Calculate the Critical Path for a Plan

dspTrack™ uses a plan’s Critical Path (and other settings) to determine a task’s schedule status. If a task is on the Critical Path and that task is late, all subsequent tasks on the Critical Path will also be late, even if work on these tasks has not yet started, or the planned start date or planned finish date has not passed.

When a Microsoft Project file or an Excel file is imported into dspTrack™, the schedule for that project is automatically calculated. The schedule status for each task in the plan is set and any tasks marked as on the Critical Path in Microsoft Project or the Excel file are also marked as critical tasks in dspTrack™.

Refer to Import Project Files into dspTrack™ for more information.

NOTE: A task cannot be added to the Critical Path from within dspTrack™.

View a task’s schedule status on the Work List or the Plan Task page.  View whether a task is on the Critical Path on the Plan Task page’s Vertical View on the Additional Information tab, or on the Work List Detail page (Work List on the Quick Panel > Work List Detail).

The Critical Path can be calculated after the initial import if a Microsoft Project file was imported into dspTrack™ to create the project.  When a user calculates the critical path following the steps below, dspTrack™ determines which tasks are marked as Critical in Microsoft Project and updates them accordingly in dspTrack™.

NOTE: The Critical Path cannot be calculated after the initial import if an Excel file was imported into dspTrack™ to create the project. If the Project File Type is Excel 2007, the Calculate icon is disabled on the Plan page’s Vertical View on the Action tab after import.

NOTE: If a project was created in dspTrack and is to be exported, it must be exported before the critical path has been calculated (i.e., before the Calculate icon is clicked on the Plan tab of the Plan page’s Vertical View).

A user should calculate the Critical Path for a plan based on an imported Microsoft Project files when:

Task dependencies in the plan change.

NOTE: Refer to Use Dependency Types for more information.

Planned Finish Dates or Planned Start Dates are updated.

Warn Thresholds for schedule status calculation are updated.

NOTE: Refer to Set Parameters for  Schedule Status Calculation for more information.

To calculate the Critical Path for a plan based on an imported Microsoft Project file:

  1. Select Project in the Navigation pane.

  2. Click Plans for a project.

  3. Click Vertical View for a plan.

  4. Click the Plantab.

  5. Click Calculate; a confirmation message displays.

    **NOTE:**This button is disabled if:

    • No tasks have been added to the plan
    • The tasks in this plan were added using an Excel import.

  6. Click Ok.

The Schedule Status icon may update on the Work List and the Plan Task page depending on the results of the calculation.