Project 2016 Intermediate

Lesson – Working with the Critical Path

Project 2016

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Step-by-Step

View slack.

Drag the split bar as far to the right as possible.

Steps

Practice Data

1. Select the View tab.

The View ribbon appears.

Click

.

2. Click the Tables button in the Data group. The Table submenu appears.

Click

3. Select the Schedule table.

Click

.

The format of the view changes to display the Schedule table, which contains the Free Slack and Total Slack columns.

Scroll as necessary to view the Free Slack and Total Slack columns. Notice that most of the tasks and subtasks for 11 Build Structure and 24 Build Infrastructure have free slack amounts of 0 days , indicating that they are tasks on the critical path.

Notice that the 4 Draft Proposal task has a total estimated slack amount of 1 day ; this is the amount by which the task can slip and still meets it deadline date. View the 6 Request Permits task and notice the total slack amount is 17.5 days. Task 8 Obtain Bids has 17.5 days of free slack. This is because task 9 Select Subcontractors has a constraint.

S HORTENING THE C RITICAL P ATH

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Discussion

After you create a project, evaluate it to see if it still meets your objectives before starting. For example, you may notice that tasks on the critical path will take too long to complete. To solve this problem, you could shorten the critical path to finish the project by the finish date. Shorten the path before you begin a project, or as a project progresses and tasks are not completed as planned.

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