Schedule Compression and Time-Cost Trade-Off - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 213

For all of these types of projects, the contract may or may not contain a liqui-
dated damages clause. The damages usually include an estimated loss of revenue as a
result of a delay and may include punitive damages . Punitive damages are difficult to
recover in court, especially in the case of a mere breach of contract. To recover puni-
tive damages (also called exemplary damages ), the owner must prove that the breach
was committed maliciously or that an intentional tort or another illegal or wrongful
act, such as fraud, was committed (Wickwire, Driscoll, and Hurlbut, 2009, §11.19).
SETTING PRIORITIES
Finishing on—or ahead of—schedule is an important objective of the contractor and
the owner. Finishing on—or under—budget is another important objective. Achiev-
ing these two objectives simultaneously is desirable and usually possible, but often the
contractor must rank them in order of importance: one above the other. As is shown
later in this chapter, the project manager may, at a certain point, be faced with a sit-
uation in which shortening the duration costs more money. At this point, a decision
must be made between two alternatives:
1. Do not shorten the duration further and keep the cost to a minimum.
2. Keep compressing the schedule, even though the cost will continue to rise.
Tip Box 8.1
It is true that time and cost are very important; however, one must be more important
than the other. You make the decision!
ACCELERATING A PROJECT
What Is “Accelerating” a Project?
Accelerating a project means shortening the normal duration of the project schedule
without reducing the original scope of work (also called schedule compression ). It
does not necessarily mean aiming for the shortest possible duration. The term compress-
ing the schedule is synonymous and is used throughout this topic. The term schedule
crashing is generally used to indicate maximum acceleration, although it is sometimes
used in lieu of accelerating.
Why Accelerate a Project?
A contractor may want to accelerate a schedule for one or more of several reasons,
such as the following: