Reducing Project

Duration

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 Need for reducing project duration

• Time to market
• Quick adaptation to new business environment
• Unforeseen midway delays (design flaws, breakdowns, strikes etc.)
• Incentive contracts
• Imposed deadlines during concept phase
• Overhead cost savings
• Reassigning resources to another project

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 Accelerating Project Completion
When resources are not constrained
• Adding resources
- Doubling the resources will not necessarily reduce completion time by
half especially when tasks cannot be portioned
- More coordination effort
- Increased communication requirement
- Brooks Law comes into play*!
• Outsourcing project work
• Scheduling overtime
• Establishing core project team

* Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later!

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 Accelerating Project Completion
When resources are constrained
• Fast tracking
- Suspending best practices to permit tasks that would normally be
performed serially to be performed in parallel, usually with an increase in
risk e.g. risk of late design changes
• Critical chain approach
• Reducing project scope
- Reduced functionality
- Focus on activities on critical path
• Compromising on quality

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 Project Crashing
• Crashing
- Adding additional resource to reduce duration, usually at increased
cost and risk.
• Crash time
- Amount of time an activity is reduced
• Crash cost
- Cost of reducing activity time
• Goal
- Reduce project duration at minimum cost

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 Activity Crashing

Crash
cost Crashing activity

Slope = crash cost per unit time

Normal Activity
Normal
cost
Normal
time
Crash Activity time
6 time
 Time-Cost Relationship
 Crashing costs increase as project duration decreases
 Indirect costs increase as project duration increases
 Reduce project length as long as crashing costs are less than
indirect costs

Min total cost = Total project cost

optimal project Indirect cost
time (Costs that cannot be
directly associated
with any particular
work package)

Direct cost
(based on low cost
efficient methods
for normal time)

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Time
 Determining Activity to Shorten
Crash point
Crash cost

Normal point
Activity cost

Normal cost

Activity duration
Assumptions:
• Cost time relationship is linear
• Normal time assumes low-cost efficient methods
• Crash time is the greatest time reduction possible under realistic conditions
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• All accelerations must occur between normal and crash times
 Cost Slope

Cost Slope =

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 Project Crashing Cost Consideration
• Project time is crashed by reducing the length of the critical path(s).
• The length of the critical path is reduced by reducing the duration of
the activities on the critical path.
• If each activity requires the expenditure of an amount of money to
reduce its duration by one unit of time, then the least cost critical
activity is selected for crashing
• The least cost critical activity is reduced by one time unit at a time
and change thus occurred are traced through the remainder of the
network.
• As a result of a reduction in an activity’s time, a new critical path
may emerge.
• When there is more than one critical path, the duration of each of
the critical paths must be reduced.
• If the length of the project needs to be reduced further, the process
is repeated.
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 Example

Activity Predecessor Normal Crash time Normal Crash cost

time cost
A 3 2 50 70
B A 6 4 80 160
C A 10 9 60 90
D A 11 7 50 150
E B 8 6 100 160
F C, D 5 4 40 70
G E, F 6 6 70 70

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 Project-Cost Duration
Practical Considerations
• Graph can be used before start of the project to keep sight on indirect
costs
• Crash time is difficult to understand and has low accuracy
• All or Nothing situations
• In addition to cost, the crashing of an activity requires consideration of:
- Inherent risk in crashing particular activities
- Timing of the activity
- Resource availability
- Impact on morale and motivation of project team
• How far to reduce the project time from the normal time towards the
optimum depends on the sensitivity of the project network

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