Introduction

Any project involves planning, scheduling and controlling a number of

interrelated activities with use of limited resources, namely, men, machines,
materials, money and time.

The projects may be extremely large and complex such as construction of

buildings and introduction of new products and research and development
projects.

It is required that managers must have a dynamic planning and scheduling

system to produce the best possible results and also to react immediately
to the changing conditions and make necessary changes in the plan and
schedule.

In project management, the terms slack and float describe the length of
time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the finish date of a
subsequent activity, or the finish date of the entire project. Tasks that
have zero floats can be considered as part of the “critical path” because
any delay on these tasks means a delay to the project deadline itself. The
activity, which does not lie on the critical path, is called non-critical
activity. These non-critical activities may have some slack time.

The slack is the amount of time by which the start of an activity may be
delayed without affecting the overall completion time of an activity or the
project as a whole. In short, float and slack in project management refer to
how long you can delay a project's activity

Slack time is actually a professional term used in project management to

help people figure out just how much time is available between the various
steps of a project. In project management, it's not about being lazy even
though the term slack is usually connected with being lazy and doing
nothing. Instead, it tells you just how much time you have to start a
particular task in a project to keep the project on time. If you go over the
slack time, then you'll be delaying the project. Slack time is created when
certain tasks of the project take more time than others.
Slack is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying
the entire
project. If the slack is zero, the activity cannot be delayed at all without
delaying the entire
project. For any activity, slack can be determined by subtracting the earliest
start from the latest
start time, or by subtracting the earliest finish from the latest finish time.
Slack is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying
the entire
project. If the slack is zero, the activity cannot be delayed at all without
delaying the entire
project. For any activity, slack can be determined by subtracting the earliest
start from the latest
start time, or by subtracting the earliest finish from the latest finish time.
Slack is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying
the entire
project. If the slack is zero, the activity cannot be delayed at all without
delaying the entire
project. For any activity, slack can be determined by subtracting the earliest
start from the latest
start time, or by subtracting the earliest finish from the latest finish time
Slack Versus Float

The terms "slack" and "float" are often used interchangeably. However,
the main difference between float and slack is that slack is typically
associated with inactivity, while float is associated with activity. Slack time
allows an activity to start later than originally planned, while float time
allows an activity to take longer than originally planned.

How to Track Slack Time

Each activity in a project can be defined using four variables, known as

early start, or ES, early finish, or EF, late start, or LS, and late finish, or
LF. These variables simply represent the earliest and latest times that an
activity can start and finish.

The two most important dates or times that are needed to get the slack
time are the earliest date and/or time a particular task can be
started and the latest date when a particular task needs to be started.
These dates and times are also based on just how much time is needed to
complete any one task.

You can define slack time by the formula:

 Slack time = Latest time to start - Earliest time to start

EXAMPLE SLACK TIME:

Marie is responsible for the task of creating the orientation materials for the
annual junior high school career orientation. It usually takes Marie one
week to complete her orientation materials, so she needs to begin her work
at least one week before the due date. All the details of the project that
Marie needs to use to create the materials will be finished by Thursday,
November 30, 2017. By that time, Marie can now start working on her
orientation materials; hence, it is her earliest time to start. Her supervisor
needs to have Marie's orientation materials by Monday, December 18,
2017, the day before the actual event. Since it takes Marie one week to
finish her task, the latest time to start for Marie is Monday, December 11,
2017.

Marie's slack time then is this much:

 Slack time = Latest time to start - Earliest time to start

= December 11, 2017 - November 30, 2017
= 11 days

Marie has 11 days worth of slack time. This means that Marie has 11 days
she can work on other projects from the earliest time she can start the
project to the time she finishes. If Marie starts the orientation materials
early, she'll have some time during her task to work on other projects.
A simpler example is if you’ve allotted 10 days for a task, but it only takes
you 6 days to complete it, then your slack time is 4 days.

IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL PATH

The critical path is the longest path through the entire network. Since all
activities must be accomplished to complete the entire project, the length of
the critical path is also the shortest time allowable for completion of the
project. Therefore, the critical path of a project is a specific sequence of
tasks that has the least slack or float time of any path through the network
diagram. Ideally, none of the activities in the critical path should have
slack or float time, because any delay in the critical path delays project
completion. To reduce the overall project time, it would require more
resources (at extra cost) to reduce the time taken by the critical activities to
complete.

Why is the Critical Path Important?

Critical proves extremely valuable in assisting the managers in managing

the projects. “Critical path” is one of the most important of all project
management concepts, and it’s something that every project manager
should understand before taking the reins of a major project.

Time Management
The critical path helps project managers and team members identify the
tasks that do not allow for any flexibility in timing. It gives you an
assessment of actual time versus planned time, so you can see where you
currently are in your progress. This allows you to identify which items are
taking longer than expected, which are ahead and schedule, and which
jobs are right on track. With critical path method scheduling techniques,
you can make much better estimates.

Resources
Critical path allows teams to identify the most important tasks in a project.
With that being said, it will benefit in terms of resource management, and it
also provides warning signs if you’re going to be running behind on your
expected milestones and dates of completion. This can enable you to
transfer personnel if needed, and it allows you to produce a much more
detailed calendar of events.

Better Planning and Parallel Activities

Certain tasks much be completed before others can begin. An easy way to
cause bottlenecks in project management is to have one person unable to
start a particular job because they’re waiting on a required item to be
completed. In addition to the frustration and damage to morale, this can
also create a chain of events that can put your project behind schedule.
The critical path method is valuable when it comes to mapping out parallel
tasks or jobs in sequence.
DETERMINATION OF FLOAT AND SLACK TIMES
The head event slack of an activity in a network is the slack at the head.
The tail event slack of an activity in a network is the slack at the tail.

As discussed earlier, the non – critical activities have some slack or float.
The float of an activity is the amount of time available by which it is
possible to delay its completion time without extending the overall project
completion time.

Types of Float
tij = duration of activity
TE = earliest expected time
TL = latest allowable time
ESij = earliest start time of the activity
EFij = earliest finish time of the activity
LSij = latest start time of the activity
LFij = latest finish time of the activity

The term total slack, or total float, on the other hand, describes the length
of time it can be delayed, beyond it's early start, without delaying the finish
date for the whole project.
Total Float TFij: The total float of an activity is the difference between the
latest start time and the earliest start time of that activity.

TFij = LSij– ESij ....................(1)

or
TFij = (TL– TE) – tij ....................(2)

The term free slack, or free float, describes the length of time by which an
activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any subsequent
activity, or activities.

Free Float FFij: The time by which the completion of an activity can be

delayed from its earliest finish time without affecting the earliest start time
of the succeeding activity is called free float.
FFij = (Ej– Ei) – tij ....................(3)
FFij = Total float – Head event slack

The term independent slack, or independent float, describes the length of

time by which an activity can be delayed if all previous activities start as
late as possible and all subsequent activities start as early as possible.
Independent float is associated with just one activity, rather than two or
more.

Independent Float IFij: The amount of time by which the start of an activity

can be delayed without affecting the earliest start time of any immediately
following activities, assuming that the preceding activity has finished at its
latest finish time.

IFij = (Ej– Li) – tij ....................(4)

IFij = Free float – Tail event slack Where tail event slack = L i– Ei

The negative value of independent float is considered to be zero.