Omit a task from Critical Path calculation?

[RobH]

I have a project file in which I want to view the critical path for a subset
of the project, i.e., I want to see the crtitcal path between two tasks, and
ignore the rest. Is there a filter that allows you to select which tasks are
considered during critical path calulation? Thanks,
Rob H.

 

[John]

I have a project file in which I want to view the critical path for a subset
of the project, i.e., I want to see the crtitcal path between two tasks, and
ignore the rest. Is there a filter that allows you to select which tasks are
considered during critical path calulation? Thanks,
Rob H.

RobH,
If the subset of tasks is independent of all others, you can select the
option to calculate multiple critical paths (Tools/Options/Calculation
tab. However if the subset of tasks is independent of other tasks in the
project, your best bet is to use a spare flag field for those tasks and
then filter on the flag.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

A project normally has exactly one critical path. That path belongs to the
project as a whole, not to any one area of the project plan. The definition
of a critical path is that path taking the longest time through the network
representing the minimum completion time for the project. So, you really
cannot analyze only one portion of the project in hopes to see a different
path because it does not exist.

The management literature defines the Critical Path as those activities with
no more than 0 days of total slack. Although there is no filter in Project
that will allow you to selectively ignore certain tasks, Project will allow
you to change the definition of a critical task.

You can go to Tools/Options... pull the Calculations tab. At the very
bottom you can select a non-negative integer value for the number of days
slack to define a critical task. In doing so, *all* activities with less
than this amount of slack will be considered critical.

Your problem is that you want to exclude a task that already has 0 days
slack so Project is not going to be able to help you directly. I you really
want to analyze a section of your schedule, you would have to copy out that
section into a new project file without all the other tasks and do a critical
path on just that. Keep in mind that this analysis is *not* applicable to
the overall project schedule.
--
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Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Jim Aksel]

It appears John and I were typing at the same time. To clarify my comments
(so that I don't appear to contradict John) -- multiple critical paths are
possible. That is, there may be more than one path through the network with
an identical length also representing an alternative critical path. As such,
John pointed out that Project can find these multiple paths for you.

The flag fields will only hide the flagged tasks from view, not from
analysis. As John more clearly stated than I did -- you can analyze a
subsection of the entire project (in a new project) only to the extent those
tasks are self contained.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project