MODERN INSITUTE OF ENGINEERING &

TECHNOLOGY

Under
MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL-700064

PROSENTATION SUPERVISED BY ‘ ANINDYA GHOSH’

NAME :- DOLAN GHOSH
REG. NO :- 222690120059 OF 2022-23
ROLL NO :- 26901322012
TOPIC :- CRITICAL ACTIVITIES
DEPARTMENT :- CIVIL ENGINEERING
YEAR :- 3RD , SEMESTER- 6TH
SUBJECT :- CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT
SUBJECT CODE :- CE(PC)601
CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING &
MANAGEMENTS

PRESENTATION ON
CRITICAL ACTIVITIES
PRESENT BY
DOLAN GHOSH
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I Would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my Construction

Engineering And Management teacher Mr. “ Anindya Ghosh“ Sir for his able
guidance and support in completing my project. I would also like to extend my
gratitude to the HOD “ Mr. Soumen Chatterjee“ sir for Providing me with all
facility that was required.

DOLAN
GHOSH
 INDEX
1. BACKGROUND & HISTORY.
2. WHAT IS CPM?
3. INTRODUCTION.
4. ACTIVITY TIME.
5. CRITICAL ACTIVITIES VS. CRITICAL PATH.
6. DEFINITIONS.
7. DIFFERENT TERMINOLOGIES USED IN CRITICAL PATH METHOD.
8. DIFFERENT TERMINOLOGIES USED IN CRITICAL PATH METHOD.
9. CRITICAL PATH AND CRITICAL ACTIVITIES.
10.COMPONENTS OF A CRITICAL PATH.
11. CONCLUSION.
12.REFFERENCES.
 Background & History:-
Developed in the 1950s by the US Navy
􀂅 Originally, the critical path method considered only logical
dependencies between terminal elements
􀂅 Since then, it has been expanded to allow for the inclusion of
resources related to each activity, through processes called
activity-based resource assignments and resource leveling.
􀂅 Critical Path Method for the construction industry
􀂆 Non-computer approach
􀂆 John Fondahl

What is CPM?
􀂅 The Critical Path Method or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based
algorithm for scheduling a set of projectactivities
􀂅 It is an important tool for effective project management
􀂅 Commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction, software
development, research projects, product development, engineering, and plant
maintenance, among others,
􀂅 Any project with interdependent activities can apply this
method of scheduling
What is CPM?
􀂅 The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the
project that includes the following:-
􀂆 A list of all activities required to complete the project (also known as
Work Breakdown Structure).
􀂆 The time (duration) that each activity will take to completion
􀂆 The dependencies between the activities.

CPM calculates
􀂆 The longest path of planned activities to the end of the project
􀂆 The earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without
making the project longer
􀂅 Determines “critical” activities (on the longest path)
􀂅 Prioritize activities for the effective management and to shorten the
planned critical path of a project by:
􀂆 Pruning critical path activities
􀂆 “Fast tracking" (performing more activities in parallel)
􀂆 “Crashing the critical path" (shortening the durations of critical path
activities by adding resources)
 INTRODUCTION
The critical path method (CPM) aims at the determination of the
time to complete a project and the important activities on which a
manager shall focus attention.
Critical path method is to analyze the different items during project schedule
time and least to prediction and optimization of project time limit for a
project, construction project management usually has a huge investment, so,
about how to integrate in fixed investment limited resources, through the
lowest cost and the shortest time to complete the project is the key problem
existing in project management, application of critical path in the
construction engineering project management, and further correction and
optimization of construction engineering project design concept has become
very important. [1]Critical path in the design concept in construction project
management is mainly in order to be able to in the engineering construction
of the Internet to find the critical path, resource priority arrangement for the
different key activities, improve subjective initiative, prevent Paxson's law,
save time, project for non-critical activity, as long as it doesn't affect the
project schedule, the remaining resources to deploy, as well as applications
of the critical path, easy to save time, make the resource utility get improved.
Critical Activities vs. Critical Path
A project’s critical activities are those that have zero float, meaning any delay in completion
delays the entire project. In contrast, the critical path maps the longest path through all critical
activities from start to finish in a project.
Returning to the cake-baking example, mixing the cake batter and baking the cake are
activities with zero float. Any delay in either task would delay the completion of the cake.
For a real-world example in project management, suppose you are obtaining permits for a
construction project. You need to obtain permits to begin site work, so if permitting takes
longer than you expected, the entire project schedule will be thrown off track.
As an example of critical activities, say you are planning an event budget. Until you make the
budget, you can’t book a venue, sign contracts with vendors, or market the event.

Critical Path:-
In CPM analysis, the path along which total floats are zero or minimum is called the
critical path. All activities on this path are critical. In a project network, more than one
critical path is also possible. In a project, network activities can be critical, subcritical or
supercritical. It will be explained below.
Subcritical Path:- It is the path that joins all the subcritical activities in the network. A
total float is greater than zero for a subcritical activity, i.e., FT > 0.
Supercritical Path:- It is the path that joins all super-critical activities of a project
network. For a supercritical activity total float is less than zero, i.e., FT < 0.
 DEFINITIONS

􀂅Float (slack) - amount of time that a task can be delayed without causing a
delay to:
􀂆 subsequent tasks (free float)
􀂆 project completion date (total float)
􀂅 Critical path is the sequence of activities which add up to the longest overall duration. It
is the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical
path directly impacts the planned project completion date (there is no float on the critical
path). A project can have several, parallel, near critical paths. An additional parallel path
through the network with the total durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-
critical or non-critical path.
Critical activity – activity with zero float
􀂅 Resource leveling – iterative process of assigning crews to activities in order to calculate
their duration.
DIFFERENT TERMINOLOGIES USED IN
CRITICAL PATH METHOD:-
Different terms of the critical path method are the various terms that are used to define
the method properly. These different terms are explained below with their detailed
information.
Event Times in CPM
Earliest occurrence time (TE): It is the time when an event may occur at the earliest as
possible.
Latest allowable time (TL): It is the time for an event at which it can be completed for
the latest possible, but it will not affect the overall project completion time.
Activity times in CPM
Earliest start time(EST): This time refers to the earliest time to start an activity.
Earliest finish time (EFT): This time refers to the possible earliest time for which
activity in the project network may be completed.
For an activity i-j
EFT = EST +Tij = TiE+ tij
tij = Activity duration
Latest start time(LST): The maximum possible time for an activity to start without any
delay in the overall project duration.
∴ LST = LFT - Activity duration
∴ LST= TiL – tij
LFT = latest finish time of activity i – j = Ti L
Latest finish time (LFT): The latest possible time by which an activity must be
completed without affecting the project completion time. For an activity i – j, the latest
allowable time of the head event j, i.e., Tj L is the LFT of
activity i–j.
Note: LST of the activity is to be calculated based on the latest occurrence time of its
head event and not on the brass of the latest occurrence time of its tail event.
Float
• Float is related to the activity times.
• The term float is similar to the slack in PERT analysis.
• Float is the maximum available time for an activity to be delayed without affecting overall
project duration.
Floats can be classified into the following 4 types:
Total Float:-
The total available time span by which the finishing or starting of an activity may be delayed
without affecting the total completion time of the project is called the total float of the
activity. Total float is the maximum available time above the activity completion time.
FT = (TJL – TiE) – tij
FT = (TJL ) – (TjE – tj)
FT = (TJL ) – (TjE – tj)
FT = LFT – EFT
FT = (TJL – tij) – TiE
FT = LST – EST
FT gives the total float.
The total float of an activity affects the total float of succeeding and preceding activities.
Free float (FF)
It is the available time for an activity to be delayed by this much without affecting the
succeeding activities. Free float affects only the preceding activities. In calculating the
free float, It is assumed that all the project network activities start as early as possible.
Free float is given by
⇒ FF = FT – Sj
where Sj is head event slack.
In free float, the preceding activity is not allowed to occur at its latest time, and hence
total float of the preceding activity is affected. However, the succeeding activity can start
at its earliest start time, so its total float is not affected.
Independent float (FID)
It is the minimum freely available time for which completion of the preceding or
succeeding activities does not affect. It can be represented as below.
FID = FF – Si,
Where Si is the tail event slack.
The CPM Approach :-
􀂅 Phase III

􀂆 Establish time-cost relationship

􀂆 Establish scheduling variations
􀂄 Determine most favorable balance between time-cost
􀂆 Normal Start – normal time, least cost
􀂆 All-Crash Start – least time, higher cost
􀂅 Phase II

􀂆 Create time estimates for each operation

􀂆 Determine earliest possible start date, earliest possible finish date , latest start & finish
􀂄 Determine “free float” and “total float”
􀂆 Revised after completion of Phase III

􀂅 Phase III

􀂆 Establish time-cost relationship

􀂆 Establish scheduling variations
􀂄 Determine most favorable balance between time-cost
􀂆 Normal Start – normal time, least cost
􀂆 All-Crash Start – least time, higher cost
Assumption for CPM
In CPM, it is assumed that precise time estimate is available for each activity.
Project Completion Time
From the start event to the end event, the time required to complete all the activities of the
project in the specified sequence is known as the project completion time.
Path in a Project
A continuous sequence, consisting of nodes and activities alternatively, beginning with the
start event and stopping at the end event of a network is called a path in the network.

CRITICAL PATH AND CRITICAL

ACTIVITIES :-
Consider all the paths in a project, beginning with the start event and stopping at the end
event. For each path, calculate the time of execution, by adding the time for the individual
activities in that path. The path with the largest time is called the critical path and the
activities along this path are called the critical activities or bottleneck activities. The activities
are called critical because they cannot be delayed. However, a non-critical activity may be
delayed to a certain extent. Any delay in a critical activity will delay the completion of the
whole project. However, a certain permissible delay in a non –critical activity will not delay
the completion of the whole project. It shall be noted that delay in a non-critical activity
beyond a limit would certainly delay the completion the whole project. Sometimes, there may
be several critical paths for a project. A project manager shall pay special attention to critical
COMPONENTS OF A CRITICAL PATH:-
To begin work with the critical path, It is important To understand each part or concept that
Applies when creating a chart.
● The critical path is the entire path through the diagram that will take The longest amount
of time to complete. This sets the precedent of what time the whole process needs to be
completed by and gives other shorter activities some slack time.
● Events take place at The nodes, the circles With numbers In them identifying Which event
Is taking place At that time.
● Activities are the Paths represented by Arrows connecting Each node To each other. The
arrows point from the event that just took place to the event(s)that can now start because the
event leading to it/them has finished. Each path is accompanied by a time. This is the time
that it takes to complete The activity.
● The earliest start time is just what it says, the soonest time that an event can begin. This is
calculated by starting from the beginning of the diagram and moving forward through it,
adding up the activity times needing to be completed before it.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

● The earliest start time is just what it says, the soonest time that an event can begin. This is
calculated by starting from the beginning of the diagram and moving for ward through it,
adding up the activity times needing to be completed before it.

● The latest start time is the latest time that an activity can start to keep the whole systems
till on track to finish with the critical path (longest path through the system).this is calculated
by working from the end of the diagram with the total time and subtracting the activity
time(s)from that.

● Slack event time is the free time that an even thus to stay on it’s necessary time track. it is
calculated by subtracting the earliest event time from the latest event time. all events that are
involved in the critical path will have as lack time of 0because there is no extra time available
for that event.

● Slack activity time is similar to slack event time yet viewed in terms of the activities in
stead of the event nodes. all activities involved in the critical path will have a slack activity
time of 0.
CONCLUSION:-
Finding the critical path has many complex steps involved, and this resource
should put you in a good position to apply these concepts in many diverse
situations. It has been an important topic for many years, and many large
companies have used it to optimize their processes. The critical path can be
used to determine the most time-consuming path to show what activities
must be completed on a strict time frame and what activities have slack time
in their schedule. Applying this method can help save companies millions
and you could be the one responsible.

REFERENCES:-
[1] Tao Zunhai. Application of project management critical path
method in the communication engineering project management [J].
Journal of information and communication, 2016.
[2] Yang Lianshan. Whole life cycle integrated management research
based on the information platform of large construction project [D].
Shandong Construction University, 2015.
[3] Liao Jian. B measurement automation system for power supply
bureau construction project quality and schedule management
research [D]. North China electric power university, 2014.