The term critical path method covers "„all procedures for the analysis, planning, control and monitoring of expirations on the basis of the graph theory, whereby time, costs, resources and/or resources and further measured variables can be considered "“(DIN 69900, part of 1). A network plan is "„the graphic or tabular representation of expirations and dependence. "“(DIN 69900, part of 1).

The critical path method applies its in particular to plan projects it is in the context of the project management thus a method of the project planning.

The critical path method ranks operations apart from linear programming, the simulation and further methods among the area of the Research. A special case of the critical path method is topological sorting. It arises, if no parallelism of the expirations is possible.

Goals

A goal of the Netzplanung is the planning of the logical relations between the procedures and the temporal situation of the procedures, as basis of the goal agreement and for the switching of action orientation in the respective project. The network plan e.g. represents the basis for the production bar graph interlaced by communication instruments, like milestones, bar graph or.

The employment of the critical path method is to answer four important questions:

• How long will the whole project Which risks arise with
• Which critical activities of the project can retard the entire project, if they do not become in time
• Is the project in the schedule, copes it sooner or
• If it is to become finished in former times, which is best to do, how one can reach an acceleration with the smallest

The concept of the critical path method is based on the experience the fact that few activities, which form the longest path by the network, which determines process of the entire project. If these "“critical"” activities are promptly recognized, also promptly counter measures can be seized. The management can concentrate on the critical activities. Uncritical activities can be umgeplant, without affecting the entire project.

The critical path method represents an aid, which serves above all the following purposes:

• The logical connections of a project from the beginning to the conclusion can be represented clearly.
• For all procedures of the project a schedule can be developed with the help of the critical path method.
• A critical path and resources bottlenecks, which can endanger the adherence to the completion date, can be identified easily.
• Network plans form the basis for the current project control and date monitoring.

With the critical path method one differentiates according to four subtasks

• Structural planning: Analysis of the procedures and relationships
• Scheduling: To procedures current values are assigned (time windows) and by it the extent of the project calculated
• Cost planning: Determination of the costs per procedure and the costs of the project
• Capacity planning: Planning of necessary means of production.

Basis for the expiration and scheduling can be the project structure plan.

History

Already at the end 19. Century first aids were used for planning by projects. There were still no network plans, but with the bar chart of Gantt a diagram was already drawn by procedures when planning from projects to the assistance. But only with the method of the critical path (critical path method, CPM) or the PERT (Program evaluation and Review Technique), which 1956 was developed, speaks one of the critical path method.

The technology is called critical path method, because the diagram of circles and arrows in these plans, with projects with many procedures, how a net looks. These techniques had large successes after their development. Thus the US Navy e.g. obtained a time gained of nearly 2 years during the preparation and monitoring of the Polaris rocket project by application of the new procedures. Before the far spreading of computers, network plans were drawn still with the pencil or they were made by painted steel sheets and magnets. These had the advantage that one could transfer changes of the project for conditions at that time fast to the project planning, without having to draw the project plan again.

Articles in category "Critical path method"

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Related Websites

We found here 3 related websites.

• CPM - Critical Path Method
  An introduction to the CPM project management technique, including steps in the project planning process, benefits of CPM and its limitations.


• Critical Path Method (CPM)
  The Critical Path Method (CPM) is one of several related techniques for doing project planning. CPM is for projects that are made up of a number of ...


• PERT Chart
  In 1957 the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed as a network model for project management. CPM is a deterministic method that uses a fixed time ...