From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 25,300 courses taught by industry experts.

Determine the critical path

Determine the critical path

- [Instructor] The best way to understand the critical path is to calculate activity dates and total float, so you can determine which activities are critical and why. Total float is the time an activity can move earlier or later, without affecting the project finish date. Total float equals an activity's late finish, minus its early finish. Late finish is the latest date an activity can finish without delaying the project finish date. Early finish is the earliest date it can finish. You also calculate total float using late start minus early start. To see how this works, let's calculate part of the example project's critical path. The first step is called a forward pass, which calculates the early start and early finish for every activity. You start at the project start date, and use durations to determine the early starts and early finishes. Writing chapter seven and eight starts on April 28th. Its duration is two…

Contents