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Critical Chain and Risk Management
-- Protecting Project Value from Uncertainty (Part 8)
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8. SUMMARY -- A FORWARD-LOOKING APPROACH TO FUTURE RISKS
Critical Chain-based Project Management and the Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes provide a range of tools and processes to support Risk Management and the protection of project value. A common thread them is a forward-looking approach to the management of projects. Planning with Network Building looks forward to the objectives of the project before considering the path of activities to get there. The Critical Chain Schedule looks forward to the final project deliverables without being distracted by intermediate task due dates that only serve to sub-optimize schedule performance. “Relay race” resource behaviors look forward with fine focus on the making timely handoffs with quality. Synchronization looks forward to the capabilities of the pipeline. And Buffer Management eschews percent complete or earned value of completed work as water over the dam, and instead looks forward to the work remaining, and its variation and risks.
Management of uncertainty and risk in an effort to deliver promised project value with certainty is what project management is all about, and risk and uncertainty lie in the future. Critical Chain Scheduling and Buffer Management is not only a technique for the development and tracking of project schedules. It is a coherent and comprehensive approach to project management that encompasses and effects other processes and practices associated with project management as well. Most importantly, its implications for looking forward and taking appropriate actions for accepting, avoiding, and mitigating risk are significant and beneficial.
9. REFERENCES
Duncan, William R., ed., (1996) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Project Management Institute, Upper Darby, PA.
Goldratt, Eliyahu M., (1997) Critical Chain, North River Press, Great Barrington, MA.
Goldratt, Eliyahu M., (1994) It’s Not Luck, North River Press, Great Barrington, MA.
Jacob, Dee, (1998), Introduction to Project Management the TOC Way—A Workshop, The A.Y.Goldratt Institute, New Haven, CT.
Patrick, Francis S., (1999a) Getting Out from Between Parkinson’s Rock and Murphy’s Hard Place, PM Network, 13(4), 57-62.
Patrick, Francis S., (1999b) Program Management -- Turning Many Projects into Few Priorities with TOC, Proceedings: PMI International Symposium.
Patrick, Francis S., (2001) Using Resistance to Change (and the TOC Thinking Processes) to Improve Improvements, Proceedings: IIE Solutions Conference, Institute of Industrial Engineers, Norcross, GA.
Pritchard, Carl L., ed., (1997) Risk Management Concepts and Guidance, ESI International, Arlington, VA.
This article is an expanded version of one originally presented at the national Project Management Institute Symposium (Nashville, November, 2001). It is presented here in linked sections for ease of reading on the web. This version has been accepted for the 2002 World Project Management Week conference (Hong Kong, March, 2002). For off-line reading and sharing, the full article can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format at ccrisk.pdf or in Microsoft Word format at ccrisk.doc.
1. INTRODUCTION
-- MANAGING UNCERTAIN EVENTS FOR CERTAIN PROMISES
2. PROJECT PLANNING
-- DEPENDENCIES AND DURATIONS
3. PROJECT SCHEDULING
-- INTEGRATIONS, VARIATION, AND RATIONAL PROMISES
4. RESOURCE BEHAVIORS
-- MINIMIZING THE EFFECT OF PARKINSON’S LAW
5. SYNCHRONIZATION OF THE PIPELINE
-- MINIMIZING RISK OF CROSS-PROJECT IMPACTS
6. PROJECT AND RISK RESPONSE CONTROL
-- CLARITY OF PRIORITIES AND CORRECTIVE ACTION
7. THE THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS
-- MORE THAN CRITICAL CHAIN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
8. SUMMARY -- A FORWARD-LOOKING APPROACH TO FUTURE RISKS
9. REFERENCES
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| Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. - Barry LePatner |
Discuss Critical Chain - An email-based discussion group
Frequently Asked Questions about Critical Chain-based project Management
 Top 10 Sources of Project Failure -- A list you probably won't see on Letterman.
Related links:
Check Out the Following Links for More About the TOC Approach to Project Management:
Getting Out From Between Parkinson's Rock and Murphy's Hard Place -- This first link will bring up a paper based on a poster presentation originally given at the 1998 New Jersey PMI Chapter's annual symposium, honored with a "best of the show" award by attendees, and later turned into an article published in PMI's PM Network magazine.
Program Management -- Turning Many Projects into Few Priorities with TOC -- This link will lead to a paper on the key attributes of a TOC Multi-Project Management environment. (Most projects are performed by resources shared with other projects. It can be deadly to ignore the resulting interactions, no matter how well you manage single projects.) This paper was originally presented at PMI's Global Symposium in Philadelphia in October of 1999 and is included in the proceedings of that conference. Audio tapes of the presentation are also available from PMI.
Project Portfolio Management - The First Cut is the Kindest Cut - One of the common problems faced by project-oriented organizations is having too many projects relative to their capacity. Therefore, one of the first things that needs to be done is to determine what can be done is to determine what should be done . . . and what should not be done . . .
Consumption of Effort and Conservation of Energy for Project Success -- This link will lead to an essay on the necessity for managing protective capacity in multi-project environments to get the most organizational throughput from the efforts of project resources.
Critical Chain Basics
A Critical Chain Schedule
The Sooner You Start, The Later You Finish
Multitasking Multiplies Lead Time |
