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Journal of Engineering Sciences

Assiut University
Faculty of Engineering
Vol. 48
No. 1
January 2020
PP. 1–10

SMART CRITICAL PATH METHOD AS A MODIFIED

DETAILED SCHEDULING TECHNIQUE
Yasser M. R. Aboelmagd
Civil Eng. Depart College of Engineering, University of Business & Technology (UBT), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Mathematics and Physics Eng. Depart, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt.
Received 28 July 2019; Accepted 7 August 2019

ABSTRACT
Now more Construction managers depends on scheduling tools based Critical Path Method (CPM) to
can obtain total project duration plus activities’ float that leads to more efficiency for controlling and
planning the studied construction projects. CPM was the best tool for construction projects time schedule
but nowadays researchers were focused on drawbacks that loose its use as a decision making technique.
This paper shows most of CPM drawbacks and discusses a modified tool for CPM model that is named
Critical Path Segments (CPS). This CPS scheduling technique solves CPM drawbacks by three main ways:
(1) Dividing duration of project activity into separated time segments; (2) All activities relationships were
switched into sequential relation as finish to start and (3) Calculations and analysis were done by using
forward path. Sample cases of studies were included to focus on CPM shortages and CPS detailed
calculations and analysis were illustrated showing this CPS technique can handle the schedules by best way.
Keywords: Scheduling; Critical Path method; Critical Path Segments; time control and
Construction management.

1. Introduction
The CPM technique was presented and tested as a scheduling technique from 1956 to 1958, since
this time and till present it is the most widely used scheduling technique, it finds the minimum project
duration according to possible activities start and finish times with its floats, it defines the critical path,
and estimate the impact of changes in durations, logic sequence, and project finish time. Despite all the
previous advantages of CPM use, the CPM technique and its software applications still limited tools
with many points of weakness in scheduling and monitoring processes [1].
2. Trials of enhancing critical path method
In recent years, researchers tried to present alternative scheduling techniques and others
present a modified model of CPM such as follows:
It was introduced the way of improving CPM is to change all start to start and finish to
finish relationships into sequential finish to start. This way converts complex relationships
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into more added activities that its duration’s is equal to old relationship lag. It results a
more complicated network [2].
It was proposed a new system is named Relationship Diagramming Method (RDM),
which it saves additional codes and information for any relationship, which are more than
4 as common in CPM, such as progressed to start [3].
It was presented a scheduling technique resembles the Arrow Diagramming Method,
but on a time scale. It uses activity notation, all non-traditional relationships types (SS-FF-
SF) are allowed by adding nodes between activities or between the activities start and
finish nodes. He called the Logic diagramming Method (LDM) [4].
It was proposed a generic transform schemes to convert all start to start and finish to finish relationships
and detected them automatically into equivalent sequential finish to start on PDM networks [5].
It was introduced new Critical Path Segments (CPS) as a new scheduling tool of
representing the activity duration not as a solid bar but as separated, its number equal to the
number of time units of the activity duration. This way allows all non-finish-to-start
relationships to be presented as a finish to start with the segment that meet the relationship
type. This technique is the topic of this research [6].
CPM was a genius scheduling technique till the 21st century, when construction field’s
challenges are different than the previous one, on this time many shortages are noticed in
CPM. Because of CPM advancements, benefits and its variation, Precedence Diagram
Method (PDM) in construction site had increased in last three decades [7]. CPM
computing efficiency and analytical capabilities need to be enhanced for construction
projects to can meet the changing requirements [8].
3. Areas of shortage in critical path method
A classification for the CPM shortages was identified to make more focus on the areas
needed to be enhanced, there are 3 areas;
(1) Relationships representation and logic sequence; the logic relationships among activities as start
to start and finish to finish express time dependencies not work amount dependencies [9].
(2) Scheduling analysis and outputs [10];
a. Using the finish to finish and/or start to start relationships cause analysis complexity
for the project network, as these multiple relationships make a small segment of
activity is critical not all activity which is not available to be shown in CPM software.
b. The use of leads and lags in relationships can cause inaccurate calculations of floats, and critical path.
(3) Project controlling and monitoring; the remaining duration analysis for an activity
isn’t real and accurate all the time [11].
3.1. Relationships representation and logic sequence
CPM uses relationships to indicate time dependencies, when the project is in execution
stage activity actual duration may differs than planned because of many reasons are
explained later in details. This changing in duration of preceding activity may affect
succeeding one as shown in figure 1.
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Yasser M. R. Aboelmagd, Smart critical path method as a modified detailed scheduling technique

Fig. 1. CPM Relationship based on time dependency.

In figure 1, two activities; formwork and steel reinforcement are illustrated with a SS=1
to express the overlap between the 2 jobs, which means also that each 20% of formwork is
followed by 20% of steel reinforcement. A formwork delay of 1 day is assumed, the time
dependency relation SS=1 ignore the 20% that must be finished before the start of the steel
reinforcement, while the production dependency relation respect the progress percent.
3.2. Scheduling analysis and outputs
As mentioned, non-traditional relationships as start to start, finish to finish, and start to
finish complicate the project network and may cause partially critical activities in which
the start date of the activity is critical while the finish date is not, as illustrated in figure 2.
CPM analysis and software systems cannot recognize the partially critical activity as it
takes the activity as one unit critical or non-critical [12].

Fig. 2. CPM Calculations for critical activities.

The figure shows a sample of a 4 activities network is linked by both start to start and finish
to finish relationship. The CPM calculations are as shown in the figure, because of considering
the activity as a one unit, “plaster work” activity is considered as a critical activity as a whole,
while it’s a partially critical activity as shown in the following figure 3., the activity finish is
critical-doesn’t have any float- while the start is not critical and contains 1 day float [12].

Fig. 3. Partially critical activities.

Such a situation doesn’t provide a clear picture to the planner about the project critical path
which is essential for taking right decisions about project crashing, and project updates.
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3.3. Project controlling and monitoring

Activities durations are one of the schedule bases, the planner estimates these durations based
on the production rates and the budget quantities of activities. When the schedule is updated with
the actual progress and there is an activity delays, in CPM there are two assumptions; the first one
(case a) is that the delay is exceptional and the production rate of the activity will continue as
planned. The second opinion (case b) is that the planned production rate is faster than the actual
one, so the original duration of the activity needed to be edited. Either the first or the second
opinion reflects on the calculations of the activity remaining duration as shown in figure 4.

Fig. 4. Calculations of remaining duration.

A four days duration activity is shown, at progress date the actual progress is delayed than
the planned one, and the two opinions calculations are explained in figure 4. CPM doesn’t
consider a situation like a delay caused by the owner for urgent meeting, or by the consultant
for material changing order … etc. The activity delay may be for any other reason not only
because of the production rate. For the previous illustrated reasons, a new representation and
a modified model of CPM is needed which addresses all mentioned shortages.
4. Critical path segments scheduling tool
The Critical path segments scheduling tool is a modified model of the Critical path
method, from the previously mentioned areas of shortage in CPM; the 2 main factors are
the activities representation and the type of relationships which are modified in the CPS to
suit with the construction scheduling needs. CPS shows each activity in the network as a
separated time segments that its number equal to activity duration. That means a four days
activity duration is represented by 4 time segments, this representation allows all type of
relationships as (SS – FF – SF) to be converted to a FS relationship with zero lag,
examples are illustrated in successor sections in this paper.
5. CPM problems and CPS solutions
CPM areas of shortage are previously mentioned, sample cases are recalculated with
CPS to show how the modified technique can be useful in these cases.
5.1. Relationships representation and logic sequence
The illustrated example in figure 1 shows a defect in the time based relationships when the
project progress is updated it may cause a different dependency than the planned one. A new
type of relationship is suggested in the CPS based on the amount of work or the production of
the activity not the time; in figure 5 the same example in figure 1 is recalculated with the CPS.
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Yasser M. R. Aboelmagd, Smart critical path method as a modified detailed scheduling technique

Fig. 5. CPS Relationship based on production dependency.

The production based relationships all are FS with zero lags but it links the activity
percent of work and in project update the progress percent of the activity leads the relation
not the time.
5.2. Scheduling analysis and outputs
The illustrated example in figure 2 the problem of a partially critical activity may exist
in the project schedule and how the CPM isn’t able to recognize such an activity and it
consider that activity as a totally critical one. The CPS solves this problem by its activity
representation as the activity is divided into segments, so it is normal to find in the same
activity both critical and non-critical segments as shown in figure 6.

Fig. 6. CPS Calculations for critical activities.

5.3. Project controlling and monitoring
CPM ignores the delays caused by any other reason than the production rate. In both ways
of remaining duration analysis – planned progress or actual progress – it considers that the
activity duration and remaining duration depend on the production rates only, although there
are delays by the owner or the contractor or even the weather conditions as shown in figure 7.
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Fig. 7. CPS Analysis of Remaining Duration (RD).

6. Critical path segments conversion analysis
This section introduces how to convert all schedule data from the CPM into the CPS;
activities representation, and relationships among activities.
6.1. Converting activities durations representation
The activity duration estimation is the first step in project planning, CPM deals with this
duration as a one solid bar while the CPS deals with as separated but connected segments.
The number of segments in any activity equals to the number of time periods of its duration.
i.e.: an activity of 4 days duration has four time segments as shown in figure 8.

Fig. 8. Activity duration representation in CPM and CPS.

6.2. Converting activities relationships based on time dependency
(1) For finish to start relationship: (See Figure 9)
● Case (a) of FS with lag = zero, create a FS relation between the last time segment
of the predecessor activity and the first time segment of the successor activity.
● Case (b) of FS with lag = number (N), create start-delay time segments (dummy
segments) in the start of the successor activity. The number of the start-delay
segments = (N), equals the lag time, then link the last time segment of the
predecessor activity with the first start-delay time segment of the successor activity.

Fig. 9. Converting the finish to start relationship with and without time lag.
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Yasser M. R. Aboelmagd, Smart critical path method as a modified detailed scheduling technique
(2) For start to start relationship: (See Figure 10)
● Case (a) of SS with lag = zero, create a FS relation between the first time
segments of both predecessor and successor activities.
● Case (b) of SS with lag = number (N), create a FS relation between the time
segment number (N) of the start of the predecessor activity, where (N) = time lag,
and the first time lag of the successor activity.

Fig. 10. Converting the start to start relationship with and without time lag.
(3) For finish to finish relationship: (See Figure 11)
● Case (a) of FF with lag = zero, create a FS relation between the last time
segments of both predecessor and successor activities.
● Case (b) of FF with lag = number (N), create a FS relation between the last time
segment of the predecessor activity and the time segment number (N) counted
from the end of the successor activity.

Fig. 11. Converting finish – to – finish relationship with and without time lag.
(4) For start to finish relationship: (See Figure 12)
● Case (a) of SF with lag = zero, create a FS relation between the first time segment of
the predecessor activity and the last time segment of the successor activity.
● Case (b) of SF with lag = number (N), create a FS relation between the first time
segment of the predecessor activity and the time segment number (N) counted
from the end of the successor activity.
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Fig. 12. Converting start to finish relationship with and without time lag.
7. Critical path segments calculations
The CPS presents a new schedule calculations based on forward path only without a
backward one, which means that it needs a new approach to determine the floats as follows:
7.1. Dates, floats, and critical path analysis
The following examples show the calculations of activities dates, floats, and the critical
path determination with the CPS scheduling with forward path only. In figure 13, the
presented example shows the CPS calculations;
(1) All network paths are identified (two paths in example 1 and seven paths in example2).
(2) Each activity is marked by the path it lays on (i.e. Activity A lies on paths 1,2 in example 1)
(3) As all the relationships are FS = 0, the paths durations can be calculated as the sum
of its activities durations (i.e. 22 – 20 days in example 1).
(4) The critical path is simply identified as the longest path duration, which is also the
project duration (22 days in example 1 and 16 days in example 2).
(5) Identifying the paths floats as the difference between the path duration and the
longest path duration (i.e. 22-20 = 2 days in example 1).
(6) After paths floats identification, each activity has a total float equals to the minimum
of all the path floats which it lays on (i.e. Activity A lays on path 1,2 and TF A is
equal to the minimum path float which is for path 1 = zero in example 1).
Table 1.
Details of illustrative examples.
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Yasser M. R. Aboelmagd, Smart critical path method as a modified detailed scheduling technique

Fig. .13. Comparison between CPM and CPS calculations of dates and floats.
Table 2.
Analysis of illustrative examples.

8. Conclusion
Critical Path Method (CPM) still used widely for scheduling construction projects, while
its float calculation may make more errors especially in complex schedules during project
control [13]. This paper had potential scheduling computations for resolving CPM problems
and provides decision support capabilities to help improve project planning and control. This
paper presented a modified model of CPM scheduling technique to enhance the Critical Path
Segments (CPS) scheduling mechanism and incorporated all events detailed visualization.
Also it used to calculate the modified float by forward pass to resolve float problems.
Illustrative examples are solved to put detailed explanation for proposed mechanism and its
project control benefits. CPS is expected to be more assistance to project planners in
scheduling way to reflect deeply the reality and give more corrective actions with decisions.
CPS which is addressed some of mentioned CPM shortages and there are other shortages
which haven’t been covered in this paper such as: (1) Time constraints which ignore the
logic sequence of project network; (2) Out of sequence progress makes CPM analysis more
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difficult and complex; and (3) Other shortages areas will be appeared in Resource
management. CPS is a good tool which can be done extended studies by future researchers.

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[5] Lu M., and Lam H. (2009) "Transform schemes applied on non-finish-to-start logical relationships in project
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[6] Menesi W. (2010) "Construction Scheduling Using Critical Path Analysis with Separate
Time Segments" A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo for the degree of Doctor
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[9] Hammad M., Abbasi A. and Ryan M. (2018) “Developing a Novel Framework to
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[10] Pablo B. (2017) “M-PERT: Manual Project-Duration Estimation Technique for
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‫طريقة المسار الحرج الذكية كإسلوب مطور و مفصل للجدولة الزمنية فى مشروعات التشييد‬
‫الملخص‬
‫( ل صدل‬CPM) ‫يعتمد المزيد من مدديي انشاداتاا ا ع ى دد ات اا اللد لدم المةدتلد رلدد اييسدم المةدا ال دي‬
‫ى ددد مددد الماددي ا ان مالضددم إان ددايم رلددد عددليي ايشاد م الددن يددات رلددد مزيددد مددن الناددات ل ددت ني يد ماددا ي ال لددات‬
‫ ايضل اتا ل لدا الزملضم لماا ي ال لات التادضضد لندن ال دان ضن يد ادنا اييداا كداشلا‬CPM ‫ كاشت‬.‫المد سم خ ض ها‬
‫ عدي‬. ‫ييكز ع ى د ىضلب انا ال ييسم ا ضح اشها اتسد إعد المزايدا نسدتخدامها كوسد لب اساسد يدد قدل السديا‬
. ‫( يةدمد ق اىداا المةدا ال دي‬CPS) ‫( لاقش اتا م تني ل ياز معد ديد‬CPM) ‫انا الل قم معظي ىضلب اييسم‬
‫) سةدضي‬1 (‫ ) ى د نل ىضلب قصل اييسم المةا ال ي التس ضديم من خال ثالث ادي يضةدضم‬CPS)‫عمل سلضم د لم‬
‫) ي ليل مض ىالقاا ايشا م رلد ىالقم متة ة م من شهايدم اللاداا‬2 ‫مد شااا الماي ا رلد مساا زملضم ملاص م ؛‬
‫ ات ت ناالا ت اسدضم‬. ‫) ي ر يات ال ةاإاا الت ضل إاستخداا المةا ايمام‬3 ‫الةاإق إ دايم اللااا التالد يسط الغضي‬
‫ التد ل دح‬CPS ‫دضالا‬ ‫ ي ل دضح ال ةداإاا التاصدض ضم‬CPM ‫مخت ام كعضلم من الد اساا ل تيكضز ى د اللسص ي‬
.‫ المستينم إال ث يمنلها التعامل م اللدا الزملضم إويضل اييسم ات د لم زملضم‬CPS ‫اع سلضم‬