Project scheduling

Lecture 02 examples
Q: find the critical path and critical tasks and find the total float for each one.
Step – 1 : Calculate the total number of paths
and their duration.
• The first and the most crucial critical path analysis step is to identify the critical
path. To achieve this first identify all the paths in the network. The schedule
network diagram shown above has four paths. The path with longest duration is
the critical path. The following indicates description of all the paths.
• First path is Start (S) – A – D – E – End (E’) the duration of this path is
16 weeks
• The second path is S – A – E – G – E’ the duration of which is also
equal to 16 weeks
• The third path is S – B – C – E – G – E’ the duration of this path is 22
weeks
• Fourth path is S – B – F – G – E’ the duration of this path is equal to
20 weeks
Step 2
Step – 3 : Perform Forward Pass on Critical Path

• The next step is to calculate early start and early finish of each
activity. We need to start with activities on critical path.

Early Start Duration Early Finish

Task Name

Late Start Total Float Late Finish

First Node
• Here, it is essential to point out that critical path analysis has two
conventions for calculation. This critical path method (CPM) example
problem uses the convention that project starts on day one.
• Another convention for CPM analysis states that the project starts on day
zero.
• However, we will stick to the convention indicated in PMBOK, which states
that, the project starts on day 1. Hence ES of first activity B on critical path
is 1.
• EF = ES + Activity Duration – 1
• EF of Activity B = 1 + 6 – 1 = 6
• Node B
• ES = EF of first node + 1 = 6 + 1 = 7
• EF = ES + Activity Duration -1 = 7 + 4 – 1 = 10
Repeat the above step till you reach the last node
Step – 4 : Perform Backward Pass on Critical Path

• Step – 4.1 : Calculate Late Start and Late Finish of activities on critical
path
• The total float of activities on critical path is zero. Hence on critical
path LS = ES and LF = EF. Therefore, no backward pass calculation for
activities on critical path. Once backward pass calculation is complete
the network diagram will look as follows.
Step – 5 : Perform Forward Pass on Activities
Not On Critical Path
• Node A
• ES = 1 and EF = 1+4-1 =4
• Node D
• ES = 4 and EF = 16
• For activities with more than one preceding activity ES is latest
of the earliest finish times of the preceding activities
• When we have ES and EF of a particular node we can calculate
the Total Float using the formula
• Total Float = LS – ES or LF – EF
Step – 6 : Perform Backward Pass on Activities
Not On Critical Path
• Node F
• LF = LS of Previous node -1 = 18 – 1 = 17
• LS = LF – Activity Duration + 1 = 17 – 9 + 1 = 9
• Node D
• LF = 22 since this is the last activity not on critical path it can finish on week 22
• LS = 22 – 12 + 1 = 11
• Node A
• This node connects to two different activities D and E. In such conditions LF of
node A is the earlist of the latest start times of the preceding activity. In this case
it is same hence
• LF of node A is 11 – 1 = 10 and
• LS = 10 – 4 + 1 = 7
Step – 7 : Calculate Total Float

• The following formula represents total float of an activity.

• Total Float = LS – ES or LF – EF
• Consider the first node, Node A.

• Here LS = 7 and ES =1, therefore total float of Node A = 7 – 1 = 6.

• On critical path LS = ES and LF = EF hence total float is equal to zero.

• Once backward pass and total float calculation is complete the resultant
network diagram will look as follows.
H.w
• Q1: Determine the critical path, the critical activities and the project
completion time.
• Q2:Find out the completion time and the critical activities for the
following project:
• Q3: Draw the network diagram and determine the critical path for the
following project:
• ASSA ABLOY SA is a company specializing in door opening solutions. One part of the company focuses on manufacturing
pin tumbler and lever locks for multiple brands including Union, Yale and Multi-Lock. The production line used to produce
padlocks is a perfect example of a network system; the steps are shown in Table 1. Using this example, the CPM (critical
path method) will be explained fully.
• For the purpose of the example, a batch of 200 padlocks will be taken as the sample for the data recorded.