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.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Software for Critical Chain Project Management -- In a recent exchange of blog postings on spiral project lifecycles, Brian at Projectified mentions looking into the various options for making MS Project work in a Critical Chain environment. They all use MS Project as an underlying database, and as a data (tasks, task resources, resource availablity, dependencies, duration estimates) entry vehicle. In general, they all use a relatively similar multi-step process of using the inputted information to 1) resolve resource contentions, 2) propose a recommended critical chain, and 3) size and insert buffers to develop a rational plan and project lead-time for the project in question. They also all provide a method for easily updating the estimates to completion of active tasks during project execution, as well as sets of tools for analyzing project networks both in the planning and execution stages.
Due to the simplicity of the critical chain planning process, resulting in similarity of the planning and analysis tools and processes provided, the major distinctions tend to fall in the means for assessing and reporting project health and in the presentation of the networks when viewed in their design for a Gantt view.
The single-project options include the following...
ProChain -- From ProChain Solutions, this is the grand-daddy of CCPM software, introduced shortly after the publication of Eli Goldratt's introductory book, Critical Chain, in 1997. I particularly like their ProChain Gantt View, which offers a nice parallel view of the baseline plan and the current projections, cleanly showing buffer consumption. The picture they provide is a nice view of the health of the promise at the end of the project buffer, which tends to emphasize the protection of that promise. It also offers a nice clean interface for macros and filters used to analyze why a project is where it's at. (Although I must admit that the cleanliness of interfaces are in the eye of the beholder; my appreciation for it may just be rooted in the fact that I cut my CC teeth with ProChain. ProChain works with two other offerings from ProChain Solutions for multi-project managment; the simpler ProChain Pipeline and the more sophisticated web-based ProChain Enterprise.
cc-Pulse -- From Spherical Angle, launched in the fall of 2003, ccPulse's view of the world seems to be less about protecting promises and more about projecting the possibilities of finishing at some point in the future. The emphasis seems to be less about worrying about buffers and more about assuring an easily updated model of current status of completed work and expectations of the work that remains to be done until the end of the project. Speed of completion is seen as the way to keeping promises. (This is not to say that it doesn't do a credible job of buffer management. It just does it from a slightly different perspective than ProChain.) Version 1.1 of cc-Pulse has just been launched, introducing a new "Looking Glass" reporting interface, which, while I haven't had a chance to look into it in practice yet, looks very interesting. The only thing holding ccPulse back from being a major player in the CCPM space right now is the fact that their multi-project solution -- cc-MPulse -- is still in development. If however, you want to explore critical chain-based PM on a single project, it's well worth looking into. It might even be acceptable to "bet on the come" with it for small multi-project environments, since the parent company is offering a multi-project scheduling service while their product is in development.
CCPM+ -- Just introduced recently, CCPM+, from Advanced Projects, Inc., is the latest entry into this space. All I know about it is what I see on their website, but it looks like a simple CCPM implementation for MS Project 2000 and later. There is no apparent multi-project application associated with it yet.
In addition to these single-project "plug-ins" for MS Project, Realization Technologies (formerly Speed-to-Market) offers their Project Flow software (formerly Concerto) for purely multi-project applications, and Sciforma, with its PS8 product, offers the only approach that combines single- and multi-project management capabilities in one package that does not rely on MS Project.
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