glossary — plain english
Critical path
The chain of dependent tasks that determines a project's earliest finish date. A delay on that path delays the project unless the time is recovered elsewhere on the path.
Take a site launch: design takes two weeks, build takes three and waits for design, and QA takes one and waits for build. That six-week chain determines the earliest launch date. A one-week photo shoot running alongside build could be delayed a week without holding up QA.
Tasks on the critical path have zero slack: a day lost there delays completion unless you recover it. Other tasks have some room to move. This helps you decide where to focus attention and place a buffer.
Project software can calculate the critical path. For a small plan, you can also trace the dependency chains and compare their total durations. Our guide explains how to find the critical path by hand.
See it on a real chart
Describe your project in plain English and ganttchart.ai turns it into a Gantt chart you can edit and share. Or read the method first: the plain-English planning guide.