Sub-project critical path
 

I have a number of projects that deliver capability in phases. The phases share some preliminary common dependencies but then split off to two delivery milestones.

The current critical path highlights activities in phase 2 as critical path, but I would like to know within the project what are the critical path items leading to phase 1. At the moment I would have to delete all of the phase 2 activities, but would rather keep on project plan for both phases given the common dependencies.

This isn't too hard to arrange, especially if you have milestones for the completion of each section of the work. Just put a milestone out past the actual end of the project via a F-S dependency and a long lead time, and hook that up to the end of any earlier phase for which you want to see a critical path. Remove the dependency when you want to see the overall project's critical path as normal.

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