Question

You have been asked to acceleration the schedule on the project and to minimize the cost impact. Address the options noted below and discuss the pros and the cons for each.

a. Fast-tracking

b. Adjusting leads and lags on connected activities. Remember a lag means starting an activity before the successor has been completed.

c. Adding resources

d. Resource leveling

e. Crashing f. Use of alternate work calendars/schedules

Answer 1

a) Fast-tracking

-pros : 1 multiple parallel activities may be performed that results in accelerated project completion.

2 No additional cost is associated with it as we are not adding resources.

-cons : 1 Enhanced risk in project completion.

2 It works only when activities can be overlapped.

b) Adjusting leads and lags

-pros : Both used in project schedule development, lead accelerates the successor activity and are used only during finish-to-start (when an activity ends, another activity starts) activities. Lag can be found in any activity relationship types. It is characterized by a delay of a successor activity.

-cons : Lag (negative or positive) is also static; it does not adjust based on updates to predecessor activities. Changes in predecessor activities may require manual adjustment to lag. This quickly becomes a tedious process when dealing with multiple lag definitions.

c) Adding resources

-pros : addition of resources always reduces the time of completion of the project and makes project management efficient

-cons : It increases the project cost

d) Resource levelling

-pros : 1 resolves possible conflict arising from over-allocation.

2 This will benefit the organization without having to face conflicts and not being able to deliver on time.

-cons : disadvantages such as: Delay in certain tasks being completed. Difficulty in assigning a different resources. Unable to change task dependencies.

e) Crashing

-pros : 1 By implementing additional resources we can minimise the project completion time and delays.

2 reduces overhead charges example daily wages etc

-cons : Increases the project cost i.e direct cost.