Critical Path Method
Critical Path Method
• The most widely used scheduling technique is the critical path method (CPM) for scheduling.
• This method calculates the minimum completion time for a project along with the possible start
and finish times for the project activities.
• The critical path represents the set or sequence of activities which will take the longest time to
complete.
• The duration of the critical path is the sum of the activities' durations along the path. Thus, the
critical path can be defined as the longest possible path through the "network" of project activities.
• The duration of the critical path represents the minimum time required to complete a project. Any
delays along the critical path would imply that additional time would be required to complete the
project.
Critical Path Method
• CPM is based on Activity on Arrow(AOA).
• The CPM is a systematic scheduling method for a project network and
involves four main steps:
- A forward path to determine activities early
- -start times;
- - A backward path to determine activities late-finish times;
- - Float calculations; and - Identifying critical activities.
Important Terms
Early Activity Start (ES)
The earliest time that an activity can start as determined by the latest of the early finish times
of all immediately preceding activities.
Early Activity Finish (EF)
The earliest time that an activity can finish. It is determined by adding the duration of the
activity to the early start of that activity.
Late activity finish (LF)
The latest time that an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project completion .It is
equal to the earliest of the late starts of the immediately succeeding activities.
Late Activity Start (LS)
The latest time that an activity can start without delaying the project completion. It is
determined by subtracting the duration from the late finish of the activity.
Important Terms
Forward
• Pass Is used to find the least time required to complete the project and theearliest time an
activity can be started according to the schedule that being developed.
The earliest time each activity in the
• network can start and finish.
• Early finish (n) = Early start (n) +Duration (n) n=activity
• If 2 or more activities terminate at a junction or node, pick the largest sum value as the early
start time for the activities following.
Important Terms
Backward Pass Computation
• Calculated to find the value of latest time an activity may start (LS) or late
finish (LF) time without affecting overall project schedule.
• In the presence of 2 or more activities at a node, pick the smallest sum
value as the late finish (LF)
Example
• The following details are available regarding a project
Duration(week) Predecessor Activity
3 - A
5 A B
7 A C
10 B D
5 C E
4 D,E F
Determine the critical path, the critical activities and project completion time
Solution