The Primavera P6 Professional critical path filter displays the critical path through the end of the project. But how do you monitor critical paths into any activity in the schedule?
It is readily possible to display the critical path through the last activity in the project. You may, however, have a situation where you want to monitor multiple critical paths for an important, although not the last, activity in the life of the project. Yes, it is possible to monitor critical paths to any activity in the life of the schedule using a critical path filter.
This article demonstrates how to monitor one or more critical paths to any activity in the schedule.
We have in Figure 1 our demonstration project.
Figure 1
This schedule has multiple critical paths, which we want to monitor. Also, the ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ activity is an important activity in the life of the schedule. Note that ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ is the point where multiple float paths combine. Also take note that this activity has a start on or before activity constraint. We have to monitor all critical paths flowing into this constrained activity.
If we simply want to display all critical activities in the life of the project we can implement the critical filter, which is a default filter that comes standard in Primavera P6 Professional.
For our situation, however, it is important to monitor activities related to the ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ activity. Because ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ is not the last activity in the schedule, we have to inform Primavera P6 that our critical path analysis ends at this activity. We do this in the schedule options dialog advanced tab, Figure 2.
Figure 2
The schedule options dialog is found by depressing F9 and selecting options in the resulting schedule dialog. In the schedule options advanced tab toggle on ‘calculate multiple float paths’. Set ‘calculate multiple paths using’ toggle to total float, so that calculate schedule measures activity status in relation to our ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ activity constraint.
In the ‘display multiple float paths ending with activity’ setting select ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ or Activity ID A1130. Our schedule has two possible float paths, so set the ‘specify the number of paths to calculate’ to 2. Now instead of grouping by WBS we want to group by ‘float path’, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Finally, create a filter to display float paths 1 or 2, Figure 4.
Figure 4
Our resulting float path report is displayed in Figure 5.
Figure 5
Note that ‘compare experimental & analytical data’ is the last activity in this report. The report also displays two float paths: 1 and 2.
Summary
Using Primavera P6, we definitely want to monitor all critical activities and the conclusion of the project. Sometimes, however, we have an activity that represents a major and important effort in the life of the project. The importance of this respective activity may warrant a unique float path report for this special activity.
As just demonstrated in Primavera P6, it is possible to conclude a float path report on any activity you specify. And yes, you can report multiple float paths into this concluding important activity.