Critical Path & Gantt Chart: Effective Combination of Two Approaches
Laying out a critical path is one of the essential steps in project management. This step gives the best indication of the estimated time of your project. It also allows setting realistic start and finish times for the project completion.
A critical path and a Gantt chart can be combined into the explosive mixture (in a good way, of course) that can empower any project and enhance any team.
The critical path method (CPM) is a powerful concept in project scheduling. A Gantt diagram has also established itself as an effective tool for planning projects.
This post describes the robust combination of both concepts — a critical path Gantt chart.
What is a critical path in project management?
A critical path in project management is the order of scheduled tasks that determines the duration of your project. It has the most extended duration from the start to the project’s finish.
It can also show the minimal time in which the project can be finished. If there is a delay in one path activity, the entire project can be delayed.
What is the power of CPM?
Complicated projects with numerous tasks can be hardly defined with the most significant impact on the overall project time.
If you have many task dependencies, — it’ll only complicate the situation. CPM was actually created to solve such issues.
The method helps to identify the sequence of tasks that determine the duration of your project. And if you want to meet deadlines, you must complete each task from the critical path in time.
Remember that unexpected delays will lead to a project delay.
What are the advantages of a critical path?
A critical path provides managers with three crucial benefits:
- Helps to identify the most critical tasks.
- Optimizes project timelines.
- Compares planned with actual.
Critical path + Gantt chart
Scheduling tasks and tracking activities are the areas where a critical path is a reliable helper. It can visualize them on a network diagram, such as an online Gantt chart.
Visualizing your tasks on this diagram, you’ll get a functioning network of all events and activities.
A Gantt chart demonstrates the linked tasks that directly affect the project’s finish date. If any task is late on the critical path, the entire project is also late.
The chart suits projects of any complexity and size. It connects dependent activities (instead of establishing a network diagram showing interconnecting independent tasks).
The diagram created by Henry Gantt can also reveal scheduling conflicts.
So, combining these powerful tools, you get a beneficial combo — the critical path on a Gantt chart.
Identifying a critical path on a Gantt diagram
It’s not easy for everyone to define a critical path in a Gantt chart. Luckily, many PM tools help view project tasks in a timeline with advanced functions, like path calculations.
You need to add actual dates and dependencies and enable the path. The rest will be done by PM software.
The example of a Gantt chart critical path
Imagine a small construction project where your key purpose is to clean a house after construction work in eight steps. We’ll consider a list for the inside work and another list for the outside stuff.
Here’s how it can be visualized on a Gantt chart:
We’ve created tasks and subtasks. Then we’ve added dependencies between the inside and outside work steps.
The critical path is colored in red. It means that the outside works are on the critical path.
If the inside stuff takes a bit longer, it will not affect the time to clean the house and yard area.
Now it is time to mention the tool that helped us find the Gantt chart’s critical path. This is GanttPRO.
Enabling a Gantt chart critical path in GanttPRO
Identifying a critical path with GanttPRO is an easy action.
To display the critical path in the Gantt chart view, you should do the following:
- Enter your project with all tasks.
- Add their start and end dates and the duration of each of them.
- Identify predecessors if needed.
- Add all dependencies and project milestones (using drag-and-dropping).
- Adjust the view of your project to reflect the critical path. Click to switch on the critical path in the project settings.
This chain of important tasks will be shown in red.
These were the thoughts about the critical path Gantt chart that we wanted to share with you.
Conclusion
Finding a Gantt chart critical path is not a guarantee for a successful conclusion of your project. However, it will help you and your team to choose the right course.
Project managers from different industries have already noticed the collaboration of a critical path and a Gantt diagram worldwide. What do you think about the power of this combo?
Want to get more related info? Follow the article A Critical Path on а Gantt Chart: What is it and How to Find it? https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/critical-path-gantt-chart/.
