6 Terms Relating To Schedule Management For Projects

Adeniyi SalauApril 28, 2023

0 0 2 minutes read

6 Terms Relating To Schedule Management For Projects

Earlier, I talked about Standard Schedule Diagramming Notations for projects. In this article, I want to talk about six terms relating to schedule management for projects. Follow me as we will look at these terms together in this article.

#1 The Critical Path

The critical path is the network path that has the longest duration. Activities on the critical path cannot be displayed or the whole project will be delayed unless subsequent activities are shortened.

The critical path is calculated by doing a forward pass to calculate the Early Start and Early Finish for each activity and then a backward pass to calculate the Late Start and Late Finish for each activity. The path with the longest duration and no scheduling flexibility is the critical path.

#2 Float

Float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its Early Start without delaying the project finish date or the consecutive activities. Float occurs only in activities that are not on the critical path. Float is also called slack. There are two types of floats: Total and Free.

#3 Total Float

Total float is a type of float where the total amount of time an activity requires can be delayed without delaying the project finish date.

Total float for an activity can be calculated by subtracting its Early Finish from its Late Finish or its Early Start from its Late Finish.

Please note that when you see the term float by itself, it generally refers to total float.

#4 Free Float

Free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the Early Start of any activity that immediately follows it. It allows flexibility of the start or finishes time within the activity only.

If there is a string of activities with float, free float will be available only at the end of the string.

Free Float for an activity is calculated by subtracting the Early Finish of the activity from the Early Start of its successor activity.

Action Point
PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained includes staffs of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.

I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

Fact Check Policy

CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.

Become Part Of our Fan Base on Facebook. Click Here.

Hi, I now use RavenBank to send, receive and save money. I also pay my bills with ease, you should try it out too