Forexample:Thecritical path is the sequence of activities with the longest duration. A delay in any of these activities will result in a delayfor the whole project. Below are some critical path examples to help you understand the keyelements. Using the Critical Path Method (CPM)The duration of eachactivity is listed above each node in the diagram. For each path, add theduration of each node to determine it’s total duration. The critical path isthe one with the longest duration.
There are three pathsthrough this project.Start ->Activity1->Activity3->Activity4->finish 3+7+2=12Start ->Activity2->Activity3->Activity4->finish 5+7+2=14 (Critical Path)Start -> Activity2->Activity5->finish 5+4=9 Advantages of CPM· Makesdependencies visible between the project activities· Increasesvisibility of impact of schedule revisions· Enablesthe Project Manager to optimize efficiencyDisadvantages ofCPM· Forlarge and complex projects, there’ll be thousands of activities and dependencyrelationship· The CriticalPath Method does not account for resource and resource allocation
