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Waterfall project management is also known as traditional project management or the Critical Path Method (CPM). This method identifies project activities into sequential phases, where each phase depends on the completion of previous phases. Progress flows mostly in one direction, like a waterfall, through the various phases (see Figure 1.3).

FIGURE 1.3 Bars on a Gantt chart illustrate waterfall project management.

More specifically, this method relies on the duration of all activities required to complete the project and the dependencies between those activities. The tasks and their dependencies create multiple paths throughout the project. The longest path is known as the critical path. If any task component on the critical path is delayed, the entire project is also delayed.

The waterfall method or CPM is typically used in manufacturing and construction—that is, in structured physical environments in which changes even early in the project are very expensive.