IT Consulting from the Trenches

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: SHARING SEVERAL LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT HANDLING THE CRITICAL PATH

Obviously the critical path is important because any delay in the activities on the critical path will delay the project’s completion. You always return to the critical path to schedule overtime and add extra resources to catch up with delays. I'm sharing these lessons learned from experienced project managers.

1. Be extra attentive when assessing risks that can impact the critical path (directly or indirectly).
2. If you have a budget for reducing risks, spend it on tasks on the critical path.
3. Since you probably won’t have the time to monitor all activities, spend your available time on people working on critical activities.
4. Make it a point whenever possible to put the best people on critical activities.
5. If that isn’t possible, assign them to those activities that have the highest likelihood of turning into critical activities.
6. When other managers ask to borrow resources—people or equipment—be generous with resources assigned to non-critical activities and "stingy" with those assigned to critical activities.