From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Put the critical path to work - Microsoft Project Tutorial

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Put the critical path to work

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- [Instructor] Because the critical path controls the project finish date, you can keep your project on schedule by managing activities on the critical path. If you're trying to shorten your project schedule or keep its finish date on track, critical activities are the key. Management and teams can focus on the critical path to find ways to compress the schedule. Of course, don't shorten durations unrealistically, simply to meet deadlines. In our example, the work on the training guide is on the critical path. Those activities are in red. Website planning and design are not on the critical path. Those bars are blue. To keep this project on track, you should focus on the training guide work first. The critical path also helps if your project is already delayed or needs to finish sooner. Shorten activities on the critical path first, because they'll bring the project finish date in sooner. Keep in mind, enough resources have to be available when you need them for this approach to work. Suppose the stakeholders want the training guide published before September 12th. Let's try to shorten the activities for the training guide. Assigning two proofreaders to proofread the guide would cut one week out of the schedule. The critical path might change when you make changes to activities in your schedule. A shortened activity could become non-critical, making other activities critical instead. For that reason, after you adjust one activity on the critical path, be sure to recalculate the path before you make any more changes. When you adjust the critical path, be sure to document the changes and rationale for making them. That way, everyone understands the decisions behind the schedule. By adjusting activities on the critical path, you can keep your project on time or bring a delayed project back on track.

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