CRITICAL PATH ALTERNATIVE

[Twenny02]

Hi,

Slightly strange question but does anyone know of an alternative to the standard critical path analysis method (i.e. tasks - duration - dependencies - network diagram).

I am creating a programme plan, so by its very nature it does not have all the detailed tasks and dependencies in. Many of the tasks and milestones are dates taken from project plans and not calculated within the programme plan itself via durations and dependencies. Also many dates have constraint dates applied to get them into the plan - which breaks the natural scheduling (and critical path calculating) in MS Project.

However I do need to show the programme critical path.

Could anyone suggest a way of doing this or has done something similar in the past? It does not have to be a perfect method like CPM, but would just like something that I can consistently apply to the programme plan.

Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[johnherman]

I think Project might be able to handle your situation. First, make sure each task/activity has the appropriate Task Type (Fixed Effort, Fixed Duration, Fixed Work) and the appropriate constraint(s) and predecessor tasks. Constraints such as "must start on", "must end on", as well as usual dependencies. If you're taking a milestone from another plan, it can be entered with "start no later than", "start no earlier than" (and similar for finish) constraints to represent the optimistic and pessimistic dates from the other source.

Hope this helps.

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[JulieInMaine]

If you are not going to use Total Slack <=0 for the calculation of Critical, what do you propose? How will you determine if a task is critical? You can, in project change the definition of critical by increasing the Total Slack criteria - but I'm not sure what you are proposing.

 

[Twenny02]

Hi both,

Thank you for your replies and sorry for the delay I have been off work.

I have applied the respective constraints but the critical path still seems fragmented and very limited (only 7 milestones appear on the critical path and they are all milestones at the end of the programme such as Communications and Go Live).

I suppose I am really looking to see if anyone has used an alternative catagorisation for critical milestones so focus can be applied to them through the programme, even though they are not techncially on the critical path.

 

[johnherman]

While I'm not one to advocate additional work, would it be feasible to set up a separate MS Project with only the critical milestones? I realize that it would mean you would have to update the primary plan first, then update the milestone plan based on any changes calculated in the detailed plan. Just an idea.

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[JulieInMaine]

You can always add the [Marked] field to the view and then set the field to "yes" for those tasks you was to focus on. You may then set the text style (Format Text Styles) for the marked tasks to make them stand out. You could also create a new bar style showing a different colored bar for the marked tasks.

 

[Twenny02]

Thank you for those suggestions. Both are good options thanks.

 

[JulieInMaine]

You're welcome.