Critical Path Method Components

Why Critical Path Method is Critical to Project Management?

The Critical Path Method has been put to use for decades now and while it is not available in its original form today but the modified and improvised forms still benefit millions of people around the world. When talking about project management, there are some of the most difficult things that a manager needs to handle. There are hundreds and thousands of people working under you and you have to make them all work in sync so you are able to achieve the deadline that has been promised. However, critical path method is not the solution, it is just a tool: the solution lies in making use of this tool properly.

When you draw the chart for critical path method, you have all the individual processes in a discrete form available in front of you. Now, you are the one to make decisions and allocate your resources in order to make the most out of whatever resources you have available. It even gives enough control to the manager of the project that if something is expected to delay the project, the manager could work to expedite certain areas to meet the deadline. Following are the important points that show how critical the critical path method for a project is:

CPM Components

No matter how big or small the project is, people are most concerned about how quickly and efficiently you finish it. Here’s the critical path method components and how it serves as an essential component of any type of project planning:

• Management is all about staying on top of everything whether you are managing projects or just the employees within a company. Through critical path method, you are actually on top of everything and have a perspicacity of all the processes making the project move forward. If you are not in that position, you will definitely have to compromise on the quality of work and delay the project from its actual deadline.
• People who are making things possible need the most care when you are working on a project. With the critical path method, you have know-how of your resources. If you think that an area needs more deployment of your resources, you can do that to achieve the best results. If you don’t do that, you are definitely on your way to delaying the project. Furthermore, if the process delaying is one of the critical ones, your entire project will suffer.
• No matter how many difficulties you have to face in the completion of a project, people look at the outcome of it. So if you have been dealing with a lot of difficulties and couldn’t meet the deadline, there are high chances that you will face criticism. At the same time, if your project was an easy one but ended well, you will be exalted. With critical path method, you make even the most difficult tasks easier and take care of all the factors that could delay the project in advance.
• The critical path method holds an employee or an individual responsible for the delay in a project or process. This gives a person a higher sense of responsibility and since he/she is held responsible at the end, the tasks are performed with greater level of dedication. A person is not bound to boundaries and restrictions: if you want help from others you can take it but at the end, you have to come up with the completion of task assigned to you.
• Setting priorities and preferences is also an important part of project management: critical path method directly works with those things. You have to make sure to have your most critical tasks performed on high priority basis and with more efficiency than the less critical ones.

It has been proven over time these critical path method components assist smaller and bigger projects. Whether you want to manage a project within the company by working with employees or a bigger project with more companies acting as individuals, critical path method is invaluable.