A hospital expansion in New York was running six weeks behind schedule. The owner faced a hard deadline. Miss it, and they’d lose millions in state funding. The project team had two choices: throw more resources at the problem or reorganize the work sequence. We chose wisely, understanding the difference between crashing and fast tracking. The project finished on time.

In construction projects, deadlines are rarely flexible, and the pressure to finish sooner is something every project team feels. But moving faster is not just about speed, it’s about making smart decisions that balance time, cost, and risk without affecting the project scope. Knowing how and when to compress a schedule is what turns project management from a reactive effort into a proactive one.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines these approaches clearly: Crashing is adding resources to critical path activities to shorten the schedule without changing the project scope. Fast tracking is performing activities in parallel that were previously planned in sequence, without changing the project scope. But what does this mean in the field?

Our Feature on Construction Business Review: Pearls Construction: Crashing is Cashing; Fast Tracking is Dashing