Critical Path

[project newby]

Hi there,

I am trying to figure out what the critical path of my project is but
nothing happens when I select critical path on the gantt chart wizard.

What are the pre-requisites to highlithing the critical path ( I
basically think the program doesn't know which taks identidies the
completion of the project. I haven't told project 'hey when task x is
done, the project is finished.

Any ideas??

Many thanks

 

[davegb]

Hi there,

I am trying to figure out what the critical path of my project is but
nothing happens when I select critical path on the gantt chart wizard.

What are the pre-requisites to highlithing the critical path ( I
basically think the program doesn't know which taks identidies the
completion of the project. I haven't told project 'hey when task x is
done, the project is finished.

Any ideas??

Many thanks

You shouldn't have to tell Project which one is the last one if your
linking is correct. Project will assume that any task with no successor
is the "last task", even if there are many. But there shouldn't be.

The best way to approach it is to make sure every task is linked, has
at least one successor and at least one predecessor. Create a "Start"
milestone and a "Finish" milestone. Any task that can actually start at
the beginning will have "Start" as it's predecessor, and any task that
is done at the end of the project will have "Finish" as it's successor.
Summary lines should not be linked, and constraints should be
minimized. The only tasks that shouldn't be linked, besides Summary
lines, are weekly meetings or status reports. If you meet these
criteria, you should see your CP.

BTW, it's much easier to see if you've accomplished all this on the
Network Diagram than on the Gantt.

Hope this helps in your world.