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When the Theory of Constraints technology is applied to Project Management, what emerges is a powerful and unconventional approach known as Critical Chain Project Management.
The typical manager attending this workshop walks into the room entirely skeptical that anything anyone can offer is actually going to be of value to them, in their particular circumstances in their particular project management environment. Of course, the reality that something is needed, and needed badly, is evidenced by the fact they are in the room at all, given their skepticism.
This situation demands that before any "solution" is proposed, every person attending the workshop needs to agree that we do at least have an understanding of their situation. This is clearly not trivial - environments such as software development, construction, launching a new product, implementing an ERP system, performing an audit or year-end, or customizing an engineered product, all appear to be unique, and there is often initial resistance to any claim that there is a common core problem.
By mid-afternoon of the first day, every participant will typically be in full agreement with us, and with each other, that we have pinpointed a core problem that explains most, if not all, of the "symptoms" they are experiencing in their environment. Some examples of these symptoms are:
- Projects take too long
- Projects are nearly always late
- Projects are usually over-budget
- Projects often end-up having the deliverable compromised
- Project resources often suffer from burnout
... and more.
Those who have invested in conventional project management consulting, education, and training will also see just why conventional project management techniques, no matter how conscientiously applied, have not generated the scale of improvements they had expected.
Now there is hope. Because what they thought were problems unique to their environment might indeed prove to be real, and might indeed prove to be unique to them ... but more importantly, they can clearly see that these problems are NOT the major cause of their performance problems. They certainly influence the scale of them, and they certainly cause the balance of management's response to be different in every case, but they do not cause the problems.
This is a huge realization. For the first time they see there is a problem that can be attacked directly, rather than simply attempting to suppress the symptoms.
The remaining 1½ days are needed to build the shape and the details of the Critical Chain Project Management solution, step by step, in such a way that each participant agrees it will work in THEIR reality. They do not need to have any prior knowledge of the Theory of Constraints technology.
The Critical Chain Project Management solution has major implications for several aspects of project management. First of all, a better mechanical scheduling technique emerges, building on the traditional approach but with many significant differences. Then it becomes clear that the mechanical technique will not work effectively unless the behaviours of project resources, project managers, and functional managers reflect the new understanding of the project environment. And finally, the top management policies that induce the behaviours that need to be changed, including common formal and informal measurements, are revealed as nothing more than policy constraints.
By the close, participants have a Theory of Constraints based blueprint for effective project management that offers the proven potential for:
- Substantially reduced project durations
- Routinely high on-time project completions
- On-specification and on-budget project performance
- Projects completed mostly by resources working normal hours
- Up to 300% more projects completed by the same resurces, without compromising the deliverables.
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