Determine Critical path.

[Rav]

Hi
I have created a Schedule but want to determine the critical path.Please suggest me which way i can get to that

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Rav,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Please see FAQ Item: 42. Guide to Network Analysis

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

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

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Hi,
I have created a Schedule but want to determine the critical path.Please

suggest me which way i can get to that.

 

[Steve House]

There are many ways to see the critical path graphically but the easiest is
to switch to the network diagram view. The critical path will show up in
red.

--
Steve House
MS Project MVP
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hi,
I have created a Schedule but want to determine the critical path.Please

suggest me which way i can get to that.

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

I prefer the Gantt chart, so select Format, ganttchartwizard and follow the
steps. At appropriate steps select critical path to see critical tasks in
red. Select the custom chart to set a different pattern for critical tasks
so that they show up differently on black and white printers.

--
Rod Gill
Project MVP
For Microsoft Project companion projects, best practices and Project VBA
development services
visit www.projectlearning.com/

Hi,
I have created a Schedule but want to determine the critical path.Please

suggest me which way i can get to that.

 

[John]

Rav,
Also be aware that except for very simple plans there will be different
levels of critical paths. In other words, there will be a primary
critical path, a secondary critical path, and so forth. If you look at
the field "Total Slack", the smaller the value (or larger if it is
negative) generally indicates the more important critical path.

Jhn

 

[Rav]

I am basically preparing a schedule for a big project.So what is the way to determine the critical path?What i mean which Menu on the Toolbars is to be used for that

Either i have to go to views and click on Detail Gantt , Apply or Insert a column for total slack and do the filter for Total Slack values 0 or ,< 0

Thanks in advance

----- John wrote: ----


Rav
Also be aware that except for very simple plans there will be different
levels of critical paths. In other words, there will be a primary
critical path, a secondary critical path, and so forth. If you look at
the field "Total Slack", the smaller the value (or larger if it is
negative) generally indicates the more important critical path

Jh

 

[Steve House]

HUH??? The critical path is defined as the sequence of tasks that
determines the overall project duration. All tasks in the project must be
included in the network diagram and all tasks must be part of a chain that
runs from project start to project end - no orphaned chain endings. That's
not to say that they are all linked in the *same* chain, there may be many
chains running in parallel, but all of them terminate at the project ending
milestone. In that network, then, there is only one "longest" chain and
that is the critical path. All tasks not lying on that path will have some
value of float greater than zero. (Granted you can create a theoretical
project with two parallel chains of exactly the same length but that's not
likely to happen in the real world.) If that's not the case in your
project, you have a sequence dangling without a terminating link to the
project finish milestone.

 

[Steve House]

There are a number of views that show the critical path. Select the Network
Diagram view, for example, and the criitical tasks will show up in red while
non-critical will be blue. Or if you prefer the Gantt chart, right click on
the graphical part of the chart and choose the Format Gantt chart wizard -
in the wizard select the critical path gantt and click finish. Again, the
critical path will be in red and non-critical in blue.

--
Steve House
MS Project MVP
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I am basically preparing a schedule for a big project.So what is the way

to determine the critical path?What i mean which Menu on the Toolbars is to
be used for that.

Either i have to go to views and click on Detail Gantt , Apply or Insert a

column for total slack and do the filter for Total Slack values 0 or ,< 0.

 

[rav]

Thanks for the detailed answer

----- Steve House wrote: -----

HUH??? The critical path is defined as the sequence of tasks that
determines the overall project duration. All tasks in the project must be
included in the network diagram and all tasks must be part of a chain that
runs from project start to project end - no orphaned chain endings. That's
not to say that they are all linked in the *same* chain, there may be many
chains running in parallel, but all of them terminate at the project ending
milestone. In that network, then, there is only one "longest" chain and
that is the critical path. All tasks not lying on that path will have some
value of float greater than zero. (Granted you can create a theoretical
project with two parallel chains of exactly the same length but that's not
likely to happen in the real world.) If that's not the case in your
project, you have a sequence dangling without a terminating link to the
project finish milestone.

 

[John]

Steve,
I agree there is a single "longest" chain and that is what I refer to as
the primary critical path. However I do not agree that tasks not lying
on that path will have a total slack of greater than zero. It is very
easy to have a plan with a primary path wherein the tasks for example
have a total slack of -50 days and another path (parallel but still
connected to the completion) with tasks that have a total slack of -30
days and so forth. This showed up with several of our plans and we
sorted the "paths" by total slack and then by start date. This helps to
work the most important problem areas first. It isn't theory, these were
real plans.

John

 

[Steve House]

You illustrate one of the dangers of using constraints when creating a
project plan. Why would you create a work schedule that from its inception
has you finishing late? That's what negative slack times indicate - that
the total durations of the tasks prior to your constained task makes it
physically impossible for that task to start on time. So what happens - you
come up to the date that the constrained task is scheduled to begin and
unless you have been able to magiv

 

[Steve House]

Hit send too early there.

You illustrate a problem that occurs when you have constraints in your plan.
Negative slack occurs when the sum of the durations of the predecessor tasks
leading up to a fixed date task is such that it is impossible to meet the
required deadline. Your task to assemble the Fids requires some essential
module that your schedule is already telling you won't be ready on time.
Why would you ever finalize and publish a schedule like that? I'm reminded
of the cartoon of the professor putting a physics proof on the board in
front of his class and in the middle of the process there's a note "Here a
miracle occurs." Well, by publishing a schedule containing negative slack
to your resources informing them when and where they're supposed to show up,
you KNOW without a doubt that it will take a miracle for you to complete the
project by the agreed-upon schedule completion date if they work the
schedule you've told them to. That's what -50 days slack means - you're
showing a finish of 1 December but if you work according to plan, on Dec 1st
you'll find yourself still 50 days away from completion and you really won't
finish until almost February. This is generally not a strategy inspired to
win points with senior management, definitely a career limiting move. When
you remove the fixed date constraints the project finish will jump out 50
days and the negative slacks disappear.

 

[John]

Steve,
I don't think we need to belabor this a whole lot more. There are many
ways to use Project. In the purist sense you are right, but not everyone
uses Project in the purist sense. In the particular case I cited, the
plan did start out life with 0 days total slack and achieving that state
was a very long hard fought negotiated struggle between performers and
program management. Needless to say, S#$@ happened and the plan went
south. What I described was a very real condition that indeed needed
plan revision and workarounds to keep the program moving toward several
interim and one end goal which was, at the time, fixed by our contract.
In other words, we had to employ Project Management to work our plan.
So, with regard to my original post, all I was describing was an interim
condition that might be seen when analyzing the critical path of an
ongoing project plan.

John

 

[Steve House]

I'm really trying to understand how such a constrained plan could actually
help you hit your contract deadline. The fact that the schedule on the wall
shows you finishing on time does not in and of itself make the work happen
on schedule. It makes me cringe to think about it because it seems to me
that if your plan shows what you want reather than what you really have,
you're going to constantly have people showing up at a job site to do work
for which the preparatory phases haven't been done or for which tools and
materials aren't yet in place, that sort of thing. Yes, of course PM
methods are there to help you work your plan, but isn't part of that process
monitoring the inevitable deviations from the plan and revising the plan to
correct for them as you go along. If I'm supposed to put down the foundation
this week and erect the walls next week, I can't go ahead and have my
carpenters still show show up to start framing as the original plan calls
for if I haven't gotten the foundation down as planned. I need to
reschedule them to come out on the date I think the foundation will now be
ready - a constrained plan simply doesn't do that because the constraints
are explicit instructions to the calculating engine NOT to show the actual
dates but instead forces them to something else. It just seems to me that
having a model that lets you say with some reliability "Our contract calls
for us to finish 01 Feb but if things keep going as they have been we're not
going to finish until 1 March" is your best hope of actually meeting those
contracts and deadlines. The goal is certainly fixed, but IMHO the Project
plan should tell you whether you're really going to make that goal or not
and if you're going to miss, by how much. That way you can apply corrective
action early on enough to actually have a hope of having some effect without
breaking the bank in the process. Yes, you need your goals there, but the
plan is not to illustrate what you want to happen, it's to predict what WILL
happen when you go to work. If you're not going to make your deadline, the
plan should inform you of that fact, not let you labour under the illusion
that you're doing fine until its too late to fix it.