How is slack calculated in Changepoint?

Slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the critical path (i.e. without delaying the project).

In Changepoint:

• Slack is calculated as part of the project critical path calculation
• Project critical path calculation is only calculated for project with "Calculate critical path" setting enabled.
• Project critical path calculation is triggered at the end of project rollup process.
• Draft task and Completed task are excluded in critical path calculation, hence, Slack will have a value of 0.
• Slack is calculated at each task level based on its PlannedFinish, and it does not get rolled up.
• Slack is calculated based on task PlannedFinish. Its value is #. of working days between task PlannedFinish and latest task PlannedFinish within the project. And the working days settings are based on project's Engagement's staffing workgroup.
• Critical path and Slack calculation also take into consideration summary task, task dependency, and sub project hierarchy

Example:

In this example, Task 1 and 3 have the same start and finish, but different slack. This is because Task 3 can be delayed up to 9 business days without affecting the overall project duration. Task 1 on the other hand cannot be delayed, as this would also delay Task 2 and thus increase project duration.

As mentioned above, slack doesn't rollup. While Task 3 has a slack of 9, the parent task slack is 0 as delaying it would delay the overall project.