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Unit III Journal _ The Critical Path Associated With

The Activities By Calculation Performance

Nguyen Duy Son

Columbia Southern University

MGT 6304 Managing Complex Projects

Dr. Zee

Date: May 2023

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The critical path is the longest sequence of activities in a project that must be completed

on time to ensure the project's overall timeline is met. It is determined by analyzing the

interdependencies of all the project activities and identifying which ones are sequential and

which can occur in parallel. By performing calculations, we can determine the early start and

finish times, as well as the late start and finish times for each activity, based on their

dependencies and durations. This information can be used to identify the critical path and

calculate the total duration of the project. If any activity on the critical path is delayed, the entire

project will be delayed, so it is important to accurately identify the critical path.

While an inspection or visual inspection may help identify some of the project's

activities, it is difficult to determine the critical path by inspection alone. This is because a visual

inspection only provides information about the current state of the project and may not provide a

complete picture of the project's interdependencies. Moreover, visual inspection may not identify

hidden dependencies that can affect the critical path. Thus, it may not reveal the specific path

that is critical to completing the project on time. In order to make the clarification to these points,

we may take a review to the following list of daily activities routine, which is depicted in Table

1:

Table 1

Daily Activity Routine

Activity Steps Activity Predecessors Duration (minutes)

A Wake up
B Get out of bed
C Shower
D Get dressed
E Eat breakfast
None 5
A 2
B 15
C 10
D 20
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F Brush teeth D 3
G Commute to work E, F 30

This is a simple list of activities that one might perform in the morning before commuting

to work. The activities are arranged in a sequence with the duration of each activity given in

minutes. The first activity is to (A) wake up, which takes 5 minutes, followed by (B) getting out

of bed which takes 2 minutes and is preceded by waking up. The next activity is to (C) take a

shower, which takes 15 minutes and is preceded by getting out of bed. Then comes the activity

of (D) getting dressed, which takes 10 minutes and is preceded by taking a shower. (E) Eating

breakfast is the next activity and takes 20 minutes and is preceded by getting dressed. (F)

Brushing teeth takes 3 minutes and is done after getting dressed. Finally, (G) the commute to

work takes 30 minutes and is preceded by eating breakfast and brushing teeth.

There may be hidden dependencies between activities that can affect the critical path but

are not immediately obvious through inspection. For example, in the daily routine activities

example, while "brush teeth" and "get dressed" may seem like independent activities, they are

actually dependent on each other as they both precede "commute to work". Without

understanding this hidden dependency, it would be difficult to accurately identify the critical

path for completing the routine in the shortest time possible. So, if we were only relying on

inspection to identify the critical path, we might overlook this hidden dependency and end up

with an inaccurate critical path. This could lead to delays or missed deadlines for the project.

By performing calculations such as creating a network diagram and identifying the

critical path through techniques like the forward and backward pass, can provide a more accurate

picture of the interdependencies between the activities and help to identify the critical path. For
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example, in the daily activity routine, creating a network diagram and performing calculations

can help to identify the critical path as (A) Wake up → (B) Get out of bed → (C) Shower → (D)

Get dressed → (E) Eat breakfast → (G) Commute to work. As the result, the total duration for

the critical path in the daily activity routine is 82 minutes. This is the sum of the duration of each

activity on the critical path:

Total duration = 5 minutes (Wake up) + 2 minutes (Get out of bed) + 15 minutes

(Shower) + 10 minutes (Get dressed) + 20 minutes (Eat breakfast) + 30 minutes (Commute to

work) = 82 minutes

This duration is a must required to be completed on time in order to ensure the project

(getting to work on time) is completed on schedule.

Overall, while an inspection may provide some useful information about a project's

progress, it is not sufficient to accurately determine the critical path. Calculations that take into

account the dependencies and durations of all activities in the project are necessary for an

accurate identification of the critical path.