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.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Task Commitments -- In response to my recent prescription regarding rework -- the one that involved getting rid of task due dates -- Hal Macomber talks about leaving tasks off the schedule. This doesn't work, since as he recognizes, it removes visibility of what one needs to do. In my (Critical Chain) world, tasks remain on the schedule, but float as predecessors take longer or shorter than anticipated. He also offers an alternative way of looking at the issue...
"Make (task) commitments at the last responsible moment."
This is exactly what is done in a Critical Chain-managed environment via frequent and regular (ideally daily) task status updates of estimated time to complete active tasks -- 5 days left, 4 days left, 4 days left (whoops), 3 days left, 2 days left, 1 day left, done. You can't get much later than that. Combined with a rolling look-ahead to future tasks -- Hal talks about a 6-week look-ahead, my clients usually go with watching tasks that are projected to start 2 to 4 weeks out -- these updates provide current visibility of both active and near-term tasks, as well as ripple out through the remainder of the project to provide current project buffer consumption for gauging the health of the overall project promise.
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