Project 2007: Working with the Critical Path

As an experienced project manager, you know that the critical path is made up of a series of tasks that must finish on schedule. Any task on the critical path that will affect whether the project finish date if delayed is called a critical task. Thus far in the project planning process, the most common view has been the Gantt Chart.

Using the Gantt Chart Wizard, you can apply formatting to visually see which tasks are on the critical path. However, in Office Project 2007 the critical path is not displayed by default.

Applying the Gantt Chart Wizard to display the critical path is a great way for you to see (in color) exactly which tasks are on the critical path and will affect the project finish date. To display the critical path on the Gantt Chart, follow these steps:

1. Choose View and Gantt Chart.
2. On the Formatting toolbar, locate and click the Gantt Chart Wizard button. Alternatively, you can choose Format and then Gantt Chart Wizard from the Menu bar.
3. On the Welcome To The Gantt Chart Wizard page, click Next to begin.
4. On the second page of the wizard, select Critical Path and click Next.
5. On the third page of the wizard, select Resources And Dates. (Note there are other choices.)
6. On the next wizard page, select Yes to show link lines between dependent tasks. Click Next.
7. Click Format It and then Exit Wizard.

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With permission from Microsoft Press, this article content was excerpted from the book, Managing Projects with Microsoft Office Project 2007 (Self-Paced Training Kit for Exam 70-632).