Deadlines take time to meet. Project managers must often use schedule compression technique to compress their schedules to meet tough deadlines and satisfy their clients.

Let’s learn how to shrink the schedule to have a happy client.

There are two common methods of schedule compression:

• Fast-tracking
• Crashing

Fast Tracking:

Fast-tracking is a schedule compression technique used on simple and easy projects. The project manager needs to rearrange some activities to perform them in parallel with other activities. It saves time and helps the project team to complete their activities within the deadlines.

But at the same time, it increases the risk for the project team, as multiple activities are performed in parallel, and the team will lose focus.

In short, fast-tracking helps save time for the team, but there is a significant increase in the risks due to multitasking.

Crashing:

Crashing is a schedule compression technique that can be used in simple projects. The project manager needs to assign additional resources to lengthy activities to complete those activities within the deadlines.

But at the same time, the additional resources will require additional costs.

In short, crashing helps reduce the duration of activities, but there is a significant increase in the cost of performing those activities.

Here we have mentioned the pros and cons of the two most common schedule compression techniques used without affecting the project scope and deadlines. The project manager must choose the suitable and applicable technique for the project.