Q3 product launch PERT/CPM network
A seven-task product-launch schedule where the engine computes every Early/Late Start & Finish, total slack, and the critical path (A → C → D → E → G) automatically — the canonical activity-on-node network with the six-field box.
For the project manager
This is what separates Schematex's pert engine from a drag-and-drop "PERT chart maker": you write only the tasks, durations, and dependencies — the schedule is computed.
The six-field box. Each activity renders as the canonical 3×2 PERT/CPM rectangle: Early Start / Duration / Early Finish on top, the task name and id in the middle, and Late Start / Slack / Late Finish on the bottom. Those four schedule fields are never typed by hand — a forward pass walks the network to find ES/EF, a backward pass finds LS/LF, and total slack is LS − ES.
The critical path falls out of the math. Any activity with zero slack is on the critical path and is drawn in red: A → C → D → E → G. Here C (Backend API, 15 days) is the long pole — it dominates B (Design mockups, 8 days) at the D merge, so the schedule pivots on the backend, not the design. Change C to 6 days and the critical path shifts to run through B instead; the render updates because the computation does.
Parallel work, one merge. B and C both start once research finishes, run concurrently, and re-converge at D (Frontend build). F (Marketing collateral) branches off B and carries slack — it can slip several days without moving the launch. The project duration, 37 days, is the maximum Early Finish over the terminal tasks, not simply the last task you declared.