http://www.brighthubpm.com/resource-management/5055-project-crashing-what-options-do-you-have/

 

The above article is a quick guide to reference when considering whether or not to “crash” a project schedule.

There are many ways to crash a project schedule and there are pros and cons to all of the various methods, but the most important thing to keep in mind when crashing a project is the costs associated with crashing.  The article mentions that the key to crashing a project is to obtain the maximum amount of time reduction for the minimum cost.

The article also list several different methods of crashing a project, these are but not limited to, increasing your resources and fast tracking.

The most common method of crashing is increasing your resources.  We referenced this method in class during our Rock’n Bands exercise.  We were given the option of adding another worker on to the project in order to decrease the amount of time each activity required.  However, there was a cost to this due to the extra communication and organization that was required for this additional worker.  The risk in using this method is the quality of the additional resource may not be up to the same standard as those already on the project.  In the case of the Rock’n Bands, if the additional worker is not as productive as the original workers then they can actually slow the project down.  Time that the more productive members could have spent on the completing the project, now is going to coaching along the less productive worker.

Another method mentioned in the article is fast tracking.  This method revolves around reducing inefficiencies in order to shorten project times.  This can be accomplished through breaking longer tasks into shorter chunks, reducing lag times between tasks, and reducing scope in order to eliminate non-critical tasks.

However, the most successful project crashing often involves some combination of adding resources and finding ways to more efficiently use the resources you already have.

One of the last things the article mentions, but is one of the most important things to keep in mind when considering crashing a project and that is when NOT to crash a project.  Sometimes the costs associated with crashing a project can outweigh the benefits.

My question for the class is, in your class project or in your work experience, were there times where you had to crash a project and if so what were the most important factors you considered when deciding whether or not crashing the project was the best course of action?

https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/Every-Project-plan-is-a-triangle-2b74c21b-a406-4727-8d74-26648a56924a

Following up on our lecture from 7/11, here is a great article on the three parts of the Project Management Trade-offs.

 

Our last lecture addressed an important project management, and that is the fact that we are often faced with a certain constraint in our project that we are unable to change.  A prime example of this is the time constraint in our projects this quarter.  We have a deadline of August 15^th for completion of our event and this cannot be changed.  Therefore the only parts of the triangle that we have control over are the scope and the cost.

 

The article I have attached has some great suggestions for how to optimize Time, Scope, and Cost.

 

For our project we have to be sensitive to not only time, but cost as well because any expenses we incur will go against the money we actually raise for our charity.  With that in mind we must figure out what we can reasonably do for our event that fits the timeframe we have, which is not negotiable, and is low cost, so that we actually raise money.

 

Some examples for optimizing your time, provided by the article are:

• Shorten the durations of tasks (usually a reflection of reduced scope or increased/more efficient resources).
• Overlap tasks so that they can be worked on simultaneously.
• Remove tasks to meet the finish date (usually a reflection of reduced scope).
• Assign additional resources.
• Decrease the amount of work assigned (usually a reflection of reduced scope or more efficient resources).

 

In a compressed timeframe, like we have for this project, being efficient is essential.  In order to be efficient we need to know what resources we need, what tasks need to be accomplished, what we want our end result to look like, and the timetable for everything.  In class, we discussed the Work Breakdown Structure as one of the best way of figuring out all of this.

 

The WBS helps evaluate time, cost, and scope, along with helping to helping to organize the resources you already have.  One of the first things our group did, after we came up with some initial event ideas, was to determine what we needed to put on the event.  We divided the resources into 2 categories, what we could provide through our own connections and what we needed help with from our charity.  Then we evaluated the experiences and interests of our group members, in order to establish rules. Finally, we established a rough schedule of when things need to be accomplished and what those deliverables were.

 

I would love to know what others thought about how the three aspects of project management applied to their own projects and what strategies people have come up with so far.