Editing Float (project management) (section)

{{Short description|Amount of slack time in a project}}
{{More footnotes|date=December 2007}}

In [[project management]], '''float''' or '''slack''' is the amount of time that a task in a [[project network]] can be delayed without causing a delay to:<ref name=Sanghera>{{cite book | last = Sanghera| first = Paul | year = 2019| title=PMP in Depth |edition = Third | publisher = Apress | isbn = 978-1-4842-3910-0 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4842-3910-0}}</ref>{{rp|183}}
* subsequent tasks ("''free float''")
* project completion date ("''total float''").

''Total float'' is associated with the path.{{sfn|Kerzner|2009}}{{rp|508}}<ref name=Sanghera>{{cite book | last = Sanghera| first = Paul | year = 2019| title=PMP in Depth |edition = Third | publisher = Apress | isbn = 978-1-4842-3910-0 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4842-3910-0}}</ref>{{rp|183}} If a project network chart/diagram has 4 non-critical paths, then that [[project]] would have 4 ''total float'' values. The ''total float'' of a path is the combined ''free float'' values of all activities in a path.

The ''total float'' represents the schedule flexibility and can also be measured by subtracting early start dates from late start dates of path completion.<ref name="pmbok4">{{cite book|last=Project Management Institute| title=A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)|url=https://archive.org/details/guidetoprojectma00proj|url-access=registration| publisher=Project Management Institute, 4 Original edition (December 31, 2008)}}</ref>{{sfn|Kerzner|2009}}{{rp|502}}<ref name=Sanghera>{{cite book | last = Sanghera| first = Paul | year = 2019| title=PMP in Depth |edition = Third | publisher = Apress | isbn = 978-1-4842-3910-0 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4842-3910-0}}</ref>{{rp|183}} Float is core to [[critical path method]], with the total floats of noncritical activities key to computing the [[critical path drag]] of an activity, i.e., the amount of time it is adding to the project's duration.<ref name="Defense AT&L Magazine">* {{ cite news | date = Jan 2012 | title = The Drag Efficient: The Missing Quantification of Time on the Critical Path | publisher = Defense AT&L Magazine | author = Stephen A. Devaux | url = http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/ATL%20Docs/Jan_Feb_2012/Devaux.pdf | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130313022307/http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/ATL%20Docs/Jan_Feb_2012/Devaux.pdf | archivedate = 2013-03-13 }}</ref>