Microsoft Project - The Basics - What is a Critical Path

What is the Critical Path? 

Microsoft Project allows you to plan when the tasks (steps) are going to happen and display a sequence of them in a Gantt Chart.  As default all the tasks are shown in the same colour (blue). 

By showing the project plan in this way it does not display which tasks if they are delayed are going to impact on the finish date. 

The Critical Path is the sequence of tasks that if they are delayed or take longer than planned are going to impact on the finish date of the project plan.  These tasks are not necessarily the most important tasks in the project plan – just the ones that are going to setback the finish date. 

Microsoft Project allows the Gantt Chart to display them formatted in a different way, and so display the critical path in a different way. 

It is important to know which tasks are on the critical path so that if tasks need to be postponed for any reason, it is not the tasks that are going to impede the end of the project that are chosen.