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Gantt & critical path templates

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.

Template previewGantt & critical path
Two paths, one date — Gantt chart with critical path7 tasks; from 2026-06-01 to 2026-07-07, 27 working days; 7 on the critical path; every check ran and found nothing.Two paths, one dateMo 1 Jun 2026 → Tu 7 Jul 2026 · 27 working days · 37 calendar days2 critical paths through 7 tasks — shortening one of them alone buys nothingshorten first: ship (up to 3d)Jun 2026Jul 2026Mo1Tu2We3Th4Fr5Sa6Su7Mo8Tu9We10Th11Fr12Sa13Su14Mo15Tu16We17Th18Fr19Sa20Su21Mo22Tu23We24Th25Fr26Sa27Su28Mo29Tu30We1Th2Fr3Sa4Su5Mo6Tu7HardwareSoftwareTogether▲ Board bring-up10d · shorten → nothing▲ Enclosure tooling8d · shorten → nothing▲ Certification6d · shorten → nothing▲ Firmware12d · shorten → nothing▲ Mobile app7d · shorten → nothing▲ Store review5d · shorten → nothing▲ Ship3d · shorten → 3dcritical — zero floatnear-criticalhas floattotal floatmilestonenon-working daybaselineEvery check ran, and none of them found anything.·Mo 1 Jun 2026 to Tu 7 Jul 2026 — 27 working days across 37 calendar days, on a Mo–Fr week·2 distinct critical paths run through 7 tasks — a task on only ONE of them can be shortened without moving the finish date at all·to finish sooner, shorten `ship` by up to 3 working days (the whole task). Anything beyond those figures moves nothing — the gain from taking δ days off a task is min(δ, the figure above), and it is zero forevery critical task not listed here.

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