Final answer:
To determine critical path slack time, calculate the earliest and latest start and finish times for each task (ES, EF, LS, LF) and then calculate slack as the difference between LS and ES or LF and EF. The critical path includes tasks with zero slack, indicating any delays will affect the project's finish time.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the critical path slack time, we need to understand a few key terms within the context of project management and network diagrams. The terms ES, EF, LS, and LF stand for Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, and Late Finish, respectively.
Here is a simple step-by-step method:
- First, calculate the earliest possible start and finish times (ES and EF) for each activity by going forward through the network diagram.
- Next, calculate the latest start and finish times (LS and LF) for each activity by going backward through the network diagram, starting from the project's end time.
- The slack (also known as float) for each activity is calculated as the difference between its late start and early start (LS – ES) or late finish and early finish (LF – EF).
If an activity has a slack time of zero, it is on the critical path, meaning any delay in these tasks will delay the project.
Here's an example:
- Activity A has an ES of 1 and an EF of 4.
- Activity B follows A and has an ES of 5 (since A finishes at 4) and EF of 10.
- If the project must finish by day 12, and Activity B has an LS of 7 and LF of 12, then B's slack is LF - EF or LS - ES = (12 - 10) or (7 - 5) = 2 days.
The critical path is the longest path through the project, with the least amount of slack. Identifying the critical path is crucial for project scheduling and management.
The complete question is: "How to determine Critical Path slack time , what is EF,ES and
LS,LF it confusing me please give example? is: