Critical Path Method - A Simple Explanation

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The critical path method or CPM as it is widely known is a project management technique that was developed for scheduling project activities and fully explained in pmp certification in islamabad. It is considered as a very important tool for management of projects in order to keep track of a project and evaluate its progress so that corrective measures can be taken easily in case of slippages. It was developed as a technique in the 1950's though it is not clear whether Dupont or The US Navy were the first in this regard.

Essential Technique for CPM in pmp certification in islamabad

A project manager desiring to use the CPM technique will construct a model of a project using the following methods

1. The project manager will list out all the various activities that are needed to be performed on a project in order to complete it.
2. The project manager will also estimate the time required for the completion of each activity.
3. The project manager will make a note of all the dependencies that exist between the various activities.

Listing activities

A well planned project will list out all the activities that are needed to complete a project. This can include on site and off site activities that are necessary to complete any particular task. To understand the complexity of even minor activities that we take fro granted in our daily life, one of the tutors of a CPM class asked the students to list the activities required to make a cup of tea. The final list came to over 90 activities which included things like going to the market to arrange for each of the items required to make tea, including the kitchen ware. So no detail is unimportant to a good project manager as long as its completion has some effect on the project.

Time for completion

The project manager would estimate the time for completion of each activity depending on technical requirements, physical constraints and resources available or which he has planned for the project. Done correctly this enables the project manger to judge whether he can speed up an activity with additional resources.

Dependencies

All activities depend on each other. Even the very first activity on any project would require a starting date to be set. Taking the example above, a cup of tea cannot be made before you heat the water. Which again cannot be done until you arrange for a vessel to put the water in and then proceed to light the stove. Activities could then culminate towards the interim phase in the project which requires to be completed before other activities are taken up. Such breaks are known as milestones and during the initial planning of a project it is necessary to identify the milestones, their dependencies and the times required to complete them.

Calculating the Critical Path in pmp certification in rawalpindi

The critical path is basically defined as that portion on a project network that has the longest time to start and complete it. Other activities that link up to the network may need lesser time and this extra time available for them is known as float. Items that do not have any float are required to be completed on the planned start date and completed on the planned completion date. These are items on the critical path and a good manager would concentrate on these items and see whether it is possible to reduce the time on this activity by increasing the resources allotted to it. This can be done by increasing manpower, machinery or using any other technological means.