<P> The critical path method (CPM), or critical path analysis (CPA), is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities . It is commonly used in conjunction with the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). </P> <P> The critical path method (CPM) is a project modeling technique developed in the late 1950s by Morgan R. Walker of DuPont and James E. Kelley Jr. of Remington Rand . Kelley and Walker related their memories of the development of CPM in 1989 . Kelley attributed the term "critical path" to the developers of the Program Evaluation and Review Technique which was developed at about the same time by Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Navy . The precursors of what came to be known as Critical Path were developed and put into practice by DuPont between 1940 and 1943 and contributed to the success of the Manhattan Project . </P>

The critical path in the network analysis of time is