Critical Paths

The critical path is an essential project management tool; it tracks all of the activities that are required to complete the project or event, against the time required to complete each activity, the dependencies between the activities and the resources available.

Event planning and delivery is full of deadlines; deadlines that cannot be moved. Once the date for an event is set, everything has to happen within that available time frame. The critical path document enables 360 Degree Events as the Project Manager to prioritise activities for the effective management of the event. It also provides a visual understanding of the earliest and latest dates possible for activities to start and finish so that other tasks which are dependent upon their completion are not impacted or delayed.

During event planning with stakeholders many ‘non-critical’ activities will also be identified; these are tasks which are not essential for the delivery of the event but that would be nice if time and budget allows. They are therefore considered important to making the event the best that it can be but they need to be tracked on a separate parallel ‘non-critical path’ document to ensure clarity over tasks.

The critical path (and non-critical path) documents are living documents that will be updated throughout the life of the project to reflect external impacts, new developments, and changes in resources; they are essential tools for making decisions and meeting deadlines.

To support the critical path documents, the project will require the creation of a budget to ensure that financial targets are also achieved.

Click here to learn more about the Budgeting Process