It’s happened to all of us: we’ve worked tirelessly on a project, but still missed the deadline.
Maybe you had too much on your plate, or maybe you underestimated how long it would take.
When a project starts to fall behind, the pressure mounts. One effective technique to get back on track is project fast tracking. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into what fast tracking means, its pros and cons, how to implement it, and how monday.com can empower your team to do it effectively.
What is fast tracking in project management?
Fast-tracking in project management is a technique where activities are performed in parallel, instead of being carried out sequentially using the original schedule. Simply put, fast-tracking a project means different tasks are worked on simultaneously, instead of waiting for each task to be completed separately. However, fast-tracking can only be applied if the aforementioned activities question can actually be feasibly overlapped.
Fast-tracking allows you to compress a project timeline and shorten the project duration.
When you fast-track project schedules, a planned activity partially or completely overlaps with another. So, activities that were initially scheduled to be done one after another are rearranged to occur at the same time.
A diagram might help you to picture what we’re talking about:
If this sounds like it might be necessary to hit your project deadlines, know that you’re not alone.
An estimated 48% of projects are not completed on time — resulting in huge financial losses for businesses of all sizes.
Teams can fall behind on a project schedule for a number of reasons:
- Undefined project scope
- Lack of materials or resources
- Malfunctioning equipment
- Low levels of productivity
- Poor communication
- Not using proper types of collaboration tools
If a project is delayed, the situation isn’t entirely hopeless. Fast-tracking can help you recover a schedule when things start to veer off track.
However, it should be noted early that fast-tracking (while an awesome project scheduling technique) can only be applied when the task you’re trying to fast track isn’t dependent on the completion of the one before it.
Nonetheless, if managed well (and you really do need to be hot on management of a fast-tracked project) it can be a life-saver.
Fast tracking vs. crashing: what’s the difference?
Fast-tracking is one common approach to schedule compression; the crashing technique is the other. So, if fast-tracking a project isn’t feasible, a project team can choose to “crash” a schedule instead.
Project crashing is when you add additional resources to an activity, rather than moving up its start date.
Let’s look at an example for a construction project. Instead of having one person wire a new house, you could add additional resources (e.g., hire more electricians) to get the job done faster.
Project crashing can speed up project delivery times by compressing the schedule, but there are increased costs to consider. Allocating extra resources also means that you could be taking people away from other projects.
And you have to keep the phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” in mind. Sometimes adding extra people is more hassle than it’s worth.
Here’s an example of how a normal project schedule compares to fast-tracking as well as crashing:
Why should you consider fast tracking? Key benefits
Understanding the advantages of fast tracking can help you decide if it’s the right approach for your project. Here are some key benefits:
Accelerated project completion
The most obvious benefit is the potential to finish your project sooner than originally planned, which can be crucial for meeting tight deadlines or market demands.
Improved resource utilization (when done right)
By overlapping tasks, you can sometimes make more efficient use of resources that might otherwise be idle while waiting for preceding tasks to finish. However, this requires careful resource allocation for speed.
Potential for cost efficiency
Unlike crashing, fast tracking typically doesn’t involve adding extra resource costs. If successful, completing a project early can lead to cost savings in terms of reduced overhead or by capitalizing on early market entry.
Gaining a competitive edge
Delivering a project faster can mean beating competitors to market, responding more quickly to opportunities, or improving stakeholder satisfaction.
The downsides: understanding the risks of fast tracking
Fast-tracking a project sounds great — you can perform multiple tasks together and potentially deliver before the deadline.
But fast-tracking a project that’s already in motion is risky. It means you’ll have to rework the current schedule and communicate those changes to your team. Effective risk management in fast tracking is crucial.
Consider these potential downsides:
Increased risk of errors and rework
When tasks are done in parallel that would normally be sequential, especially if information from an earlier task is incomplete, the chance of mistakes and needing to redo work increases.
Potential for team burnout and stress
The accelerated pace and increased complexity can put significant pressure on your team, potentially leading to burnout if not managed with empathy and proper support.
Complex coordination and communication overhead
Managing overlapping tasks requires more intensive coordination and constant communication to ensure everyone is aligned and dependencies are handled correctly.
Quality compromises if not managed carefully
The rush to complete tasks in parallel might lead to cutting corners or insufficient quality checks if there isn’t a strong focus on maintaining standards.
And fast-tracking only works for activities that can be overlapped. You can’t fast track a new paint job until the rest of the car is built.
There’s also the risk that fast-tracking a project won’t affect the end date.
The critical path is the longest series of tasks through your project — It’s the path that determines your final delivery date. Which means the only way fast-tracking will change your end date is if it’s done to tasks on this path (aka the critical activities).
Here’s a table outlining common risks and potential mitigation strategies:
| Risk | Potential Impact | Mitigation Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Increased errors/rework | Delays, cost overruns, quality issues | Enhanced quality checks, clear task definitions (monday.com: Subitems for checklists, Files column for specs) |
| Team burnout/stress | Reduced morale, lower productivity, turnover | Monitor workloads (monday.com: Workload view), regular check-ins, provide support, prioritize tasks |
| Communication breakdown | Misalignment, duplicated effort, missed dependencies | Centralized communication platform (monday.com: Updates section, integrations with comms tools), regular team meetings |
| Quality compromise | Poor deliverables, customer dissatisfaction | Strict adherence to quality standards, dedicated QA phases (even if shortened), clear acceptance criteria (monday.com: Status columns for QA progress) |
When is fast tracking the right strategy? (and when it isn’t)
Fast tracking isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s most effective when:
- You have tasks on the critical path that can genuinely be overlapped without creating unmanageable dependencies.
- The project is significantly behind schedule, and other options (like scope reduction or deadline extension) are not viable.
- The potential rewards of earlier completion outweigh the increased risks.
- Your team has strong communication practices and can handle increased coordination.
- You have robust project planning and monitoring tools in place.
Conversely, avoid fast tracking when:
- Tasks have hard dependencies (e.g., you can’t test software before it’s coded).
- The risk of rework is exceptionally high or costly (e.g., in safety-critical projects).
- Your team is already overloaded or lacks experience with such intense scheduling.
- The project scope is unclear or constantly changing.
How to implement fast tracking in 5 easy steps
Successfully implementing fast tracking requires careful planning and execution. Here’s a more detailed approach:
1. Analyze your project & identify fast tracking opportunities
Before making any changes, thoroughly analyze your current project plan. Before you jump into the fast track process, here are some questions to ask:
- How much time do you need to recover?
- What activities are on the critical path? Focus your fast tracking efforts here for maximum impact on the overall project timeline.
- What are the dependencies between tasks? Which are ‘hard’ (must follow) versus ‘soft’ (preferable to follow but can be overlapped)? Effective task dependencies management is key.
- Which tasks can realistically be performed in parallel or with significant overlap?
You also need to consider the impact that changing the schedule will have.
For example, if you assign more work to a team member, will they have the materials and time to complete the tasks? Will you need to pay overtime to ensure the work gets done before the deadline?
2. Develop a revised fast tracking plan
Once you’ve identified potential tasks for fast tracking, develop a detailed revised schedule.
Activities that aren’t dependent on the ones before them being complete can be fast tracked.
For example, let’s say you’re planning an event. You’re responsible for finding a venue, arranging guest speakers, and sending out invites.
While you’ll eventually need to tell the guest speakers where to show up, you don’t have to have the venue locked in before starting your speaker search. But you can’t create invitations to the event until your venue is confirmed.
Look at your critical path, identify the opportunities, and reconfigure activities that can overlap with each other.
Using a Gantt chart or timeline is useful here as you can better visualize your critical path activities, task sequences, and durations. Your revised plan should also include a risk assessment for the fast tracked activities and how you’ll manage those risks.
Here’s an example of how a marketing and design team’s projects could overlap — visualized in a monday.com Gantt chart:
Here we can see that “Rebranding” and “Illustrations” overlap with each other. They’re being worked on at the same time by the same team.
3. Communicate clearly with your team and stakeholders
Effective team communication and collaboration are paramount when fast tracking. Clearly communicate the new plan, the reasons for the changes, revised timelines, and any new roles or responsibilities to all team members and relevant stakeholders. Ensure everyone understands the potential risks and the importance of close coordination.
4. Monitor progress rigorously and adapt
Once fast tracking is underway, you must monitor progress more closely than usual. Track task completion, identify any emerging bottlenecks or issues immediately, and be prepared to adapt your plan as needed.
Communicate frequently with your team and make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs. Regular status meetings (even brief daily check-ins) can be very helpful.
5. Document challenges and lessons learned
Fast tracking often brings unexpected challenges.
Document any problems encountered, the decisions made, and note down how you addressed them. That way you’ll be better prepared if a similar situation happens in the future. This creates a valuable knowledge base for future projects.
Real-world examples of fast tracking in action
To better understand how fast tracking works in practice, let’s look at a few examples:
1. Marketing campaign launch
- Situation: A marketing team needs to launch a new product campaign sooner than planned to capitalize on a market opportunity.
- Fast tracking applied: Instead of finalizing all ad copy before starting design, the copy team provides approved headlines and key messages to the design team to begin creating visual concepts. Simultaneously, the media buying team starts researching ad placements based on the target audience, even before all creative assets are ready.
- Outcome: The campaign is launched two weeks earlier, capturing early interest. A Work OS could have helped by providing a shared platform for copy, design, and media teams to collaborate in real-time.
2. Software feature deployment
- Situation: A software development team needs to release a critical new feature ahead of a competitor’s announcement.
- Fast tracking applied: The development team starts coding core components of the feature while the QA team simultaneously develops test cases based on the feature specifications. User documentation writing begins based on early functional prototypes, rather than waiting for the final build.
- Outcome: The feature is deployed on time, securing a competitive advantage. Using a platform with integrated bug tracking and version control linked to task management would streamline this.
3. Construction phase acceleration
- Situation: A construction project faces penalties if a building phase isn’t completed by a specific date.
- Fast tracking applied: Once foundations are partially complete and inspected in one area, framing begins there while foundation work continues in another. Interior electrical and plumbing work might start in completed framed sections before the entire building shell is finished (where safe and logical).
- Outcome: The phase is completed on schedule, avoiding penalties. Detailed scheduling software with dependency tracking is crucial here for managing project risks.
Leveraging monday.com for effective fast tracking
Now that you understand how to fast track, let’s see how a powerful Work OS like monday.com can make the process smoother and more successful. Effective project management software for scheduling all your tasks and projects is essential.
Visualizing dependencies with Gantt charts and timelines
monday.com’s Gantt charts and Timeline views allow you to easily see task dependencies, identify the critical path, and visualize how overlapping tasks will affect your project schedule. You can drag and drop tasks to adjust schedules and instantly see the impact.
Enhancing real-time communication and collaboration
With centralized updates, file sharing, and integrations with communication tools, monday.com keeps everyone on the same page. This reduces misunderstandings and ensures that team members working on parallel tasks have the latest information.
Managing resource allocation and workloads
The Workload view in monday.com helps you see who is working on what and identify potential overloads before they become critical. This is essential for effective resource allocation and preventing team burnout when fast tracking.
Tracking progress and identifying bottlenecks instantly
Customizable dashboards and real-time status updates provide a clear overview of project progress. This allows project managers to quickly spot tasks that are falling behind or bottlenecks that could derail the fast-tracked schedule.
Automating notifications for schedule changes
monday.com’s automation features can instantly notify team members of any changes to task schedules or dependencies, ensuring everyone is aware of adjustments made during the fast tracking process.
See monday.com’s scheduling features in action
These views can help you organize your work and make it easier to rearrange schedules should you ever need to fast-track a project.
Ready to fast track your projects with confidence?
Fast-tracking is a handy technique for compressing project schedules and can be a powerful tool in your project management arsenal when deadlines are tight. It allows you to rearrange tasks so they’re performed at the same time — useful if a project is behind schedule. But it’s also important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages, plan meticulously, communicate effectively, and leverage the right tools before utilizing this technique.
With a clear understanding of how to implement fast tracking and the support of a flexible Work OS like monday.com, you can navigate its complexities and accelerate your project timelines successfully.
Ready to take control of your project timelines? Explore monday.com’s project tracker template or get started with monday.com today to see how our platform can help you fast track your projects with confidence.
FAQs
What's the main difference between fast tracking and crashing?
Fast tracking overlaps tasks to save time, usually without adding cost but increasing risk. Crashing adds resources to shorten task durations, which costs more but can be less risky if managed well.
Can fast tracking be used in Agile projects?
While Agile focuses on iterative cycles, principles of fast tracking (like identifying and parallelizing tasks within a sprint where dependencies allow) can be applied to accelerate sprint goals or meet tight release deadlines. However, it requires careful coordination within the Agile framework.
How much time can fast tracking realistically save?
This varies greatly depending on the project, the number of tasks that can be overlapped, and how well it's managed. Savings can range from a small percentage to a significant portion of the remaining schedule, but it's crucial to focus on tasks on the critical path for maximum impact.
What are common mistakes to avoid when fast tracking?
Common mistakes include poor communication, underestimating increased risks, fast tracking tasks with hard dependencies, not monitoring progress closely, and overloading the team without support. Robust managing project risks strategies are essential.
How does monday.com specifically help mitigate fast tracking risks?
monday.com helps by providing clear visibility into task dependencies and progress with Gantt charts, facilitating real-time communication, enabling workload management to prevent burnout, and offering customizable automations for updates, thus improving coordination and reducing oversight.
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