ABSTRACT
The Critical Path at a point in time depicts the string of dependent activities or tasks in a schedule for which there is no float or queuing time. Cynics of Critical Path Analysis may claim that there is a risk of an 'over-focus' on the Critical Path activities which can lead to cost overruns on non-Critical Path activities. Increasing resource on an activity may increase inefficiencies in people obstructing access to the work space inadvertently, or may increase the need for communication and handover arrangements between team members. If we take that concern on board, we could use the concept of float to determine our exposure to any such cost overrun attributable in this way to non-Critical Path activities. Finally, bringing it all back into the world of random numbers, we looked at how we can use Monte Carlo Simulation to give us a view of potential finish dates where the Critical Path and the Critical Path duration are variable.
