This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Friday, March 12, 2004
On Rework Good and Bad -- Some of the best comments engendered by this weblog are in response to the Prescriptions and Promises piece on rework. In particular, Mark Williams noted that
I suppose we could conceive of breaking down a project into tasks where the person carrying out the task has complete and perfect knowledge of that task and it's implications on others. I'm prepared to concede that this may be our goal, but that in practice we are unlikely to achieve it.
The essence and objective of planning is not about trying to predict the unpredictable in order to develop a plan "that must be obeyed," or even to detail future work to absolutely eliminate rework. Rather, planning and promising projects are about winnowing out what we do know from what we don't, understanding where in the project network the decisions are needed, and questioning how much we really have to know to make those decisions.
Maybe it's not so much "good and bad" rework, but "planned and unplanned" rework, or as Mark refers to it, planned "modification through feedback" versus questionable courses of action, planned or otherwise.
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