Scheduling: Critical path, PERT, Gantt

Abstract

In every project it is fundamental and important to plan and structure the process in order to get the best outcome and prepare the team if the unexpected happens. As a project manager it is therefore crucial to manage scheduling closely. A project schedule includes the projects milestones, deliverables, deadlines, etc. with duration estimate. The schedule is used for planning and to foresee when a project is estimated to finish. To determine the shortest possible duration of a project a critical path analysis is performed. A critical path is a sequence of activities that is the longest throughout the project. To perform a critical path analysis several schedule models can be considered in order to structure the tasks of the project. Some of these tools are PERT and Gantts Charts. Both are tools which represent and analyze tasks in the specific project. They are both complementary tools to the Critical Path analysis. The project manager can use these tools to analyze and represent the tasks to make sure that the project can be finished within the given time frame.