Activities in a project are often dependent on the completion of another activity. Those activities can be in the project you are completing or from another project or process. Remember, dependencies can be mandatory, external, or discretionary. Understanding the concept of dependencies will help you build a network diagram to determine the critical path for the project. Why is it critical to the success of the project to understand the critical path? What is the value of the near critical path? How does slack and free slack enter into this discussion?