Structure Gantt chart not showing critical path

[Camille]

Hi there

We are using Structure's Gantt chart to plan our production.

The current Gantt chart we have does not highlight any tasks in red as the critical path, even though we have critical path ticked.

What are the requirements for a task to be shown on the critical path, must all tasks have dependencies?

Thanks

[Camille · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the responses! We found the answer soon after posting the question - the only thing missing was that our milestone had to be set to "Automatic" instead of "Manual", and then suddenly the critical path tasks were highlighted.

Thanks

[carolyn french]

Thanks for following up with what you found to be the issue! Now other people that run into the same problem can check that too :)

[Vlad Lessage]

Glad you were able to figure it out, Camille!

Please feel free to reach out if you need anything else.

Cheers!

Vlad

[ALM Works]

[Gilad Shtern]

Hi @Camille ,

I've switched into Auto scheduling and added milestone.

But no critical path was created.

Is there any additional pre-conditions?

Kindly,

Gilad

[Yulia Barbash _ALM Works_]

Hello @Gilad Shtern

Yulia from ALM Works here! 

If you have filter transformations enabled in your structure, they might be hiding the critical task and its dependent tasks, so no tasks would be highlighted in red on the Gantt chart.

If you still can not find the critical path, we recommend contacting our support team support@almworks.com  for further investigation.

Best regards
Yulia 

[Vlad Lessage]

Hi Camille,

Thank you for your post.

My colleague Egor provided a reply to the Service Desk request you logged with us but I wanted to post here as well to make sure you received it.

Critical Path, by definition, is the sequence of tasks which when delayed affect the Finish Date of the whole Project. It is a set of critical tasks and may or may not form a path. A task is considered critical if its "Slack" is equal to or less than 0. Slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the whole Project.

I don't know if that might be the case for you but if you have an opening in the sequence of two tasks, it cannot be a Critical Path, as the first task has some allowance for a delay.

I hope this helps. Otherwise, perhaps you can share a screenshot with us on the ticket you logged via our Service Desk so we can further assist you. 

Best Regards,

Vlad

[ALM Works]

[Simon]

Hi Vlad,

 Is it possible to view the critical path for subsets of a project?

i.e. With a project with multiple phases / milestones it would be really useful to see the critical path within a specific milestone.

Si

[Vlad Lessage]

Hey Si!

Critical Tasks are those tasks which, when delayed, will delay the finish of the whole project. A Critical path is a set of critical tasks. By definition, this would be calculated based on the latest milestone.

Could you tell me a bit more about your use case? Perhaps I can share with our Product Team to see if there's a possibility to improve the feature.

Best Regards,

Vlad

ALM Works

[Simon]

Hi Vlad,

Your definition of critical path (i.e. set of tasks with zero slack) works perfectly when the limiting factor in creating an end to end plan is a set of fully interconnected tasks.

In many projects, there are other variables to contend with (i.e. externally driven dates that define when tasks can start).

If you have such a restriction during a late phase of a project then your critical path functionality just highlights the last set of tasks with zero slack (exactly the correct behaviour as you've currently defined it).

What would be really useful would be to have a way to highligh the critical path for selected milestones within a project (should just be the same logic regarding zero slack, just using a milestone as the limiting condition rather than project end)

Si

[Vlad Lessage]

Got it, Si.

Great Suggestion! I'll pass it along to our Product Team.

Cheers!

Vlad

[Benedikt Wallenhorst]

Hi Vlad,

are here any updates in regards to the critical path related to Milestones?
Thanks and Best regards
Benedikt

[carolyn french]

Hi Camille, and welcome to Community!

I found the following in the documentation about Structure. Have you confirmed that you have the critical path highlighting showing?

You can show or hide critical path highlighting using the Options menu in the Gantt toolbar.

[Gilad Shtern]

Hi @Camille ,

Could you share an updates?

Kindly,

Gilad

[Batel Arditi]

Hi, 

I also have an issue with the critical path. Unable to see the task highlighted in red. 
I have set up 1 milestone depended on 1 certain task (automated), but still nothing. 

Also made sure the critical path is checked in the options. 

What can I do?  

[Stepan Kholodov _Tempo_]

Hello @Batel Arditi 

The Critical path doesn't necessarily appear on all charts. it can be missing in some cases, for example:
- the critical task/path can be hidden by a transformation;
- the critical task is manually scheduled;
- the critical task is closed.

Checking for all mentioned options might help. If you need further assistance or have other questions about Structure, please reach out to us directly at our support portal.

Best regards,
Stepan
Tempo (the Structure app vendor)