Saturday, October 20, 2007

How to optimize your schedule?

How to optimize your schedule?
In this post, we would look at the first step of optimizing the schedule - Critical path.

Duration of the project can be reduced by shortening the timeframe of the critical path.

What is critical path?
Critical path shows the tasks to be completed on schedule in order to complete the project to finish on schedule. These tasks are called as 'critical tasks'

How to identify the critical path?
You can view the critical path by turning on the Gantt Chart Wizard.
1. Open View menu and select Gantt Chart
2. Click Gantt Chart Wizard from Formatting toolbar or choose Format > Gantt Chart Wizard
3. Gantt Chart Wizard dialog box is shown
4. Click Next and choose "Critical Path"
5. Choose "Finish"

What do you observe?All the tasks in the project appear, but critical tasks appear in red.

How to change the non-critical or critical tasks color?
To format the bar styles …
1. Choose Format > Bar Styles.
2. Bar Styles dialog box is displayed.
3. Select 'Task' for non-critical task or 'Critical Task' for critical task.
4. Change the color by selecting the 'Bar' tab at the bottom of the dialog box.

Next Post: How to optimize your schedule by crashing activities?

Quote: "Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely" - Kay Lyons

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