A critical situation

Hi David,
a. Its depends on how many days float u have and is the successor is link to critical path activities. If the float is 0 the the delay for 1 days and the successor link to critical path for sure it will shift your completion date.
b. its related with question "a" the only thing u have to do is to focus / analyse the successor of the delay activities what it cause...try to double the manhours, or find the best job method to defeated time for the activities.
c. it will be none
d. not exact...if u can get positive 1day or more the better.

David,

a) NO. Non critical activities have float. When the activity is delayed it will use the float. Delay will be displayed after all the float is used up.
Eg. Activity A has 5 days float and can be postponed/left idle for the next 5 days without any delay. When the work start on the 6th day, it is delayed for 1 day.

b) Call for a meeting and discuss with site engineers. Identify the cause for delay. If you need to re-sequence the work to mitigate the delay get the approval from the site engineers and construction manager before you make any changes on current working file.

c) YES.

d) NO. If you maintain the float as zero the activities become critical. How to perform the work when all the activities are critical? You must allow for some realistic positive float ie. between 15 to 30 days.

Regards.

Hi,
a),b)generally, critical activity is the activity if delayed,that will delay the completion of the project.
non critical activity is the activity if delayed( before it become critical) that will not delay the completion of the project.

c)total float is the time an activity can use before it becomes critical. for completed activity,total float is considered as zero,although we can calculate the total float of the completed activity( suppose it is not completed),but as the activity is completed, it will never has the change to use this float. the Float is passed to its successors.

d) keep it positive,better to make some margin for design change,bad weather,accident...or other unexpected issue

Hi David,

All of the replies you’ve read are correct, however I would like to add some of my thoughts in response to the following questions:

b) If one critical activity is delayed, it will effect on project completion date? How to tackle this sitution?

ans: Please note that the critical activities from your Baseline programme may or may not be the same anymore with your Current programme; as you update your schedule the critical activities (baseline) may be shifted unto the other activities (current)depending on the how much progress you put in every activities, coz in reality the progress of the project is not always the way planned.

d)To complete a schedule in time should we keep Float of all activites be as zero?

ans: To keep the float zero(all activities) is not the best answer to complete the project on time. What you need is proper control. Give focus on the issues at hand. For schedule, keep the float as it is for.. what you need to do is create a layout & filter with threshold (current) to keep you warned ahead of time..

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Hello David,

In addition to all that was said, I may add my humble opinion.

a.) In the good ole days of PERT/CPM, my understanding is that non-critical activities have total float and free float greater than zero. One non-critical activity can only be delay up to the total number of float without affecting the project completion date. If the delay is more than the number of floats, then definitely, the project completion date will be affected.

b.) In the event one critical activity is delayed, then, definitely it will delay the project completion date. To tackle the situation, I would advise to hire a claim consultant. We have a lot of claim consultant in PP. Of course, you only solve the contractual issues. To move on with your project, you need to evaluate the causes of delay, prepare report and inform PMT. Of course there are a lot of pro-active ways, but I refrain from insinuating since projects are unique.

c.) Total float has no meaning for completed activity. This is as per definition of total float.

d.) I don’t think so that float has anything to do in completing the project. The resource allocated to activities, the sustainable productivity of this resources, the strength of PMT, etc has greater factor in completing schedule or projects.

This is all.

Cheers,
Charlie

Haliho David,
Sometimes I use a little trick to check my schedule. In the Tools,Options,Critical Activities menu I change the Total float from less than 1 to 7 or 14, sometimes even more if it is a higher level schedule and reschedule. Sometime You can get realy intresting results what activities can be critical in the future. And with this You can test a bit Your connection logic too.
Regards Katalin

Hi David,

If I may answer:

A) No
B) Yes, use strategy & be practical
C) Don’t know (depending on your program)
D) Never knew any project completed on time...maybe if you’re just doing a box or something...It all depends Above!

regards,

edgar