Time in project management or Time-Cost Trade-Off:

is the relationship between activity time and cost. by assigning more workers  to a particular activity will normally result in a shorter duration. greater speed may result in higher costs and lower quality, however. In this topic, we shall consider the impacts of time and cost trade-offs in activities.

---

Why do we need to reduce project time and what is the value of time in project management?

Finish the project in a predefined deadline date

Recover early delays to avoid liquidated damages

Free key resources early for other projects

Avoid adverse weather conditions that might affect productivity

Receive an early completion-bonus

Improve project cash flow by the scheduling techniques ( reduce project duration)

---

What is the way to reduce activity duration?

by Working extended hours (Over time)

Offering incentive payments to increase the productivity

Using additional resources

Using materials with faster installation methods

Using alternate construction methods or sequence

---

Activity Time-Cost Relationship:

Total project costs include both direct costs and indirect costs of performing the activities of the project. Direct costs for the project include  the costs of materials, labor, equipment, and subcontractors. Indirect costs, on the other hand, are the necessary costs of doing work which can not be related to a particular activity, and in some cases can not be related to a specific project

Decreasing activity duration will increase its cost which related to Project direct cost = summation of direct cost of individual activities.

Decreasing activity duration will decreases Project indirect cost = daily indirect cost x project duration.

time in project management is very valuable factor and we use time management project to find the point between direct cost and indirect cost which equal to minimum cost of the project or Optimum Duration.project management time.

---

Shortening Project Duration (Optimum Duration):

Start by shortening the activity duration on the critical path which has the least cost slope and not been shortened to its crash duration.

The cost increase due to activity shortening is calculated a cost slope multiplied by the time of time units shortened.

Continue until no further shortening is possible, and then the crash point is reached.

The results may be represented graphically by plotting project completion time against cumulative cost increase.

using time management project techniques you should be able to identify the Optimum Duration as shown in the figure on the right.

The objective of the time-cost trade-off analysis is to reduce the original project duration, determined form the critical path analysis, to  meet a specific deadline, with the least cost.

time in project management is critical in today’s market-driven economy.

---