Critical path

Owned by Tatiana Petrovskaia
Last updated: Dec 19, 2022
3 min read

This section describes how to inspect Critical Path on the Planner Gantt chart.

1. Overview of Critical Path

Definitions

Constraints

Legend

Definitions

Constraints

Legend

The critical path in the Gantt Chart is the sequence of targets that can delay the project end date if any of these tasks get delayed.

The end date of a project is the end date of your latest planned target.

You can inspect the Critical Path of an Initiative or the entire unit. You cannot view the Critical Path of other Planner entities.

The system highlights the Critical Path area in light orange and shows the path with orange lines.

1.1 How Critical Path Is Calculated

This section describes what the system performs to calculate the Critical Path of a unit or Initiative.

1.1.1 To calculate the Critical Path of a unit:

  1. The system gets the end date of the latest target of the unit.

  2. The system checks all Time dependencies linked to the target.

  3. The system defines as Critical Path the longest chain of the targets to the latest target linked with Time dependencies.

1.1.2 To calculate the Critical Path of an Initiative:

  1. The system checks all child targets of an Initiative and finds out the latest target of the Initiative.

  2. The system gets the end date of the found latest target.

  3. The system checks all Time dependencies linked to the target.

  4. The system defines as Critical Path the longest chain of the targets to the latest target linked with Time dependencies.

Use Case: Multiple latest targets

If there are several latest targets with the same end date: The system checks all targets and shows the longest chain for one of these targets.

 

2. Critical Path of an Initiative

This section describes how to inspect and how to remove the Critical Path of an Initiative.

2.1 Inspect Critical Path

To inspect the Critical Path of an Initiative:

  1. Click an Initiative on the Gantt Chart. The system shows available options.

  2. Select the Critical Path option. The system shows Critical Path.

Fig. 1.....Critical Path item on the shortcut menu
Fig. 2.....Critical Path of Initiative

2.2 Remove Critical Path

To remove the Critical Path of an Initiative:

Do one of the following:

  • In the Timeline view, on the Planner toolbar, click Critical Path.

  • Near the Critical Path area, click X.

3. Critical Path of a Unit

This section describes how to inspect and how to remove the Critical Path of a unit.

3.1 Inspect Critical Path

To inspect the Critical Path of a unit:

  1. In the Timeline view, on the Planner toolbar, click Critical Path.

3.2 Remove Critical Path

To remove the Critical Path of a unit:

Do one of the following:

  • In the Timeline view, on the Planner toolbar, click Critical Path. 

  • Near the Critical Path area, click X. 

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