Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Total Float and Free Float are very important factors that are of great value and should be reviewed all the time in order to make sure the Critical Path is not impacted. There are two types of floats:
Total float which is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion date. On a critical path, the total float is zero.
Free float which is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the Early Start of its successor activity.
Every project should have those value when creating the network diagram so basically every project is a practical example.
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1 reply by David Hernandez
Nov 09, 2016 6:51 PM
David Hernandez
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Thanks alot Rami, your experiences and oppinion is welcome.
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Robert RothProject Manager / Architect| IBMMatthews, Nc, United States
One of the real values of Free Float is that a) it could be an indication that a wrong successor has been specified, and b) it represents an opportunity to improve your overall schedule by starting downstream activities sooner.
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1 reply by David Hernandez
Nov 09, 2016 6:52 PM
David Hernandez
...
Thanks alot Robert, I appreciate your experiences and opinion.
Saving Changes...
Praveen MalikIndependent Consultant| Independent ConsultantNew Delhi, India
Total Float is the amount of time an Activity can be delayed without impacting the Project Finish Date.
Total floats might be biased when you develop the schedule with so many assumptions due to less detailed information so that you need to carefully determine the activities' relationships and activity durations which include a certain amount of duration reserve and that iterated schedule compressions should be done before final schedules are made. Some alternative schedules might be developed to see the different scenarios based on your assumptions.
In executing phase, if total floats and free floats are available in non-critical paths, you may use them to relocate some possible but limited numbers of resources from non-critical activities to some activities in critical paths for crashing purpose within the time frame available in both free and total floats.
However, based on my experience, it works only under the specific conditions that schedule has been made based on detailed information with less assumptions, that effective and efficient communications between all concerned bodies should be introduced prior to determining relocation of resources, and that project should not be too delayed. If project is too delayed re-scheduling might be the best answer.
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1 reply by David Hernandez
Nov 09, 2016 6:57 PM
David Hernandez
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I appreciate your help, that is a very good explanation. Thanks a lot.
Total Float and Free Float are very important factors that are of great value and should be reviewed all the time in order to make sure the Critical Path is not impacted. There are two types of floats:
Total float which is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion date. On a critical path, the total float is zero.
Free float which is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the Early Start of its successor activity.
Every project should have those value when creating the network diagram so basically every project is a practical example.
Thanks alot Rami, your experiences and oppinion is welcome.
One of the real values of Free Float is that a) it could be an indication that a wrong successor has been specified, and b) it represents an opportunity to improve your overall schedule by starting downstream activities sooner.
Thanks alot Robert, I appreciate your experiences and opinion. Saving Changes...
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