Fast Tracking
"Fast tracking" is another schedule-compression technique — a way to finish faster. Instead of adding resources like crashing does, you take tasks that were planned to happen one after another (sequentially) and run them at the same time, or overlap them (in parallel).
The benefit is speed: overlapping tasks means the project ends sooner without spending extra money. The catch is risk. Tasks were often scheduled in sequence for a good reason — the second task depended on the first being finished. When you overlap them, you might start work based on incomplete information, which raises the chance of rework if something upstream changes.
A project manager reads fast tracking as "cheaper than crashing, but riskier." You use it when you need to save time and don't want to increase cost, and when the tasks can reasonably overlap. It's often the first compression method tried, because it doesn't add to the budget — but you must watch closely for problems caused by the overlap.
Think of it like painting a room while the plaster is still drying instead of waiting. You finish sooner, but if the plaster cracks, you're repainting — you traded a bit of safety for speed.
Imagine building a house. Normally you finish the "Design" (4 weeks) completely, then start "Construction" (12 weeks), for a total of 16 weeks. To fast track, you start construction of the foundation after only 2 weeks of design, while the rest of the design is still being finalized. Now design and construction overlap by 2 weeks, so the project finishes in about 14 weeks instead of 16. You saved 2 weeks at no extra cost — but you took on risk: if the final design changes the foundation, you may have to redo work you already started. That possible rework is the price of overlapping.
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