Critical Path Analysis: Its Use and Limitations Essay

Introduction As firms begin to draw the need to improve on their dispatch management capabilities, m whatever companies and softw are developers mystify charged to live up to this need by offering tools and techniques for a manakin of jumps. Some are tools for portfolio management, and some(a) focus on particular disciplines within the travail management field.Tools for mental imagery meanning, task and cadence management, communications management, resource completelyocation, or other disgorge needs abound. Being a mature academic and practical course, Project concern has developed many tools and methodologies to assist in the planning, execution, valuation and closeout of various types of projects. Varied tools dirty dog be employ throughout many categories of project needs, while some tools are specific to certain types of projects.Some of the benefits of exploitation project management tools and techniques as opposed to ordinary management procedures, as menti oned in this weeks lecture, are that they have been proven to work curiously in a project environment and the unanimity of scathe and approaches allows for better understanding and communication mingled with members of the project team up and the stakeholders. Tools much(prenominal) as closing Trees, Cost-Benefit Analysis and programs such(prenominal) as Agile and Prince2 have proven to be particularly useful in producing best practice and expert results for projects that have sedulous them.certified public accountant Utility and Limitations Critical Path mode (CPM) or Critical Path Analysis (certified public accountant), as a project management tool, operates as the origination for a project work schedule, and likewise of resource planning illustrating shortest possible clock condemnation to blast a project. The tool outlines hyper diminutive events noning their sequencing, precedence dealing, and strict quantify requirements (Shtub, Bard and Globerson, 2005395). T he authors further note that PERT and certified public accountant approaches treat Finish to Start precedence relations using zero as lag time between finish of last activity to split up of next task along the circumstantial running.The certified public accountant map shows what activities micklenot begin without saveing the preceding task, it is dependent on and also defines double tasks or non-dependent tasks which can be performed simultaneously. By plotting activities using circles to represent activities noting earliest bug out (EST) and end times (LFT), and arrows showing sequencing of tasks, certified public accountant all the way defines the flow of tasks, measures and on that pointfore resources that must be allocated to accomplish activities and timelines.certified public accountant has similarities to a GANTT chart as both tools show tasks that need to be done and the gibe time to accomplish each. However, unlike a GANTT chart, certified public accountant activ ity timings are not drawn to denture in that arrows represented with the same length whitethorn correspond to differing measures of time (e. g. same size arrows whitethorn represent 1, 2 or 4 weeks). A GANTT chart willing have the tasks on a vertical axis while the time need for each task is slowly identified along its horizontal axis.For both GANTT and CPA, the plans critical raceway is the longest and has no spare time or s need/float in any of the tasks. If any delays between dependent tasks in the critical path are encountered, the whole project will be delayed unless the charabanc makes changes to bring the plan back on track. Bringing a project back on track whitethorn be done by possibly adding resources to cut sales talk time of tasks (crashing) affected by the delay. Obviously, adding or re-allocating resources commonly mean additional cost to the project.A try for a 10-week computer project using a CPA map is as below. Upper leave numbers within nodes represent t he EST and lower odd numbers on nodes represent LFT. Number on the right is the activity number and task exposition and eon is along the arrow lines Source www. mindtools. com In managing a project, a CPA map allows the project team to monitor attainment of goals and assists the project manager to see where corrective action is required to come up the project back on course.Shtub, Bard and Globerson (2005381) reiterate preparation and use of the tool requires a complete understanding of the projects goals and structures. As close projects will have a number of stakeholders with distinguishable requirements, it must be assumed that a thorough knowledge and understanding of all these requirements are cognize and considered by the project manager in frame to utilize a CPA approach. Moreover, considerable expertness is required in order to estimate the duration of each project task as achievement and resource allocation are dependent on the accuracy of the ame.While CPA is re cognized as an important part of project management, projects which may not benefit from use of this tool are those where there is a requirement for high flexibility in project tasks and schedules. Project Flexibility is described by Maylor, (201086) as the capability of a project to set to changes. As CPA assumes that activity times are deterministic having a predictable outcome as all of its causes are clear and rigid, it is unlikely that the CPA tool can easily take in many adjustments during the execution stage without jeopardizing the project.Since only repeat tasks are afforded time s overlook within the plan, a project may experience detrimental delays and spiralling costs should situations arise where the schedules are not met, or resources cannot be re-allocated to a later or earlier timeline. In particular, R&D projects, where results of new technology or a new drug cannot be easily predicted, or may need further examination and numerous changes, may suffer from a genu inely rigid CPA map. Moreover, project work on innovations will not have the benefit of historical basis for correctly estimating time requirements of many tasks complicated which is ssential in using the CPA.The United States Food and dose Administration (2004) comments, A new product suppuration toolkit containing powerful new scientific and technical methods such as animal or computer-based predictive models, biomarkers for prophylactic and effectiveness, and new clinical evaluation techniques is urgently take to improve predictability and efficiency along the critical path from laboratory concept to commercial product. This lack of knowledge and systems in drug research and maturation negatively affects the proper implementation of a CPA as a project management tool.Conversely, locution industry projects benefit widely from the use of CPA maps as there is a considerable personify of knowledge, experience, and repetition in many of the tasks performed in such projects. Another weakness in the utilisation of the CPA tool highlighted by Woolf (2008) is the observation that there is as yet no universally accepted description of the term critical path. He argues that this lack of consensus poses a problem in determining what is critical, nearcritical, or non-critical in nature when preparing a CPA map.Since reduplicate tasks falling outside of the critical path can still have grave effects on the total project should they fall behind in schedule, Woolf argues there is nothing non-critical about a parallel activity which has -17weeks as float. It is suggested criticality must be measurable and objective, free from comparisons which will make it subjective. Moreover, as a completed project is one unit, it is contended all tasks within the project are important/critical and contributes to its completion.This agreement in understanding and measure of terms is an important issue as one of the advantages of utilising tools and methods is its universality of understanding. In the font of R&D and super innovative tasks in projects, this question poses an issue as unknown tasks at the start of the project which may arise and have significant implications on the project would not have been accounted for in the critical path. Shtub, Bard and Globerson (2005382) cite overdependence on the CPA as a potential threat to project success.When push in sequential schedules is the primary focus, a team may cut short or solely exclude certain tasks in order to pacify within timelines. This negative manner of management can be harmful to the projects closing outcome. This last observation though is not a weakness of the tool itself but is a case of weak project management.Conclusion and Recommendation As with any tool, the users skill is underlying to its effective employment and management. CPA has been proven to be a valuable tool in project management for determiningActivities which must be performed, sequencing, prioritising, and timing Tasks which can be performed parallel to save time. The shortest time a project can be successfully delivered What and when resource will be required curative measures will be required and when during the performance of the project. As such, it is an integral part of the project management tool chest which can be harnessed efficiently in a variety of complex projects with proper inputs derived from experience, research, pattern and sound judgement.