Now that we have looked at What is Critical Path, let’s see how it can help you in your business and then let’s see how to combine the Critical Path Method (CPM) with our approach at Health-Tech Consulting to help you reach your project goals.
At its core the CPM is there to help you plan when to start specific activities and how to utilise your resources in an optimal way to end the project within the shortest time possible.
Following this process makes it easy for managers to:
- See which tasks can be done in parallel
- Set clear deadlines for each part of the project
- Prioritise each task
- Adjust the schedule
When you know which tasks can be delayed, which tasks need to run in parallel and when each task will end, it is much easier to make decisions on when and how to use your resources. Also rescheduling is much easier.
All of this means that you will save time and money if you can utilise CPM properly in your planning. It will also allow you to give your employees a clear picture of what they will be working on and when. It will set clear deadlines for each task, which also helps with motivation.
Now let’s look at how CPM and our approach can help you.
We have taken project development and broken it down into an easy to follow 12 steps. When you start your project, it is easy to sit down and estimate the time needed for each of these 12 steps in your project. Each project has its own unique challenges and each team has a different skill set and standard operating procedures. Following this method helps you make better decisions earlier in your project, which means that you start your project with an optimised process and you know exactly when it is needed to grow or downscale your team. As an example, with this knowledge it becomes much easier to decide if using in-house personnel or an outsourced team is the most cost effective way forward. It also gives you a much clearer understanding of the investment needed to realise the project and also a plan of when and where the financing will come from.
The CPM method is also valuable when applied to an on-going project, but you get the most out of it when using it when starting something new.
We offer both a training program to introduce the concept or a workshop to deep-dive into the process.
If you’re not quite sure where to start or what help you might need, we can also start by doing an assessment of your current state and recommend how to proceed. And just as a tip: you can use the Business Finland Innovation Voucher to buy our services – contact us for more information.
Next week’s post is about the ‘critical path’ of funding.
