LOGIC PUZZLE Definitions ES Early Start blue box topleft cor

LOGIC PUZZLE Definitions: ES Early Start (blue box top-left corner) EF Early Finish (blue box, top-right corner) LS Late Start (blue box, bottom-left corner) LF Late Finish (blue box, bottom-right coner) STF Start Total Float (yellow box, left-center) FTF Finish Total Float (yellow box, right-center) DUR Duration (pink box, bottom-center) NET Not Earier Than Date Constraint (missing value indicated by underline) NLT Not Later Than Date Constraint (missing value indicated by underline) SS Start-to-Start (gray box; missing value indicated by blank rectangle) FF Finish-to-Finish (gray box; missing value indicated by blank rectangle) Instructions: Use your powers of reasoning - along with your understanding of the mechanics of the Critical Path Method - to determine the missing values. When fully completed, each activity should have seven values: ES, EF, LS, LF, STF, FTF, and DUR. Also watch out for relationship value, both the relationship type (either SS or FF) and the relationship duration. There are also three missing date constraint values.

Solution

Successors/Predecessors: This is a validating comma delimited field of linked task keys.  Default link types which are Finish to Start do not have any character designation but the other 4 links types(see constraints) do have 2 character designators (LS, FF, LF, DUR).

There are two ways you can now identify the critical path. You can eyeball your network diagram and simply identify the longest path throughout the network -- the longest sequence of activities on the path. Be sure to look for the longest path in terms of longest duration in days, not the path with the most boxes or nodes.

You can also identify critical activities with the Forward Pass/Backward Pass technique, identifying the earliest start and finish times, and the latest start and finish times for each activity.

If you have multiple critical paths, you will run into network sensitivity. A project schedule is considered sensitive if the critical path is likely to change once the project begins. The more critical paths in a project, the higher the probability of a change in schedule.