Summary

The critical path shows the task sequence through the project where any task delay becomes a project delay. It is important that project team members know if their task is on or close to the critical path when they contribute to risk analysis. The critical path and task slack information is crucial knowledge for the project manager to have while managing a project's execution.

Project software will display a project's critical path, but an easily constructed arrow diagram that the project management can prepare is a much more useful tool.