Creating the Critical Path Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Creating the Critical Path - Assignment Example As per the planned activities of the project, there exist relationships between the activities include: start to start and end to start. Keeping in view these facts, the above given diagram shows activities having two colors including the blue and red. The activities in the blue color are non critical activities; however, the activities in red are critical. The combination of red activities which flow till end of the project develop the critical path meaning delaying one of the critical activities (red) can delay the completion of the project. From the above, the activities on the critical path include: six (6) to eleven (11), sixteen (16), seventeen (17) and twenty one (21) to twenty six (26). Therefore, the project manager along with the project team are required to concentrate on the critical activities, so that these activities complete as per the planned time and ultimately complete the project within time. However, on the other hand, the blue / non critical activities can be de layed to a certain point and this concept is known as the slack or float. And if the activity delays more than the slack or float, then this non critical activity becomes critical as well. For instance, the activity number eighteen (18) titled â€Å"Meetings’ can be delayed for eight (8) days, however, if the same activity delays for nine (9) or more days, then this activity becomes critical. ... And there are various factors which can result into the deviation from the critical path of the project. These factors include but are not limited to the following (Gardiner, 2005): i. Unrealistic schedule of the project activities (poor schedule planning), ii. The negative impact of the inter / external project risks, iii. Lacking Project Management skills iv. Allocation of inappropriate human and technical resources on the activities v. The communication gap between team members as well as the stakeholders (customer / client / vendor, etc.) vi. Unskilled team members Results of deviating from the critical path Precisely, a project can said to be a failure, if the project objectives are not achieved within the agreed deadline. It is pertinent to mention here that a delay in single critical activity leads to delay the whole project from the prescribed deadline. Therefore, one of the major results of deviating from the critical path is the delay in project completion date. However, th ere are certain other results include: an increase in the agreed cost / budget of the project, and the project would not to be said as a quality project. Simply, it can be stated that the following critical path is significant. And if by any means, the project team deviates from the critical path, the project management techniques should be utilized to bring the project again to the critical path (Meredith, and Mantel, 2008). Triple Constraint of a Project The triple constraint of a project includes: the time (deadline), cost (budget) and scope (user / client requirements). A project can be a failure if one of the triple constraints (schedule, cost and scope) is not met by the project. The quality of a project is based on the completion of the project within the triple constraints i-e