Slack Attack

 

Project managers rely on various risk management techniques in order to identify, address and eliminate sources of risk before they become threats to the successful completion of software projects. However, many of the so-called "best practices" used by project managers nowadays don't prevent schedules from slipping. They simply allow project managers to identify slips earlier and consequently readjust their schedule.

Can project managers really prevent schedules from slipping? Can we develop a plan that can actually account for inevitable minor setbacks that all of us face in our day-to-day chores?

All activities in a project plan link together in one of two paths: a critical path and a non-critical path. Projects slip when one or more of the critical tasks fall behind the baseline schedule. Consequently, this article will focus on a risk management technique--time buffers--to help you protect the project against inevitable technical setbacks. But before we get into the details of managing the critical path and time buffers, let's examine how we can first reduce risk in the non-critical path.

Slack Time

The non-critical path, by definition, contains slack time. This slack time, also commonly known as float time, represents the amount of time that a non-critical path activity can be delayed without delaying the project.

Let…

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