible for the
delay in a project or process. This gives a person a higher sense of responsibility
and since he/she is held responsible at the end, the tasks are performed with
greater level of dedication. A person is not bound to boundaries and restrictions:
if you want help from others you can take it but at the end, you have to come up
with the completion of task assigned to you.
 Setting priorities and preferences is also an important part of project
management: critical path method directly works with those things. You have to
make sure to have your most critical tasks performed on high priority basis and
with more efficiency than the less critical ones.
Critical Path Method CPM Key Elements
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State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

Before we learn the steps to calculate the critical path, we’ll need to understand
some key CPM concepts.
 Earliest start time (ES): This is simply the earliest time that a task can be started
in your project. You cannot determine this without first knowing if there are any
task dependencies.
 Latest start time (LS): This is the very last minute in which you can start a task
before it threatens to delay your project schedule.
 Earliest finish time (EF): The earliest an activity can be completed, based on its
duration and its earliest start time.
 Latest finish time (LF): The latest an activity can be completed, based on its
duration and its latest start time.
 Float: Also known as slack, float is a term that describes how long you can delay
a task before it impacts its task sequence and the project schedule. The tasks on
the critical path have zero float, because they can’t be delayed.
Critical Path Method CPM Step-by-Step Process
1. List activities
Use a work breakdown structure to list all the project activities or tasks
required to produce the deliverables. The list of activities in the work
breakdown structure serves as the foundation for the rest of the CPM.
For example, if you’re making a sandwich, you might have the following
activities associated with it: This list of activities will form the foundation of the
CPM, so make sure it is thorough.
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State Universities and Colleges
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GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

2. Identify all dependencies

Any project has two types of tasks:
1. Tasks that depend on other tasks for their completion, i.e. dependent
tasks
2. Tasks that are independent of others and can be done in parallel to
others, i.e. concurrent tasks
For example, if you’re making a sandwich, you can buy bread, vegetables,
cheese, and chicken for it simultaneously. You can also chop vegetables while
the chicken is cooking. Thus, these would be concurrent tasks. However,
buying bread and toasting bread are dependent tasks. You can’t toast bread if
you don’t buy it, after all. The next step in the CPM process is to establish
which of the tasks are dependent and which are concurrent. Go through your
 Republic of the Philippines
State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

list of activities and identify which tasks each depends on, and in what order,
like this:
A list of dependent tasks is called an activity sequence. You’ll use
these sequences to figure out the critical path.
3. Create a network diagram
Once you’ve identified all tasks and their dependencies, it’s time to
create a network diagram, also known as a critical path analysis chart. This
chart visualizes separate activity sequences and enables you to map
dependencies easily. To create it, make a list of all activity sequences. Create
separate boxes for each task in the sequence. Next, use arrows to identify
dependencies between tasks in each sequence, like this:

This network diagram will form the basis of the final critical path
4. Estimate the duration of each activity
Recall that the critical path method describes the longest sequence of
activities necessary to deliver the project successfully. Thus, to figure out the
critical path, we first need to estimate the duration of each activity. The activity
sequence that takes the longest time would then be our critical path.
There are several tactics you can adopt to estimate the duration of an activity:
 Guesswork based on experience and knowledge
 Estimate based on past project data
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State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
McLain, Buenavista, Guimaras

 Estimate based on industry benchmarks

 Estimates based on extrapolated data
For example, if you know that it takes you 10 minutes to paint a 2’ x 2’ board (4
sq ft), you can estimate that it will take you 250 minutes to paint a 10’ x 10’
wall (100 sq ft).

However, even the best estimates can be inaccurate. Some tasks might
be delayed because of unproductivity, delayed dependent tasks, or errors.
Others might be completed earlier than expected because of an efficient
worker.
To account for such contingencies, it is common to use three estimates for
each activity:
 Best-case scenario, i.e. shortest duration (A)
 Normal scenario, i.e. expected duration (B)
 Worst-case scenario, i.e. longest duration (C)
The average of these three cases would give you a reasonable estimate of
each activity’s duration.
Activity Duration = (A + B + C) / 3
If you’re dealing with activities you’ve performed several times in the past,
you’ll likely have a better idea of its duration. In such a case, you can use a
weighted average, giving additional preference to the “normal” scenario (B)
according to your own confidence.
Weighted Activity
Duration = (A + 2B + C)/4
List the duration (t) of each
activity next to its name in
the network diagram.
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State Universities and Colleges
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GRADUATE SCHOOL
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5. Calculate the Critical Path

In your network diagram, write down the start and end time of each activity
next to its box. The first activity in the sequence would have a start time of ‘0’.
Its end-time would be its duration. The second activity’s start time would be the
end time of the first activity. Its end-time would be the start time + the duration.
Do this for all the activities in every sequence, like this:

Now, look at the last activity in each sequence. The figure to its right
would tell you the duration of the entire sequence. The activity sequence with
the longest duration would be your critical path.
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State Universities and Colleges
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GRADUATE SCHOOL
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6. Determine Floats
Float, as mentioned earlier, is the amount of time an activity can be
delayed without causing a delay in the project. Calculating the float for all
activities can help in resource planning. If an activity has a high float, you can
divert resources from it to a higher priority task.
To determine float, follow this process:
1. Find the second longest sequence of activities in the network diagram.
2. Subtract its total duration from the duration of the critical path sequence
3. The difference between the two durations will give you the float for each
activity in the second sequence.
4. If there are any common activities in both sequences, it will have a float
of 0 since it is also on the critical path. You can do this for all other
sequences to determine floats for every activity.
For example, in the diagram below, activities E, F, G, H, and I make up
the critical path. Their total duration is 100 hours. Activities B, C, D and E
make up the second longest sequence with a total duration of 90 hours.

The difference between their total duration is 10 hours. However, since

activities E is common and in the critical path, it would have zero float. Hence,
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State Universities and Colleges
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B, C, D - which are the non-common activities in the second sequence - would

have a float of 10.
That’s it! You just used the Critical Path Method in a hypothetical project.
Note: Why must non-critical tasks be monitored?
Non-critical tasks are not dependent upon the completion of other tasks so
they can be executed before or after a certain project stage has been
completed. However, as these tasks still need to be done for the project to be
finished, forgetting one will push back the completion date of the whole project.
References:
https://asana.com/resources/critical-path-method
https://www.workamajig.com/blog/critical-path-method