According to Rachel Burger, senior manager of Capterra Construction the critical path is just a fancy way of saying, ‘How long does each task take before you can finish the project’. In theory, critical path method is used to estimate the minimum project duration, schedule flexibility and network path. In more simple way, “Some of the activities must happen in parallel. That is to say, if you tried to make a fried breakfast by doing one task at a time, and one after the other, things would go wrong. Certain tasks must be started before others, and certain tasks must be completed in order for others to begin. The plates need to be warming while other activities are going on. The toast needs to be toasting while the sausages are frying, and at the same time, the bacon and sausages are under the grill. The eggs need to be fried last”-said Terence Jackson, Ph.D and CEO at WEpiphany LLC. ("What Is Critical Path and How Does It Help Me?" Smartsheet. N.p., 2016).The one with the longest in duration of all activities is defined as critical path. As this path has the longest duration, it will correspond to the length of the project, and any delays to the critical path will hence delay the project. Critical path analysis is a diagrammatical representation of what needs to be done and when to be completed by determining and calculating the early start, early finish, late start, and late finish dates for all activities without regard for any resource limitations. As it is mentioned in projects it is possible to have more than one critical path, so that several paths run in parallel. However, it contained higher risk because delay of any activity can cause higher delay of overall project. Therefore, the activities on the critical path must be very closely managed. If jobs on the critical path slip, immediate action should be taken to get the project back on schedule. Otherwise, completion of the whole project will slip.

         One of the major benefits of critical path is saving time because it is easy to visualize where the tasks fall in the overall timeframe as well as clear direction of what must happen next and who needs to do it. By this way everyone on the team will be aware of the tasks that need to take place and the project manager can better allocate resources. Moreover, he critical path method can also be used to compare planned progress with actual progress in order to predict remaining duration for tasks in progress, and any planned changes to future task durations. "For me, the biggest advantage of the critical path method is that it makes risk assessment easy. If I’ve got dependencies laid out and plans change, it’s very easy to say, 'Because you missed that deadline, the next deliverable is going to be late by X days, and that puts us beyond our plan by Y days.' Brett Harned, digital project management consultant, writer, speaker, and community builder. ("What Is Critical Path and How Does It Help Me?" Smartsheet. N.p., 2016). As it is understood, by applying critical path method companies can achieve effective control over projects by structuring well schedule which will lead to efficient consumption of resources as well.

References:                                                                               

https://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html

https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/what-critical-path-and-how-does-it-help-me

Particularly, project scope planning includes defining the definition of all the work needed to successfully meet the project objectives. ("Project Scope Planning." CDC UNIFIED PROCESS PRACTICES GUIDE. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 Dec. 2007). The whole idea behind scope involves high level features or capabilities that the business team has committed to determine major project work components, requirements and deliverables to the related parties. For this reason, foundation of scope planning starts with

identifying detailed project scope statement which is the description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints. within the project charter and business case documents. The project charter is used to provide the project context needed to plan the scope management processes. It provides the high-level project description and product characteristics from the project statement of work. ("Project Scope Planning." CDC UNIFIED PROCESS PRACTICES GUIDE. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 Dec. 2007). A formal scope planning defines how project tasks will be confirmed and accepted by the client, therefore, includes measuring, examining, and testing project deliverables to ensure that they comply with agreed upon requirements.

An effective scope planning works also toward ensuring that key project stakeholders agree upon the project work to be accomplished which requires elaborating and documenting project work and communicating with project stakeholders later on. In general, this process involves agreement between the project team and the customer by relating the work of the project to the project's objectives.

In conclusion, not only in work environment but also in life if you want to achieve your objective, first try to realize what is your objective and what you are going to do in your objective in order not to fail on halfway.

"PROJECT SCOPE PLANNING." CDC UNIFIED PROCESS PRACTICES GUIDE. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 Dec. 2007. Retrieved from http://www2a.cdc.gov/cdcup/library/practices_guides/CDC_UP_Scope_Planning_Practices_ Guide.pdf