Increasing project risk should be avoided as much as possible. In the mini-sim example, decreasing the animal experiment time would be very bad. From these studies we will see how well the product performs and observe any negative reactions that the product can potentially cause. If we decrease the time we may miss something important that could derail the project and I agree with cs22 that poor experimental data are much greater risks than any time delays. If we have to increase risk in a project it should be limited to something less important than experimental data, like manufacturing volume or something.

Also if a calm and productive discussion doesn’t provide a solution then it will be up to you to decide what to do next. Gather all the data you can and make the best possible call on what to do. Sometimes you have to take charge and put your thoughts before others and make them adapt to your decision whether they like it or not. You have a project to run so decide on the best course of action and go with it.