Project Timelines, Critical Path, and PERT

You are the general manager of a large construction project. The contract has both financial incentives for finishing on time or early as well as large penalties if the project is completed late. To get the project done on time or early that project planning using a formal timeline is essential. You ask the project manager to address the following questions:

1. In terms of creating a timeline, what is meant by the critical path of a PERT chart?

2. As a project manager you know that the fastest possible time a project can be completed is known as the critical path. This implies that any delay in any step of a projects critical path, will therefore delay the overall project. On a particular project, step B is part of the critical path; step C and D both are not. Assume that all of these steps, B, C, and D are at risk of being delayed due to some issue (could be lack of people, lack of materials, equipment downtime - it makes no difference).

How would the manager go about prioritizing correction of the problem existing in B, C, or D?

Should the manager address the issue in step B first, step C first, or step D first; why?

3. Once repair is completed in step #2, how would go you about prioritizing repairs at the other two steps?