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Need Help with the Critical Path and Multiple Critical Paths in MS Project 2010

Anonymous
2014-08-27T12:05:08+00:00

I would say about 50% of my tasks in my project schedule are auto-scheduled and linked.  The other 50% are manually scheduled and not linked because they do not depend on other tasks. 

If the majority of the tasks in a project schedule are manually scheduled and are not linked, it is true that MS Project will not show a true picture of the critical path since these tasks are manually scheduled and not linked?  I would assume this to be true since you are manually plugging in dates and that's it.  So, my next question is, how should I go about linking tasks that are not dependent on each other?  I would like to be able to show a true picture of my project's critical path.  The only other thing I can think of at this point is to pay closer attention during task definition and ensure my team and I entering tasks that are driving other tasks.  But sometimes we receive external schedules from other agencies that we have to plug into our schedules.  Their schedules are often listed in a PDF calendar format and do not list what is dependent on what, so I end up  manually entering them as manually scheduled tasks and hard code the dates in.

Next Question:  Multiple Critical Paths---I see this under Options > Advance.  Should I select it?  Can someone explain it to me?

Thanks for your help,

Megan

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Dale Howard [MVP] 29,860 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2014-08-27T20:56:45+00:00

Megan --

Thank you for your excellent questions.  Without being able to see your project, allow me to try and answer them as best I can:

  1. The Critical Path applies to regular tasks and milestone tasks, but summary tasks are nor very relevant.  As a general rule, a summary task will be marked as a Critical task if at least one subtask is a Critical task. Even if a summary task is marked as a Critical task, the software does not format the Gantt bar is red, so I would recommend you ignore the summary tasks entirely in your Critical Path analysis.  Instead, focus on the regular tasks and milestone tasks.
  2. Even if a milestone task is a Critical task, Microsoft Project does not change the black diamond symbol to a red diamond.  This is just how the software works, so you need to pay the most attention to the red Gantt bars for regular tasks.  Do know that if you see a milestone task between to Critical tasks that are linked with a Finish to Start dependency, remember that the milestone is a Critical task as well.
  3. The option to which you refer in the Project Options dialog is how you tell Microsoft Project your definition of a Critical task in a project.  The default definition is a task with less than or equal to 0 days of Total Slack.  You can change the definition, if you wish, but the software will not give you any obvious sign that one task has 0 days of Total Slack, while another task has 3 days of Total Slack, assuming you change the option to 3 days, for example.  You would need to include the Total Slack field to see the difference.
  4. A Critical task, by definition, is a task that has 0 days of Total Slack AND the task is not completed. When a task is 100% complete, it is no longer considered a Critical task, and the Gantt bar color will change from red to blue.

Truthfully, I think the problem you are having is too many dangling tasks.  To me, a dangling task is a task that has no Predecessor and no Successor.  It is just dangling there in your project with no links to any other task.  To see a clear Critical Path in your project, you really do need to have a clearly defined, unbroken path of linked tasks from the beginning of the project until the end.  This is what I think your project lacks, which makes your Critical Path analysis both frustrating, and probably pretty useless.  Hope this helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-15T11:35:04+00:00

    Have a closer look at the From and To columns. The "bar" for a milestone must go from the start to the start, or from the finish to the finish.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-27T21:51:07+00:00

    You can make the critical milestones display as a red diamond if you format the bar styles by adding one new style, by adding one new row. In the bar styles (Format, Bar Styles) insert one row below the current black diamond milestone row. Make it identical to the black diamond milestone row, except add the criteria "critical" and change the colour to red. MSP reads the styles from the top to the bottom and overlays the red diamond on top of the black diamond.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-27T12:52:25+00:00

    Hi Dale,

    Thanks for responding.  In my schedule right now, there are about 3 red bars showing on my Tracking Gantt as being critical; but when I display the "critical" field in the entry table, there are summary rows that are marked "yes" as being critical but their subtasks are all marked "no." What is that all about?  These summary rows marked "yes" however are not showing up in red on the Tracking Gantt.

    There is also a milestone subtask that is marked "yes" as being critical, but in the Tracking Gantt Chart, the diamond is not showing up in red.  Do you know why?

    I wonder if I should maybe increase the slack under Options > Advance > "Tasks are critical if slack is less than or equal to 0 days" to maybe 3 or 5 days?  (Just randomly throwing those numbers out there).

    I also viewed the "schedule" table to see the free slack and total slack throughout the project.  If both of them are '0,' does that mean the task is critical or does only the total slack need to equal '0' to make it a critical task?  I noticed there are also some tasks that are 100% complete that have 0 slack in both the free slack and total slack columns so I'm not sure what that's about either. 

    My overall objective is to show a clearly defined critical path in my schedule from start to finish, so do you think if I were to link more of the manually scheduled tasks (that can be linked), I would see a better defined critical path?

    V/r,

    Megan

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  4. Dale Howard [MVP] 29,860 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-08-27T12:24:05+00:00

    Megan --

    I am of two minds on the issue you describe.  If the Manually Scheduled tasks are truly NOT dependent on other tasks, then there is no point in linking them.  But, on the other hand, if your project contains 50% of the tasks that are not linked, it is difficult to get a true picture of the Critical Path in the project.  My hope would be that you can see a path of linked tasks from the beginning to the end of the project.  Can you see that in the project right now?  If I were to give you any advice, it would be to take a very hard look at the Manually Scheduled tasks that are not linked, and ask yourself if they are truly NOT dependent on any other task.  If not, do not link them.

    Regarding the Multiple Critical Paths option, I only use that option with a master project containing two or more subprojects.  With the option deselected, Microsoft Project shows you a single unified Critical Path across all of the subprojects in the master project.  If you select the option, you see a Critical Path for each subproject individually.  So, I do not believe this option would help you at all.

    There are many smart and experienced users in this forum who will probably have advice for you as well.  I am trusting they will also contribute their ideas with you.  Hope this helps.

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