Find the critical path in my project schedule
Identifies the chain of tasks that sets your end date, the float on everything else, and where a delay would hurt.
The prompt
Help me find the critical path in my project schedule.
Task list: [PASTE tasks with ID, duration, and predecessors - e.g. "T4 Build API, 10 days, after T2 and T3"]
Dependency types if not finish-to-start: [e.g. "T7 can start 3 days after T6 starts"]
Start date and working calendar: [DATE, working days, known holidays]
Fixed dates or constraints: [e.g. "vendor delivery no earlier than May 4"]
Steps:
1. Check the network first: tasks with no predecessor or no successor (other than start and end), circular dependencies, and missing obvious links. List these before calculating.
2. Do a forward and backward pass: early start, early finish, late start, late finish for each task.
3. Calculate total float for each task. Tasks with zero float form the critical path.
4. Identify near-critical paths (float of 3 days or less) - these become critical with a small slip.
Do not change my durations. If something looks wrong, flag it with [CHECK] rather than fixing it silently.
Return:
1. Any network problems found.
2. A table: task | duration | ES | EF | LS | LF | total float | critical?
3. The critical path written as a chain (T1 > T3 > T6 ...) and the project end date.
4. Near-critical paths.
5. The 3 best places to shorten the schedule, and the 3 tasks I should watch most closely each week.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Projects & Operations prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "T7 can start 3 days after T6 starts"
- DATE, working days, known holidays
- e.g. "vendor delivery no earlier than May 4"
- CHECK
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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