Glossary · approach
Critical Path
The longest chain of dependent tasks running from project start to finish — the chain that drives the delivery date.
CPMCritical Path Method
The critical path is the sequence of dependent tasks running from project start to project end whose total duration is the longest. Any task on this chain finishing late delays the entire project by the same amount; tasks off the chain have slack. CPM (Critical Path Method) was developed at DuPont in 1957 and later merged with PERT into the standard project management technique. In an unconstrained problem the critical path can be computed exactly in seconds; once resource constraints are added it is called the 'resource-constrained critical path' and computing it requires RCPSP optimization.
Örnek
On a construction project, the chain 'excavation → foundation → columns → first floor slab' runs 80 days; the parallel 'roof detail design' runs 30 days. The first chain is the critical path — the project's finish date depends on it.