English |   

Showing a Project's Critical Path

Illustrating the Critical Path of a Project to Mitigate Risk

Understanding your project's critical path can mean the difference between staying on track and falling behind schedule. As constraints tighten and dependencies change, it is important to understand which deliverables can be relaxed, and which ones must stay on schedule.

Microsoft Project does a good job of calculating your project's critical path. If you need to present decisions or alternatives to upper management or stakeholders, OnePager Pro can help you by quickly creating charts that highlight the critical path of your project.

This article describes how to use OnePager Pro to create a Gantt chart that highlights the critical path, using the project plan you have already created in Microsoft Project. OnePager Pro is a Microsoft Project plug-in that creates dynamic project timelines. Don't have OnePager Pro yet? You can download a 15-day free trial to see how it works.

  1. Start with your Microsoft Project plan. In this example, we'll use a simple project plan with relatively few tasks, but with enough complex dependencies to create an interesting critical path:


    2. A Microsoft Project plan with multiple dependencies, creating a complex critical path.

  2. Next, we'll set up a user profile (template) that you can use to track the critical path of this and future projects. Locate the Profiles... button next to the OnePager Pro button. In Project 2007 and earlier, the button will be on your Microsoft Project toolbar, while in Project 2010, it will be on your Add-Ins tab:

    OnePager Pro's user profile button allows you to create templates for future projects.

  3. On the Main tab of the user profile, ensure that the Compute critical path segments is checked. You can then change the format of the critical path markers. In this example, we'll use a red color taking up 40% of the Gantt bar height.

    Uncheck the Swimlane Titles box for now; this view is simple enough that it does not need to group and sort tasks into swimlanes.

    OnePager Pro enables project managers to show their project's critical path in a number of different formats.

  4. On the Swimlanes & Colors tab of the user profile, check the box entitled Order swimlanes same as Microsoft Project. This will import all of your Microsoft Project tasks into OnePager in the exact same order. Go to File->Save As... to name and save your new user profile. In this example, we named our profile "Critical Path Profile". Now, click Use to exit the user profile and continue building your presentation.

    OnePager Pro will order your tasks the same as Microsoft Project.

  5. Now, click the OnePager Pro button to begin importing your Microsoft Project data into OnePager Pro. After clicking the button, a menu will appear with a few choices about your project presentation.

    At the top of the window, click on the Profile Choice menu and select the profile you just created ("Critical Path Profile" in this example).

    Give your project view a unique name. In this example, we will name the project view "Sample Project with Critical Path". For task selection, since this project is relatively small, we will import all tasks. If your project is larger, you might elect to use a Microsoft Project flag field to select only the most important tasks and milestones.

    When you are finished, click Create new project view:

    OnePager Pro's choices form gives the user control over how much of a project schedule to import into a presentation.

  6. OnePager Pro will import your data from Microsoft Project and create a project summary chart like the one below. Notice the red lines along the top of certain tasks--these tasks are on the critical path of the project. The project's tasks have also been automatically color-coded by the resource assignments in Microsoft Project. OnePager Pro can automatically color-code tasks and milestones based on any data colum in Microsoft Project.

    OnePager Pro project schedule showing a project's critical path in red.

  7. If you would like to show links between two tasks on the critical path, left-click on the first task, then on the second task. Right-click the selected group and choose Event Links. A menu will then appear, allowing you to specify the format of the arrow linking the two tasks:

    Easily link two related project tasks using OnePager Pro.

  8. You can repeat the previous step, adding links between multiple tasks on the critical path. OnePager also lets you reposition text labels, or even entire Gantt bars, enabling you to create a project schedule that looks like this:

    Project schedule showing the critical path, complete with task links. Created in OnePager Pro from a Microsoft Project plan.

You're finished! By using OnePager Pro to create a project presentation, you not only create better-looking schedules, but you also save considerable time and frustration over drawing Gantt charts by hand in PowerPoint or Visio.

Get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.






© 2005-2012 Chronicle Graphics, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Contact Us