Resource-Critical Path

The Resource-Critical Path is a technique to find why the end date of a resource-constrained, workload-leveled project is what it is. The technique differs from the Critical Path technique because the Resource-Critical Path incorporates not only the logical dependencies but also resource dependencies. A resource dependency is when an activity (B) of an overallocated resource is delayed to start after another, higher-priority activity (A) of the same overallocated resource, which is done to resolve the overallocation: Activity B is resource-dependent on activity A. There may not be any logical relationship between the two tasks other than that they share the same resource assigned.

The Resource-Critical Path is the sequence of activities that are related through logical dependencies or resource-dependencies that determines the fastest completion of all the work in the project (or across prioritized, workload-leveled projects in a portfolio).

Every project that is constrained by the limited availability of resources should consider applying the Resource-Critical Path technique. Symptoms of being resource-constrained are: using experts as project resources, sharing resources across projects or having firm budgets.

The term "Resource-Critical Path" was first used by Eric Uyttewaal in his book "Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project 2000" published in the year 2000.