The Critical Path Method ( Cpm )

Critical path analysis identifies the most efficient and cost effective way of completing a complex project. The various activities which together will make up the project are identified, and the order of these activities are identified. Then, the duration of each activity is estimated and these factors are then arranged as a network or graph, showing the whole project from start to finish, and showing which tasks can happen at the same time. The sequence of tasks which have to be done one after another with no gaps in between is called the Critical Path.

Analyzing the critical path, there is a high level risk as it runs parallel to itself, more than one task at a particular time could delay project. Some other tasks run parallel to the critical path and have same duration; a delay in one of these tasks will change the critical path and delay the whole project.

Critical path is the one that determines the shortest time to complete a project, which assumes low uncertainty and does not consider resource dependencies.

It 's important to say that for more fickle projects, auxiliary frameworks exist for thoughts regarding project management, particularly the spiral model (Melonfire, 2006). The Spiral Life Cycle Model is a kind of iterative software development model which is normally put into practice in extreme risk projects ("Spiral," n.d.). In this system development method the aspects of both, waterfall model and prototype model are united. In the spiral development model the activities can be arranged in the form of a spiral ("Spiral," n.d.).

(TCO F) Why is it important to determine the critical path of a project? What happens if activities along the path are delayed? What happens if activities along the path are accelerated?

In this week’s discussion board, we learned about several project management tools and how they are used to facilitate the successful implementation of IT related projects. Additionally, we learned what happens when IT projects fall behind schedule, the reasons for the delays and if these reasons will hinder complex software implementations in the future.

In almost every business, project management is critically important. The critical path method (CPM) will provide a timeline for the project manager for when tasks should be completed. In addition, providing a deadline and the negative effects it will have on the following successors if not completed on time. These many task are interdepended. Therefore, the CPM provides the start and finishes times of the tasks, and identifies the few tasks on the critical path that the project manager should observe to determine which task needs the most attention. Already discovering and incorporating the details the task or assignments may require, CPM calculates all task times, which can be measured in hours, days, weeks, and months. For any unintended manually input errors, a warning message will be provided. Including an automatic successor generator, task numbering comment, and data validation, makes it easier on the project manager.

Critical Path: The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.

In field of project management, there are a plethora of mechanisms under perpetual reevaluation. One specific segmentation of project management under such scrutiny pertains to cost duration, which is the time and monetary costs of completing individual tasks within the project’s critical path (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). The process of monitoring and evaluating the time and financial impacts of each task is referred to as cost duration analysis (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). A chief concern of cost duration analysis is identifying tasks within the project’s critical path which can reduce project duration (PMI, 2013). A common approach to reducing a project’s duration is task “crashing” (PMI, p.181). According to The Project Management Institute (2013) crashing refers to the process of methodical determining the financial value of increasing a critical path task’s resources in order to decrease project duration (p.181).

While projects can be similar in some instances, no two projects are ever the same. For this reason, management of projects requires the application of tools and techniques to meet the goals of the temporary endeavor. Project managers apply these tools and techniques to determine what is required for project delivery such as the list of activities to completed, the time required to complete the activities, resources needed and the various risks associated with the deliverable and efforts. A multitude of tools and techniques are employed by the project manager based on the need of the effort to organize, identify and communicate the various aspects of the project. While in contrast, the repetitive nature of operations activities

An activity is any portion of a project which consumes time or resources and has a definable beginning and ending. For example, "laying of pipe" is an activity requiring the use of resource mainly effort. Activity may involve labour, paper work, contractual negotiations, machinery operations, etc. Commonly used terms synonymous with "activity" are "task" and "job".

Uncertainty has been identified as the underlying cause of the common mismanagement of projects. In response, many approaches to project management have been developed in order to mitigate the adverse effects of the inevitable ambiguity. However, many of these methods fail to address erroneous assumptions that are often made at the management level. In the novel “Critical Chain”, Eli Goldratt presents effective methods that challenge such assumptions. The novel follows multiple stories in order to demonstrate the benefits of this management philosophy as they apply to several project types.

Several adaptations to the traditional approaches like agile, interactive, phased, extreme, etc have been made but each will be expected to meet the requirements of the project objectives, timeline, resources, and deliveries of the stakeholders. Other industry standard certifications like ISO9000 and regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley have also influenced methodologies and processes used by several organisations (Kerzner, 2003). Generally, managing projects should involved five major process which include the project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and then project closing. See Fig. 2 below.

Project scheduling can be performed in many ways. Some of the more common and popular methods of project scheduling are network analysis and the critical path method of scheduling (CPM). Although companies do not always use these methods in there exact form, most do tend to use a modified version of one or both of these methods. I discovered that Craft does not use network analysis or CPM, but they do have a scheduling method that works for them and is quite similar to CPM.

Company develops the process of priorities to stay gather the information of which project would impact the company and would achieve their goals in the future and maximize business. With that being said prioritizing projects is the key to be successful in the business, to develop that strategy a company should allocate it resources in various explicit projects and their implementation.