what does compressing/accelerating schedule mean
- reducing project duration without affecting the quality or scope of the project
why might you need to compress/accelerate the schedule
- urgency to complete a project
- need to recover lost time
- bonus for early delivery
how may compressing/accelerating schedule be achieved
- fast tracking - overlapping activities that would normally be done in sequence
how is fast tracking usually implemented
- by introducing appropriate leads on FS relationships or lags on FF/SS relationships
what does fast tracking usually result in
- rework and increase in risk
what does ‘crashing activities’ mean
- analysing cost and schedule trade-offs to determine how to obtain the greatest amount of compression for the least incremental cost
what are the steps of creating a ‘crashing schedule’
- determine normal project cost
- determine shortest possible completion time and associated cost
- draw cost-time graph for the project
how to determine normal project cost
- sum of all the normal activity costs
how to determine additional cost
- maximum cost - normal cost
how to determine potential time saving
- normal duration - minimum duration
how to determine additional cost per unit time
- additional cost/potential time saving
what do you need to control a schedule
- a schedule baseline which is agreed between all relevant stakeholders
- the project implemented according to the schedule baseline
what are the 8 steps used to control schedule
1 - check all inputs required by the schedule baseline are available and deployed
2 - record actual outputs
3 - compare actual with planned outputs
4 - explain any significant difference between planned and actual outputs
5 - use the explanations to propose revisions to the project schedule
6 - take the proposed revised schedule through the the agreed approval process
7 - once approved, revised schedule becomes new schedule baseline
8 - repeat 1-7 until project end
