How do you identify and manage the critical path and the float in your project schedule?

Critical path is as the name says. It is the longest path of the construction activities and there are no floats at all in any activities fall in the critical path. If any single activity delays then overall project delays.

Identifying the Critical Path involves breaking down tasks and dependencies, estimating durations, mapping dependencies, calculating early and late start/finish times, and recognizing critical tasks with zero float. Managing the Critical Path and Float requires prioritizing zero float tasks, allocating top resources, planning for risks with contingencies, consistent progress monitoring, effective float management, scope change evaluation, transparent stakeholder communication, preparation for potential delays, and ongoing assessment to adapt as the project unfolds. These practices collectively ensure project success and adaptability in dynamic scenarios.

During my tenure as a project manager, identifying and managing the critical path and float has been essential. 1. I break down the project into individual tasks, estimating durations and dependencies for each. I then use tools like Microsoft Project to chart these out, which visually present the critical path — the sequence of tasks that directly impacts the finish date. 2. I give it utmost priority, ensuring any delays are immediately addressed. 3. As for the float, which represents the flexibility in task start and finish dates without affecting the project end date, I utilise it for resource allocation,. Regular monitoring and adjustments are crucial in ensuring the project remains on track!

Creating a network diagram and calculating the critical path is a lengthy process when done by hand, even for the smallest of projects. Once that’s done, it is literally like starting over if you need to add a work item into the schedule. Use software such as Microsoft Project or Primavera to do this. Spend your time on developing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and on not leaving off any work tasks. The beauty of using software is that if you need to go back and add a task, or change a duration, the network diagram is instantly recalculated. You can immediately see if the critical path changes, or if an item that used to have float is now going to impact the schedule.

Yes this is the way to calculate the critical path. EST, EFT needs to be identified at forward pass and similarly, LST and LFT at backward pass.

Remember the enemy of a good plan is the search for a perfect plan! Becoming over complicated can hide the wood from the trees and the critical path can become hard to see.

In considering delays as progress indicates , you must consider parallel opportunities. Due to site logistics and phasing that may provide access to areas that will not hurt other activities. That may fix potential delays.

Schedule compression techniques have two differences like you can reduce the time of your activity by providing additional resources or you can do parallel activities. This is how we can reduce the time.

Procurement also has a tremendous effect on the critical path. Early planning and systematic monitoring of material schedules and potential delays have constant and direct relation to the overall project schedule.

Managing a schedule boils down to getting your project team on the same page through strong communication. While not everyone is destined to be a scheduler, everyone understands simple advance warning about long lead items and the impact their delay can have on a critical path. Communicate your goals, stick to one plan and see through with the team all of the action items are well thought out before the bucket hits the ground.

Float is nothing but buffer time each and every activity has. If activity delays for that much time then it won't affect over all project completion time.

One thing I've found helpful is to always incorporate buffers in project schedules, especially for activities with zero float (critical path activities). By doing so, you account for unforeseen delays and risks, ensuring that even if something goes wrong, the project remains on track.

Generally, when the scheduler prepares the schedule there would not be a negative float. But as the project progresses there might be a chance to get a negative float. A negative float is the red flag for the project management team.

It’s a great tool to track the progress of the project in real time and identify the specific activities that require more attention and allocation of labor and resources to ensure that it doesn’t affect the completion date of the project. But, it’s also important to note that when you fast track a said activity by allocating additional resources that the project still can be completed in budget and come up with creative ways to save money else where or find more money via change orders wherever you can.

Floats would be very useful information for the project management team as they can make different decisions based on it. As float is negative - PM should take a decision to make it zero or positive by many methods like by crashing, fast tracking and resources allocation etc. PM can play with positive float activity as per activity's slack time.

The main problem with even a properly developed Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule, is that the durations allocated to each task are usually one person’s best guess. Use the CPM schedule as a starting point. Use it to identify activities that can be run in parallel, and to identify long lead time items that may be effected by procurement issues. Then use it to find milestones and bring those into a form of scheduling that actually works. Pull Plan to those milestones to get more accurate durations and avoid stacking trades which is unproductive. Bring the results of the Pull Plan back to the CPM to see if you are still on track. If not, you can make determinations on a proper course of action.

What tends to happen on many projects I have been involved with, is that the tasks that are predecessors to the electrical tasks will eat up what little float is built into the project, causing the subsequent tasks to become stacked in order to maintain the schedule. This effect, in and by itself, is costly to the trades suffering the consequences of attempting to complete many tasks in a shorter duration, usually in the same space constraints. Although schedulers always tell you that the float belongs to the project, not the trades, there are always a few trades that tend to burn through the float too early in the project, not allowing for unforeseen conditions later in the project.

The best guess is where the problem is. You cannot build a true CPM schedule without the proper durations only obtained from the trades performing those items. Team is the answer. I have participated in too many projects where the contracts were given based on timing being forced upon the trade in order to get the contract.