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How can I define the critical path in Merlin Project?

How can I define the critical path in Merlin Project?
Merlin Project Support

You want to define a critical path in Merlin Project? We explain in short to you how you can do this.

Merlin Project automatically recognizes whether or not activities are on critical path. On forwards planned projects, they are the activities which may change the end of the project.

The Critical Path in Merlin Project

If you have for example just two activities (A and B) starting today with a duration of 2 for A and 5 days for B. ,Activity B' with the longer duration (5 days) defines the end of the project and it is thus on critical path.

Activity A takes 2 days

If the critical path is not visible, click on the lightning icon in the tool bar.

If you change the duration of the ,Activity A' from 2 days to to 5.5 days, then ,Activity A' will be on the critical path, while the other activity won't.

Activity A now takes 5.5 days

If you complete an activity which was until now on the critical path, it won't belong anymore onto the critical path, as this activity is now fixed and cannot push the expected end anymore.

Activity B is no longer on the critical path

Using the Column "Expected Critical

Tip: I can add the column “Expected Critical” and can see where the system has assigned items as being on the critical path.

"Is there a way that this can be assigned?"

No. Let us explain how the Critical columns work.
There are two columns related to the critical path in Merlin Project:

  • Planned Critical
  • Expected Critical

They are both calculated:

  • Planned Critical shows if the activity is on the critical path due to its planned values.
  • Expected Critical shows if the activity is on the critical path due to its actual values. It is always false, for an activity which is 100% complete.

Posted by Vicky Stamatopoulou on September 10th, 2017 under Products
Tags: merlin-project support merlin-project-express macOS

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