Which technique identifies the critical tasks whose delay affects the overall timeline?

• A. Program Evaluation and Review Technique
• B. Critical Path Method
• C. Waterfall method
• D. Chaos engineering

Answer: (B)

Identifying which tasks control the project’s finish date by mapping activity durations and dependencies. The technique that does this by calculating the longest sequence of dependent activities is the Critical Path Method. In CPM you model the project as a network, estimate how long each task takes, and compute the earliest and latest start/finish times. The path through the network with no allowed delay—the one that determines the project’s total duration—is the critical path. Tasks on that path have zero slack, so any delay pushes the overall timeline. Tasks not on that path have some flexibility, meaning they can be delayed without delaying the project as a whole. The other options describe different ideas: one is a general project lifecycle approach, another is a testing/disruption method, and the last uses probabilistic time estimates rather than focusing on the fixed critical path. The technique that directly identifies the critical tasks that affect the timeline is the Critical Path Method.