In general, the better candidates for shortening are: Early tasks opposed to later tasks. Later tasks opposed to early tasks. Burst tasks opposed to merge tasks. Merge tasks opposed to burst tasks.

Early tasks opposed to later tasks.

Explanation:

Shortening is a strategic procedure used by project managers to reduce or shorten a project's duration by cutting the duration of critical path tasks.

The rationale behind shortening of a project is basically to have a competitive advantage or edge in the market. In order to compete successfully, project managers are always expected to be spontaneous in bringing their company's goods and services to the market in a flash.

There are two important ways of shortening a particular project, these are;

1. Crashing.

2. Task splitting.

In project management, the longest task is considered to be the most effective and efficient candidate activities to shorten a project's duration.

In general, the better candidates for shortening are early tasks opposed to later tasks. The early start of tasks represents one of the primary date used in project scheduling and it's the earliest date a project manager commences an activity, with respect to all its predecessors and successors.

Early tasks usually involves the use of an easy approach to project kickoff while later tasks uses the difficult approach.