Critical Path Method

The critical path is the sequence of activities that determines the earliest possible project completion date. Any delay to a critical path activity directly delays the entire project — these activities have zero float. CPM involves identifying all project activities, determining dependencies, estimating durations, and calculating the earliest and latest start/finish times for each activity. Activities not on the critical path have float (slack) that provides scheduling flexibility. Project managers focus monitoring effort on critical path activities and may use techniques like crashing (adding resources) or fast-tracking (parallel execution) to compress the schedule.