Project Management

PMP Exam Tip: The Critical Path is NOT the Maximum Duration

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Cornelius Fichtner help you with your PMP Exam Prep (https://www.project-management-prepcast.com) as well as earn free PDUs (www.pm-podcast.com/pdu). Passing the PMP Exam is tough, but keeping your PMP Certification alive is just as challenging. Preparing for the exam requires an in-depth study of the PMBOK Guide and dedicated study discipline. And once you are PMP certified, then you are required to earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every 3 years to keep your certification alive. Let me help you make this journey easier with tips and tricks on how to prepare for and pass the exam as well as efficiently earning your PDUs once you are certified.

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A student of ours who was answering questions in our PMP Exam Simulator (www.pm-exam-simulator.com) recently asked for an explanation of the following question he came across:

What is the Critical Path?
A) Maximum project duration
B) Minimum project duration
C) Total slack
D) Total float

He immediately realized that answers C and D are completely wrong and did not consider them. But then he fell into the “trap” that this question was setting up and selected “A) Maximum project duration” as the correct answer. But the correct answer is in fact “B) Minimum project duration”. Let me explain why.

First let’s acknowledge that the question is intentionally worded and phrased in this way. It's not meant to mislead, it's meant to make you think about what the critical path truly is.

That much said, you will probably remember from your studies that the critical path is the longest duration that you currently have in your schedule network diagram. But this does NOT mean that the critical path is the maximum duration that your project will/could have.

Let's look at an example and let’s say that our network diagram currently says that our critical is 30 days long. Is that the maximum that our project will take? No... it's the MINIMUM.

The critical path says that if everything goes as planned and we have zero delays, then we will be done in 30 days. But if there is just one task on the critical path that gets delayed by 2 days, then our critical path (and project duration) will increase to 32 days.

Therefore the critical path is not the MAXIMUM duration that we can expect on our project. It's the MINIMUM. (But only if all goes well).


Posted on: July 18, 2013 10:26 AM | Permalink

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Vitalija Rimkute Vitalija Rimkute| Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Thank you for sharing!

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