INTRODUCTION 63

Figure 4.11 Representation of a task on a linear planning chart

4.6
THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD

4.6.1
Introduction
The critical path method (CPM) is a scheduling technique based on a network diagram representation of the
project. Developed in the late 1950s for time sequencing manufacturing operations, the CPM quickly became
popular in other application areas including construction project scheduling (Moder and Phillips, 1970).
Nowadays, the CPM is considered the de-facto standard in the construction industry and is implemented in
several widely-used commercial software systems for construction project planning and management. The
CPM takes as input the durations of tasks and the logic constraints (precedence relationships) between
tasks, and produces as output a range of start and finish times for each task that results in the minimum
project duration satisfying the logic constraints. The CPM also identifies a critical patha continuous path
or paths through the network of nodes and arrows whose length is equal to the project duration. Any delay
along this path will cause a delay in the overall project duration. The CPM consists of simple arithmetic
operations only.
The original CPM was only capable of handling finish-to-start precedence relationships (Moder and
Phillips, 1970). Later developments added the capability to handle all four logic constraints (Willis, 1986;
Hendrickson and Au, 1989). Sometimes the name precedence method is used for the enhanced CPM (Willis,
1986). In this book, CPM refers to the enhanced algorithm, which is generally the case in practice. The
project evaluation and review technique (PERT) is another scheduling technique also developed in the late
1950s. PERT is fundamentally similar to the CPM, being based on a network diagram representation of the