Project Management

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Does anyone use the Critical Chain Method?

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Sameer Iyer Vice President - Salesforce Centre of Excellence| Barclays Bank, Plc. Pune, Maharashtra, India

Critical Chain Project Management is based on Theory of Constraints, a concept coined by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Though I had heard of this term before, it was only after I read a title called 'Critical Chain' that I could reckon that it is a very unique concept. The techniques encouraged to manage project costs and overruns and buffer management are very different from the kind of project management I have worked with.



The question is, is Critical Chain just a theory that sounds very good, or does it have practical utilization? Has anyone here ever used Crical Chain to manage projects? I would like to know how effective and beneficial this theory is in the field.


Thanks.
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Bipin Lekshmanan PMP Project Manager| Wipro Technologies Edison, Nj, United States
unfortunately, I haven't. But, I have also read some basic literature on the topic sometime before.
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Tom Welch PMP Mesa, Az, United States
Critical Chain is dsigned for companies in the light manufacturing sector.
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Bipin Lekshmanan PMP Project Manager| Wipro Technologies Edison, Nj, United States
I didn't know that. Thanks.
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Anonymous
Concepts are interesting. You may want to take a look at Lawrence Leach's site in which he ties projct planning and CCM together. http://www.advanced-projects.com/
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Wayne Mack Retired| Retired South Riding, Va, United States
David Anderson, formerly with Microsoft, now with Corbis Software has been applying Theory of Constraints to software development. See his blog at http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Weblog/blog.html

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Bruce Parkey Darien, Il, United States
I successfully implemented Critical Chain Project Management in a multi-project IT environment for a mid-market company. We reduced our project timelines by 25% within 90 days and within a year improved on-time performance to over 80%. It increased morale and teamwork throughout the project teams including development, quality assurance and business users. Critical Chain gave us the tools to focus our improvement efforts where they would have the most impact on project throughput.
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Tom Welch PMP Mesa, Az, United States
Critical Chain was a big loser when implemented at Lucent Technologies. I would never recommend this approach to an IT client. If you attemp to implement Critical Chain,then first have your resume updated, you soon need it. Critical Chain is all blow and no go.
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Mark Price Perry Business Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT International Orlando, Fl, United States

Dear Sameer,


Great job Bruce..! Your experience serves as a testimony for critical chain.


Not too long ago, we conducted an informal poll of 50 PMOs to determine how many of them used dynamic scheduling techniques as opposed to building schedules with static WBS tasks and milestones. The study findings revealed that less than 33% of the schedules were built dynamically. There were a number of reasons for this from tooling, to processes, to people issues. Hence, though Critical Chain offers practical utilization, it may very well be hard for many organziations to realize that value without addressing a few other things first.


I wouldn't go as far as Tom is saying that Critical Chain is all blow and no go, but regrettably such things can easily become a program du jour mindset within an organization often overshadowing the basics.


Nice post and interesting replies. Mark Perry, BOT International
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Tom Welch PMP Mesa, Az, United States
The good new is that you won't be terminated for using dynamic scheduling techniques. The bad news is waste budget dollars on implementing Critical Chain and you're out the door.
This discussion probably illuminates why I've never used Critical Chain - it sounds controversial.
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