Critical Path Analysis Flashcards
Define
Activity Chart
A table that lists, in order, the activities that are essential to the completion of a project, how long they will take, and which activity immediately precedes another.
Define
Immediate predecessor
An activity that must be completed before another activity can commence. An activity may have several immediate predecessors.
Define
Dummy Activity
These are edges that are represented by dotted lines and represent imaginary edges, which are useful when a task is an immidiate predecessor of two other activities and these activities have other predecessors that are not shared.
Define
Earliest Starting Time (EST)
The earliest a task could possibly be started after the beginning of the project. It can be worked out using forward scanning, adding the lengths of predecessors together.
Define
Latest Starting Time (LST)
The latest a task could be started without the project finishing late. It can be worked out using backward scanning, taking the lengths as you move backwards through the networks.
Definition
Float Time
The time that an individual task in a project can be delayed without impacting the finishing time of the entire project. To calculate float time we subtract the earliest start time (EST) from the latest start time (LST).
Definition
Minimum Completion Time
The earliest this project could be completed. The EST at the end of the final critical activity gives us the overall minimum completion time.
Define
Source
The beginning or origin of flow through a network.
Define
Sink
The endpoint of flow through a network.
Define
Maximum Flow
The capacity of the smallest pipe in the system
