CPM: What would be considered the Critical Path?

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In any project, what would be considered the Critical Path? The Critical Path does not mean technical criticality (as in risk), it means zero float. Critical Path Method (CPM).

A critical path in any project plan is the longest path in the project network diagram based on the predecessor/successor tasks and time estimates. Because it is the longest path, any delay in the critical path would create a delay in the project. For example, in the below network diagram, the critical path is 8 days and made of Tasks 1 and 2. If Task 2 takes 4 days (delayed) instead of 3 days, the project now takes 9 days to complete versus the original 8 days: (i.e. there will be a delay for the whole project)

Reason why it's called ZERO FLOAT is because, in every project, no matter how complicated, there are always some activities that can be started earlier or completed later without jeopardizing the final completion date for the project. This flexibility between the earliest time an activity can be completed and the latest time when it must be completed is called "float."

If an activity has flexibility (or float as you may call it) associated with its starts and ends, then this activity is not on the critical path, because the critical path refers to the sequence of activities from project start to end that bump up back-to-back against each other without any float.

Any activities on critical path must be completed exactly as scheduled, for the entire project to be completed on schedule. In other words, it is the longest sequence of activities with zero float. If any activity on the critical path is late, the entire project will be late (unless the time can be made up somewhere else on the critical path).

Q: Explain Discrete, Apportioned, and Level of Effort as the kind of work one produces

First it is useful for you to know that program management may provide a standard Project Work Plan template that contains tasks and an estimating model. If this has not been provided, or if the project is executed out of the context of program management, the project manager should perform some of the program-level activities, such as tailoring the Project Work Plan approach.

Program management typically provides project managers with the ...