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Abstract

Critical path method (CPM) is an important tool being used for coordination of various activities involved in a project. It has been used in a number of fields e.g. agriculture, aerospace, building construction, manufacturing industries, hospitals and medical science industries etc. It is deterministic model of coordination tools. Critical Path Method is used for projects of repeated nature e.g. building construction, manufacturing. Main elements of Critical path method are activities and nodes. An activity is represented by an arrow and node is represented by a circle. Dummy activities are used to fulfill the requirement of precedence and do not consume any resources. Length of arrow has no relation with time taken or resource requirements of an activity. Start of an activity is represented by tail of arrow and completion is represented by head of the arrow. Critical path is the path that has activities of zero float. Critical path in project network is longest path and gives the minimum time period in which the entire project can be completed. There can be more than one critical path in a project network diagram. This paper presents a state of the art theory of Critical Path Method (CPM).