Critical Path Essential in Project Planning Assignment

Critical Path Essential in Project Planning - Assignment Example quence of choice is very important and starting with those problems in the critical path helps reduce any delays since the critical path dictates the total project duration. The author also argues that dealing with problems in the critical path is logical since tasks tackled later only have at their disposal the resources left by tasks undertaken before them. Hence, there is need to prioritize the problems in the critical path to avoid resource deficiencies for critical tasks. Since Task B is an integral part of the critical path in the PERT chart, it takes the first priority over the C and D which are not part of the critical path. Problems in task B will cause undesirable slack times and delays in the critical path which in turn lengthens the total project time and attracts penalties. Besides the fines and penalties, longer projects usually result in more costs and thus, efforts have to be placed on correcting problems in the critical path to avoid budget strains. As already stated earlier, the critical path has limited flexibility and thus problems in the tasks involved should receive the first priority. Tasks not in the critical path are mostly flexible; hence, C and D can be corrected later without any significant impacts on the total project time and costs. The remaining problems in tasks C and D can be prioritized based on the project scheduling analysis. Here, the hierarchy of tasks in terms of which task is dependent on the other for the project to proceed according to plans will be used. Hence, the priority in solving problems in tasks C and D will be given to the task that should come prior to the other in the project schedule. According to Lester (2007), the project schedule entails time analysis and logical hierarchy, where the project management team determines which tasks require to be completed before other tasks. It consists of establishing interdependencies, time analysis and identifying the key performance indicators for the given project.