CPM scheduling maps activity durations and dependencies to identify the longest path through the project. Activities on the critical path have no float, so delay to them extends completion.
Schedule updates track actual against planned progress.
Alternative Names:
CPM Scheduling, Critical Path Analysis
Why it Matters?
Contemporaneous schedule updates are what make delay analysis credible, since a retrospective schedule constructed for litigation is vulnerable to the charge that it was built to support the conclusion. Projects maintaining monthly updates produce a record showing when the critical path shifted and what drove it. Absence of updates pushes the analysis toward less reliable methods and weakens whichever party bears the burden.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Why do contemporaneous updates matter?
What happens without schedule updates?
