thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Project Management & Agile · Foundational

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine schedule flexibility on logical network paths.

Definition

A forward pass calculates early start and finish dates and a backward pass calculates late start and finish dates; float is the difference. The longest path with zero (or least) float is the critical path.

Example

Paths A-B-E (14 days) and A-C-D-E (17 days): the critical path is A-C-D-E.

Exam tip

Critical path = longest path = shortest possible project duration.

Related terms