The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right

Analyze and Document the Project Schedule

By adding duration estimate information to a project activity network diagram showing dependencies, you can determine the project’s critical path (or paths). A critical path has the longest total duration of any continuous connected string of activities in the project. Critical path analysis may be done either manually or using computer software. Manual analysis is impractical for projects larger than about 100 activities.

Critical path methodology (CPM) relies on two separate analyses of the project: a forward analysis pass to calculate the earliest date each activity could be scheduled and a reverse analysis pass to calculate the latest date for each activity consistent with the end date of the forward ...