Teaching Case — Why "Just Shorten the Critical Task" Is False
Two chains of exactly equal length run in parallel, so BOTH are critical and every task on them has zero float. Take a week off one of them and the finish date does not move, because the other still holds it. This is the single most expensive misreading of a critical path, and no tool that draws bars without computing them can even show you that it applies.
Make it your own.
title "Two paths, one date"
start 2026-06-01
calendar mon-fri
section "Hardware"
task hw1 "Board bring-up" 10d
task hw2 "Enclosure tooling" 8d after hw1
task hw3 "Certification" 6d after hw2
section "Software"
task sw1 "Firmware" 12d
task sw2 "Mobile app" 7d after sw1
task sw3 "Store review" 5d after sw2
section "Together"
task ship "Ship" 3d after hw3, sw3