Determining Workplan Critical path tasks

According to Project Management Institute Body of Knowledge (PMBok) - “The Critical Path for a Project is the sequence of scheduled activities that determines the duration of the project.” In case of PPM Project, the scheduled activities are defined in the associated workplan. For all Project Managers, keeping close track of Project Milestones and Critical path tasks are very important activities to keep the Project on track.

Task slack: This is the amount of time the task can be delayed from its start without delaying the project, is less than or equal to the specified critical path threshold, the task is identified as part of the project critical path.

Here are main entities that impact how product logic determines the Critical path tasks in a project when a project workplan is scheduled.

• Project Type settings: Critical Path Threshold is the amount of slack specified, Scheduling Warning Rules
• Scheduling Constraints [Workplan Task level]
  • Scheduling constraint at Summary Task level
  • Scheduling constraint at Leaf Task level
  • Task Start/End Dates
• Predecessors and Successors [Workplan Task level]
• Critical path threshold mentioned while scheduling a Workplan.

When a workplan is scheduled using the button on the menu, product logic takes into account all the above configurations and marks all the Tasks with the slack equal to zero on a critical path tasks.