Critical-Path Planning and Scheduling.

Kelley, J. E., & Walker, M. R. (1959). Critical-Path Planning and Scheduling. Proceedings of the Eastern Joint IRE-AIEE-ACM Computer Conference, 1-3.

Type

Conference paper

Intellectual base

Primary research

Year

1959

DOI

10.1145/1460299.1460318

Link

https://doi.org/10.1145/1460299.1460318

Cited from

computer_science, logistics_supply_chain, mathematics, operations_research, synthesized, systems_cybernetics

Cited by

7 citations across 7 artifacts.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Bottleneck
  • The critical path is the schedule's bottleneck.
• Dependency
  • The relation has been formalized independently in five distinct intellectual traditions: graph-theoretic dependency analysis in compiler design (Aho, Lam, Sethi, and Ullman 2006), task-precedence modeling in operations research (Kelley and Walker 1959, who introduced the Critical Path Method), logical entailment in formal logic (Tarski 1936), semantic presupposition in philosophy of language (Strawson 1950), and obligate dependency in ecology (Janzen 1980).

    This sourceIn Proceedings of the Eastern Joint Computer Conference (IRE-AIEE-ACM), Boston, MA, Dec. 1–3, 1959, pp. 160–173. Original formulation of the Critical Path Method: models finish-to-start precedence among dependent activities as a directed graph whose longest path fixes project duration — supports markers 212 and 225.

• Directed Acyclic Graph
  • Project planning runs critical-path methods over task DAGs.

    This sourceCritical-path method over a task-precedence DAG.

• Irreducible Floor
  • Logistics and project management: irreducible delivery times given route distance plus handling minima, and the critical-path floor (minimum schedule set by the longest dependency chain), both saturate against the floor under intra-regime improvement.

    This sourceIntroduces the Critical Path Method: the minimum project duration is set by the longest dependency chain, a schedule floor no intra-regime speedup can pierce.

• Sequencing
  • Operations & project management: Critical-path method (identifying the longest sequence of dependent tasks), job-shop scheduling (sequencing machine operations to minimize makespan), supply-chain sequencing (order of procurement to manage cash flow and inventory), software deployment (rolling release sequencing, database migration phases), with the foundational critical-path formulation introduced by Kelley and Walker (1959).
• Temporal Dynamics
  • Temporal Dynamics is broader: it emphasizes the temporal structure of events—not just their order but their duration, overlap, gaps, periodicity, and phase-alignment.

Mechanisms

• Reverse Milestone Planning Workshop
  • This mirrors reading a critical path in reverse — the late-finish view of when a thing can occur at the latest.

    This sourceComputes latest event and activity times backward from a fixed project completion time, yielding the late-start and late-finish view.

Verification

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