Intro to Project Management: Project Schedule Management - Schedule Compression, Crashing Fast Tracking

What This Is

Schedule compression is a project management technique used to reduce the project duration without increasing the budget. This is achieved by either crashing or fast-tracking the project schedule. Crashing involves adding more resources to critical activities to reduce their duration, while fast-tracking involves performing multiple activities concurrently to reduce the overall project duration. For example, consider a construction project where the client wants to deliver the project in 12 months instead of the original 18 months. The project manager can either add more laborers to critical activities or perform multiple activities concurrently, such as building the foundation and installing electrical and plumbing systems at the same time.

Key Terms & Formulas

• Schedule Compression: Reducing the project duration without increasing the budget.
• Crashing: Adding more resources to critical activities to reduce their duration.
• Fast-Tracking: Performing multiple activities concurrently to reduce the overall project duration.
• Critical Path Method (CPM): A technique used to identify the critical path in a project schedule.
• Critical Path: The sequence of activities that determines the minimum duration required to complete the project.
• Critical Activity: An activity that is on the critical path and has a zero slack time.
• Slack Time: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project duration.
• Resource Allocation: The process of assigning resources to activities to meet the project schedule.
• Resource Leveling: The process of smoothing out resource allocation to avoid over-allocation.
• Earned Value (EV) = % complete × BAC (Earned Value = percent complete times Budget at Completion).
• Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV / AC (Cost Performance Index = Earned Value / Actual Cost).
• Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV / PV (Schedule Performance Index = Earned Value / Planned Value).

Step-by-Step / Process Flow

1. Identify Critical Activities: Use the Critical Path Method (CPM) to identify critical activities in the project schedule.
2. Analyze Resource Availability: Analyze the resource availability to determine if additional resources can be allocated to critical activities.
3. Develop a Crashing Plan: Develop a plan to add more resources to critical activities to reduce their duration.
4. Implement Crashing: Implement the crashing plan by adding more resources to critical activities.
5. Monitor and Control: Monitor and control the project schedule to ensure that the crashing plan is effective.

Common Mistakes

• Mistake: Failing to identify critical activities before crashing the project schedule.
• Correction: Use the Critical Path Method (CPM) to identify critical activities before crashing the project schedule.
• Mistake: Adding resources to non-critical activities to reduce the project duration.
• Correction: Only add resources to critical activities to reduce the project duration.
• Mistake: Failing to monitor and control the project schedule after crashing.
• Correction: Continuously monitor and control the project schedule to ensure that the crashing plan is effective.

Exam Tips

• Tip: Be able to explain the difference between crashing and fast-tracking.
• Tip: Be able to calculate the Earned Value (EV) and Cost Performance Index (CPI) using the given formulas.
• Tip: Be able to identify critical activities using the Critical Path Method (CPM).

Quick Practice Questions

1. If the CPI is 0.8, is the project under or over budget? Answer: Under budget. Explanation: A CPI of 0.8 indicates that the project is earning 80% of the budgeted value, which means it is under budget.
2. If the EV is $100,000 and the BAC is $200,000, what is the percent complete? Answer: 50%. Explanation: Using the formula EV = % complete × BAC, we can calculate the percent complete as EV / BAC = $100,000 / $200,000 = 0.5 or 50%.
3. If the SPI is 1.2, is the project ahead or behind schedule? Answer: Ahead schedule. Explanation: A SPI of 1.2 indicates that the project is earning 120% of the planned value, which means it is ahead schedule.

Last-Minute Cram Sheet

• Schedule Compression: Reducing the project duration without increasing the budget.
• Crashing: Adding more resources to critical activities to reduce their duration.
• Fast-Tracking: Performing multiple activities concurrently to reduce the overall project duration.
• Critical Path Method (CPM): A technique used to identify the critical path in a project schedule.
• Critical Path: The sequence of activities that determines the minimum duration required to complete the project.
• Critical Activity: An activity that is on the critical path and has a zero slack time.
• Slack Time: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project duration.
• Earned Value (EV) = % complete × BAC (Earned Value = percent complete times Budget at Completion).
• Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV / AC (Cost Performance Index = Earned Value / Actual Cost).
• Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV / PV (Schedule Performance Index = Earned Value / Planned Value).
• Crashing and fast-tracking are not the same thing.
• Critical activities are those with zero slack time.
• Earned Value (EV) is not the same as Actual Cost (AC).