Question16 Which sequence of activities forms the critical path for the following project activities.Select one alternative: StartBDEHEnd StartBCDEFGHIEnd StartCFGIEnd StartBCFGHIEnd ResetMaximum marks: 2

Question

Question16 Which sequence of activities forms the critical path for the following project activities.Select one alternative: Start>B>D>E>H>End Start>B>C>D>E>F>G>H>I>End Start>C>F>G>I>End Start>B>C>F>G>H>I>End ResetMaximum marks: 2Single choice

A

Start>B>D>E>H>End

B

Start>B>C>D>E>F>G>H>I>End

C

Start>C>F>G>I>End

D

Start>B>C>F>G>H>I>End

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, let's restate the problem in our own words to ensure understanding: We need to pick the sequence of project activities that forms the critical path from Start to End, given the start and end labels and the durations listed in the table.

Option 1: Start>B>D>E>H>End
- This path includes B (duration 4), D (duration 3), E (duration 2), and H (duration 0). Since B, D, and E have nonzero durations and there are other activities with zero slack that could extend the overall project duration, this sequence is unlikely to be the longest/critical path. Moreover, it does not pass through activities known to have zero float in the table in a way that would maximize total duration.

Option 2: Start>B>C>D>E>F>G>H>I>End
- This path covers many activities with various durations (B 4, C 0, D 3, E 2, F 0, G 5, H 0, I 0). While it is long, it includes several tasks with potential slack and may not reflect the actual critical chain, as some steps (like G with 5 units) do not necessarily dominate the project duration if other zero-slack steps align differently. The sheer length does not automatically make it the critical path without confirming the precedence and slack.

Option 3: Start>C>F>G>I>End
- This sequence notably uses C (0), F (0), I (0) which are zero-slack activities, forming a chain through G (duration 5) to End. The inclusion of C, F, and I aligns with the zero-float entries for those activities, and the segment C->F->G->I captures the longest uninterrupted flow through activities that have minimal or zero slack, yielding the largest possible accumulation when other non-critical activities (with positive slack) are considered separately. In many network/PERT interpretations, a path consisting of zero-slack tasks directly connected through key milestones tends to be the critical path.

Option 4: Start>B>C>F>G>H>I>End
- This path includes B (4) and C (0) and then F (0) and G (5) and H (0) and I (0). Although it uses several zero-slack tasks, it also weaves through B with a substantial duration before reaching the later sequence. Depending on the exact precedence constraints, this path may or may not be as critical as the shorter zero-slack chain, and it introduces B before the zero-slack cluster that could already define the critical chain. Without explicit precedence to force B into the critical path alongside all-zero slack steps, this is not guaranteed to be the true critical path.

In summary, among the options, the sequence Start>C>F>G>I>End (Option 3) best aligns with the zero-float activities C, F, and I and integrates them with the nonzero duration of G to form a continuous chain from Start to End that matches the typical representation of a critical path when those zero-slack activities are chained together. The other options either include higher-duration activities earlier in the sequence or introduce additional steps that are less consistent with the zero-float constraints shown in the table, making them less likely to be the critical path.