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Q 230. Halfway through the project, the project manager realizes that the project will not be able to meet the project completion deadline. Fast tracking and Crashing are two project management techniques that the manager could deploy to ensure timely completion. Highlight the characteristics and usage of each technique by providing suitable examples Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term

Fast-tracking and crashing are important techniques of project management to shorten/compress the project schedule. These techniques, though not commonly used ones, but have important applications in project management. -There may be various business reasons to do them, when the project is already running late due to various unexpected conditions like crunch of manpower and other resources . They may be also mooted in the event of internal and external pressure from various stakeholders of the organization to expedite the project and finish before deadline. FAST TRACKING -Fast tracking is a technique that is usually the first line of action, when project compression is warranted. It encompasses doing of multiple activities in parallel, even though there may be some degree of finish to start dependencies of both the activities. -One of the best examples is -starting to work on product development, when product design is not complete, but a part of product design is accomplished. Whereas earlier plan was to initiate product development at the end of complete product design. Other relevant examples are: -Start laying foundation of construction, even if architectural drawings/designs are not completely done. - Constructing a different portion of highway simultaneously with another initiated portion - We need to analyze the dependencies of activities, if they are really mandatory or just presumed. If it is only discretionary, then we can manipulate the schedule of activities, so that overall time gets shortened. For an example – Activity 1 and Activity 2 have essential finish-to-start dependencies, with length of each activity being 5 days and the total duration being ten days. Let us assume that project manager gets a deadline from project sponsor to finish the project in 8 days. If we start the second activity by the end of 3rd day or beginning of 4 th day, we will be able to cut short 2 days and finish both the activities in 8 days The biggest drawbacks of fast tracking are: - Cannot be done, when there is complete interdependency or finish to start relationships of processes . - Leads to rework, project extension and project failure many a times. -A general rule that applies in fast tracking is that ,the second activity can be started when the first activity is at least 2/3rd or around 66% complete. This usually fits well and is commonly practiced. CRASHING Crashing is a technique, which entails use of additional resources, e.g.- overtime, manpower, additional material and equipment. The motto is to finish the activities or reach the project deadline at earliest, well ahead of the anticipated or projected deadline. -Crashing works very well in certain scenarios like construction industry- more workers finish the task earlier compared to a smaller number of workers. The best example of crashing was seen in Year 2000-Y2K- projects, when many of the companies accelerated the project to meet the deadline of completion of projects by the end of 1999. -The biggest issue with crashing is that, it increases financial burden. So the cost vs time tradeoffs have to be carefully decided, when deciding for crashing. - Also crashing is usually never the first choice, it is usually carried out, when fast tracking does not yield the desired result. -Crashing also can lead to waste of resources, especially with more of manpower leading to more confusion and errors. For example in complex neurosurgeries, which goes on for many hours and If we try to add more surgeons in team to shorten surgery time, it may rather lead to more complications due to difference in opinion, difference in skills of surgeons and lack of coordination. -Both Fast track and crashing needs to be implemented only in critical path activities. If we employ them on non-critical path activities, there will be no shortening of duration.

The second approach is more scientific. The first approach is adhoc and actually assumes the result of hypotheses. While the first approach may seem to require lower investment initially, since you are trying to prove significance, you are gradually increasing sample size and hence may end up spending more due to iterative approach. In case of the second one, we are adopting an unbiased approach to problem solving. The second approach defines clearly the sample size needed to reach a conclusion with certain confidence level, and may seem costlier, but in the end will save a lot of money and provide unbiased outcome which can be relied upon