See the tasks you must complete on time and which ones are flexible with our Critical Path and Slack Time tools!
Critical Path: Determine the chain of tasks crucial to completing your project on time
Slack Time: Quickly see which tasks can be rescheduled without affecting larger deadlines.
What you'll need
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100 uses of these Gantt tools are included on Unlimited Plans.
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Unlimited uses of these Gantt tools are included on the Business Plan and up.
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Guests can use these Gantt tools.
Slack Time Calculations
Slack Time helps you visualize all the wiggle room in your project.
Slack Time is displayed as a dashed bar indicating how much room a task has before it starts affecting the overall project timeline.
Critical Path Calculations
The critical path checks all tasks on the chart and determines the set that would affect the overall project deadline if adjusted.
It then looks back from the last task to see which dependent task is blocking the deadline from being completed.
If the last task in the critical path is dependent on another task, and there is no time gap in between them, each of the tasks will be added to the path (shown in red).
Show critical path or slack time
To show critical path or slack time calculations:
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Create or open a Gantt view
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Click Customize in the upper-right corner.
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Select Layout options.
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Enable Critical path and/or Slack time.
FAQ
Why is only the last task in my group (Space, Folder, or List) highlighted?
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This is likely because there is a gap in time between this task and the rest of the tasks in your group.
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The other reason this may occur is no dependency chain has been attached to that last task in the group.
Because the last task in the group is responsible for the entire group's completion date, it will always be highlighted.
Why is the Critical path shorter than expected?
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If the Weekends toggle is disabled, then hidden weekends might break a critical path.
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The chain of tasks in the critical path may include time gaps or be missing dependency links.
Add tasks with no time gaps in between the start and end dates to the sequence that leads to the end of the entire group to be included in the critical path.
Why is the critical path used?
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Prioritize which tasks must be completed within their estimated window to avoid delays in your project.
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Quickly see which tasks can be rescheduled without affecting larger deadlines.
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Visually identify where a hiccup would prevent your team from reaching its goals.