And, reworking the project can cause the project to lose even more time. Crashing is the technique to use when fast tracking has not saved enough time on the project schedule. With this technique, resources are added to the project for the least cost possible. Cost and schedule tradeoffs are analyzed to determine how to obtain the greatest amount of compression for the least incremental cost.
And crashing is expensive because more resources are added to the project. Crashing analyzes and categorizes activities based on the lowest crash cost per unit time, allowing the team working the project to identify the activities that will be able to deliver the most value at the least incremental cost. The results of a crash analysis are usually presented in a crash graph, where activities with the flattest slope are the ones that will be considered first—they lead to an equal amount of time savings, but have a smaller increase in cost.
Crashing only works if the additional resources will actually achieve completing the project sooner. Generally, you will start with fast-tracking to shorten the schedule. Sometimes you may use both techniques. For example, the client is threatening to fine you for the delay.
To avoid this, you will compare the cost of crashing with the fine. If the crashing cost outweighs the fine, you will use it with fast-tracking for maximum schedule compression. As the name suggests, these are schedule compression techniques. The schedule is based on the critical path, the longest path of the network diagram and its duration is that of the project.
If you want to reduce the schedule duration, you have to shorten the duration of the critical path. Projects often get delayed, and you have to compress the schedule; fast-tracking and crashing are two ways to do that. These schedule compression techniques help you decrease the duration of your project. Fast-tracking does not involve cost, but it does increase risk.
Crashing does not significantly increase risk, but it is a costly process. Use these techniques carefully because you are dealing with critical activities. Any wrong step can affect your project negatively.
Schedule compression techniques Fast-tracking and crashing are essential techniques in project management. They are also crucial for the PMP exam, therefore, understand these techniques well.
How do you perform fast tracking and crashing in your projects? Please share your thoughts in the comments section. For reference this is the exact question: Q. After completing the schedule network analysis, you find out that your project schedule is taking too long and you also find that you cannot change your network diagram. In such cases, in order to get the project completed faster, what option do you have? Nothing can be done B. Crash the project C.
Perform resource leveling D. Fast track the project. I am enjoying a lot to read the content. This article is beneficial for me.
I understand where which technique is used. Hello Jai, soon I am going to write a blog post on this topic where I will explain it with detail. Thanks for your explanation. Its very simple and easy to understand as now i have the correct idea of fast track and crashing.
Thanks once again. Very well explained. Very easy to understand the core concepts of PMP topics from this blog. It is not simple math. It is not necessary that four labor finish a work in 10 days then 8 labor will finish in 5 days. Many times, it takes more and the cost of newly acquired labor will be higher than your current labor.
You may also need some equipment or material at urgent basis which you planned to used later, this may also cost more. Can you please elaborate the same? It depends. Sometimes you are able to finish an activity before its actual finish date and start next activity before its actual start. Other times you can start next activity before completing the previous activity.
Very simple and comprehensive explanation of schedule compression. Just like to add one thing: There is another disadvantage of these techniques that they disturb the cash out-flows and create more nuisance for the Finance Manager, at times. If there is a scope change request by the client. If he find that the scope change will affect the schedule. So he looked for an option to fast track the critical paths. My question is does he need a separate approval for doing fast tracking?
Fast tracking usually does not require any approval, how you need to communicate it to the concerned stakeholders. When there is a need to compress the schedule first, we look for fast-tracking.
We analyze dependencies on the schedule to see if they are mandatory or discretionary. In the case of discretionary, we see how we can play around dependencies. Suppose there is a need to finish these activities in eight days. Here we look for the possibilities to start activity 2 after two days of activity 1. In this way, on day 3, both activities are getting executed in parallel. And, total duration reduced from 10 days to 8 days. Here, the critical point is that we cannot start activities in parallel blindly.
If there is a schedule dependency, there is a reason behind it. Like, there could be some information flow from predecessor activity to successor activity. We need to see to what extent we can execute activities parallel. Like, on what day, there would be comparatively less risk to start activities parallel? And are we ready to accept those risks? What could be the risk response strategies in case of risk occurs by running activities parallel?
It may only add risk and rework and not schedule compression. Like, you have to wait for concrete to settle before the start of painting your house. And yes, in case of mandatory dependencies, there is no scope to use fast-tracking.
Project fast tracking and project crashing are two ways to speed a project up. Intrigued and frightened in equal measures? When deadlines are looming, project managers have a choice: They can either complete each task sequentially and risk missing the date — or they can get the team to work on tasks concurrently. This is called fast tracking. This will also show you the longest stretch of dependent tasks. Finding out the longest stretch of dependent tasks will show you the bare minimum amount of time your project will take.
These are dependent tasks because they each rely on the one before it being completed. But you can paint it while the garden is being landscaped and the carpets put down. Doing these three activities at the same time speeds up the project. This is fast tracking in action. When you add another task to the mix, your attention is divided. Multitasking has been proven to be bad for productivity , and the same goes for teams. Giving them more things that they can perhaps handle increases the likelihood of error and could mean the quality of the work produced is lower.
This makes it harder to keep an eye on progress and deadlines. Risk : An overworked team might make mistakes that push the budget over its limits.
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