Critical Path by section

J

J.Allman

I have a large schedule that involves several different development teams as
resources. The preds between these teams' tasks are quite intricate so I
would like to plot the critical path for milestones within the schedule
instead of the entire schedule.
Is there an easy way to select a secetion of the schedule to create a
critical path for that section?
 
J

Jim Spiller

Try using the "Calculate Multiple Critical Paths" option in
Tools-Options-Calculation. This will calculate the critical path to each end
point in your project instead of to the end of the project.
 
J

Jim Aksel

The schedule has exactly one critical path. If you turn on "calculate
multiple critical paths" it will only give you additional paths of the same
duration through the network.

Always remember, there is only one critical path and it is a property of the
entire schedule. There is no such thing as "The software critical path" and
"the hardware critical path" within the same schedule. the critical path may
involve tasks from both these chains, or only one.

What you can do is show the critical path and then filter the schedule to
show only certain other properties. Using a spare flag field, say Flag1, set
this to "Yes" for any and all possible tasks that you may want to show in
your final result. For example, you could flag all tasks that are software
development or just the tasks related to a specific piece of hardware
development.

Now apply the "Critical" filter from the filter drop down. This shows you
the critical path. Then, using the autofilter, apply the next filter as
well: Flag1="Yes". It is possible the screen will be blank -- that would
indicate there are no "software development" tasks on the critical path.
Otherwise, you will see those critical tasks that are also SW Development.
Additional filters may also be applied such as the date range filter.

Any other scenario is not a critical path. This is how development efforts
get off track. In many instances the "software" and "hardware" are contained
in different schedules. True, each *stand alone* schedule would have its own
critical path and people tend to work those paths. The problem is, this is
not generally the program critical path and it causes people to place
emphasis on the incorrect task sequence. If the separate schedule contains
links to other schedules, then the critcal path calculation must include
those external schedules as well (from a master schedule).
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com
 
M

Mike Glen

Hi J.Allman,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

You can't create a critical path, critical paths are calculated for you by Project in accordance with Critical Path Analysis techniques. That said, you could first colour critical milestones Red via Format/Bar Styles... and create a "milestone,critical" underneath the critical format. Then create a new filter via Project/Filtered for/ more Filters..., select the Milestones filter and click Copy (give it a name) and then Edit. Add: And / Critical/ equals / Yes and Apply. This should show only critical milestones (turn off summaries if you wish via Tools/Options.../View tab and de-select). However you won't see any logic lines, but the critical path goes through them by definition. Post back if you need more details of the above processes.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



I have a large schedule that involves several different development teams as
resources. The preds between these teams' tasks are quite intricate so I
would like to plot the critical path for milestones within the schedule
instead of the entire schedule.
Is there an easy way to select a secetion of the schedule to create a
critical path for that section?
 
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