Crashing is a schedule compression technique that shortens the project end date by adding resources to tasks on the critical path. More resources on a critical task means it can be completed faster, which directly reduces the project duration. The trade-off is cost — crashing is almost always more expensive than the original plan, because additional labor, equipment, or overtime must be paid for.
The Cost-Time Trade-Off
Each crashable task has a crash cost — the additional expense required to reduce its duration by one time unit. The most efficient crash target is always the critical task with the lowest crash cost per day of time saved. Once that task is crashed as far as possible (or until another path becomes critical), the next least expensive critical task becomes the target.
Crashing stops being cost-effective when the cost per day saved exceeds the value of finishing one day earlier — whether that value is a contractual incentive, avoided daily cost, or revenue gained from early launch. Beyond that point, the cost of crashing outweighs the benefit.
How to Crash a Schedule
- Identify all tasks on the current critical path.
- Calculate the crash cost per day for each critical task.
- Crash the task with the lowest cost per day first — add resources to shorten it.
- Recalculate the critical path. Crashing a task can shift the critical path to a parallel sequence that was previously non-critical.
- Repeat until the target end date is reached, or until further crashing is no longer cost-justified.
Crashing vs. Fast-Tracking
Crashing and fast-tracking are both schedule compression techniques, but they work differently. Crashing adds resources to critical tasks to make them shorter. Fast-tracking overlaps tasks that were planned as sequential — starting a successor before its predecessor is fully complete. Crashing increases cost; fast-tracking increases rework risk, because the successor may be built on incomplete output from the predecessor. Both may be used together when a deadline requires significant schedule reduction.
Crashing in Maverick
To crash a schedule in Maverick, use the critical path highlighting in the Gantt chart to identify which tasks are on the critical path, then add resources to those tasks in the Properties panel or via AI Chat. Maverick recalculates the task finish date and the critical path immediately after any resource change, showing whether the crash achieved the intended schedule reduction — and whether a parallel path has become the new critical path as a result.
Related Terms
Schedule Compression · Critical Path · Float · Resource Leveling · Network Diagram
Compress Your Schedule in Maverick
Use the critical path Gantt view to identify where adding resources will shorten your project end date. Maverick's AI Chat can suggest resource additions and recalculate the schedule in seconds. Start a free cloud trial.
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