The critical path shows the longest time that can be taken by a project. It gives room for delay thereby resulting in an even more complicated period than it was originally estimated. The main problem associated with following a critical path is that it can lead to crash of the project tasks and increased overall costs (Van der Auweraer et al., 2005). As a project manager in an IT firm about to undertake a project, one is tasked with ensuring that the project is completed in time. The longest path will always incur extra costs and give room for errors, therefore interfering with any desire to deliver quality work.
It is possible to shorten the critical path. However, it requires effective strategies to retain quality. Even though the time may be reduced, the overall cost may increase in an attempt to maintain the projected quality of work. However, considering the possibility of numerous errors occurring in following the critical path, the cost of correcting errors will be reduced (Lu, Lam, & Dai, 2005). One of the strategies that could be employed is crashing the schedule would be the use of extra resources as a means of cutting down on the duration of the task without compromising its scope.
The required resources include team members whom one would be required to ensure that he/she has enough space and resources to accommodate them. It can be quite a big problem recruiting new members to the project after it has already started. To maintain professionalism, the project manager should train the team members and test their competency before project commencement (Van der Auweraer et al., 2005). Training and selection will enable the PM to have the right capacity in regard to numbers and skills. The PM would also have to incur extra expenses in paying and training the team members. The critical path can be shortened but it is quite hard to cut down the costs.
- Lu, M., Lam, H. C., & Dai, F. (2008). Resource-constrained critical path analysis based on discrete event simulation and particle swarm optimization. Automation in construction, 17(6), 670-681.
- Van der Auweraer, H., Mas, P., Dom, S., Vecchio, A., Janssens, K., & Van de Ponseele, P. (2007). Transfer path analysis in the critical path of vehicle refinement: the role of fast, hybrid and operational path analysis (No. 2007-01-2352). SAE Technical Paper.