Gantt chart with two critical paths?

[Bill gates]

can a Gantt chart have two critical paths?

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Yes Bill,
One definition of the Critical path is "the longest path from the Start date
to the Finish date of the project". But two different paths may have the
same length.
PS : while you have a good position at Microsoft Corp, could you obtain for
me a rebate on Project price ?.

Thanks in advance



Gérard

 

[John]

can a Gantt chart have two critical paths?

Bill,
Let me expand on Gerard's comment. When I think of Critical Path I don't
think just in terms of THE main Critical Path. It is very likely
(probably most likely) that in any given project, multiple logic paths
lead to some end milestone. Each path may be from a particular
functional organization's tasks necessary to complete the project. One
organization's activities may or may not interact with other
organizations. Even though there may be only one (but possibly more for
the reason Gerard noted) primary Critical Path, there is also a
secondary, a tertiary, etc. path. For good project management it isn't
always sufficient to just look at the worst case scenario but to also
look at the "next up" problems. It's kinda like a Prateo (sorry if I got
the spelling wrong) analysis where you not only look for the immediate
issues but also get a "heads up" look at the next group of problems that
are ready to appear.

One way to look at more than just the top layer of issues is to set the
Critical Path threshold to a value greater than "0"
(Tools/Options/Calculation tab). Then do a sort to look first at Start
Date and next at Total Slack.

There is also an option for having Project calculate multiple Critical
Paths. It is located at: Tools/Options/Calculation tab.

Maybe this is more than you wanted to know but hope this helps.
John
Project MVP