Project Management At Dazzling Speed (“Critical Chain” Project Management) 1 (Almost) A Joke ... The weakest link in a chain is in fact the strongest one since it breaks it ! St. Letz 2 A Few General Issues: •A great deal of today’s business activities have project approach; •Traditional Darwinism (“The strong eat the weak”) is already substituted by business Darwinism (“The quick eat the slow”) 3 Main problems in project management The main problem is variation – things happen in a not predictable way (“It is always different!” : ® Mr. Peter Ivanov, my respected friend). And Mr. Murphy is a workaholic! Basic negative factors can be grouped as: – Multitasking (accumulation of numerous pending tasks at the same time); – “Student’s Syndrome” (everything is done at the last moment and then something goes wrong); – Mutual dependence between tasks (delays are accumulated and not work finished in advance). 4 Contradictions in Project Management What we want... ...and what we actually do To finish projects on time We try to finish separate tasks on time To take more projects; We try to make our people more efficient To decrease the time for project accomplishment; We try to decrease the time for task accomplishment; To keep projects within their budget; We take risks related to comparatively small costs; To make customer happy; We fight with each other on resource conflicts; In this column we have only In this column we have global, companylevel factors; only local factors! 5 And ... -”So what”? We must attack the assumption that people must be measured by their “being busy” and by their timely reporting for accomplished tasks; To provide protection against the permanently vigilant and VERY laborious Mr. Murphy! 6 Miracles are Possible… … and the only REALLY DRASTIC improvement may be done only on Company-wide – that is, System level! 7 But There Is a Way! Our salvation lies in application of method known as Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM). CCPM is an application of Theory of Constraints (TOC) in the field of project management ( including design ) This method stresses protection of the whole project by application of Project Buffer and working with challenging “net times” for each separate task. Critical Chain is the longest chain of dependent tasks and resource usage steps in a project. (You know traditional concept of Critical Path? Here we go a bit further!). 8 The Five Focused Steps in Constraint Management: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Identify the constraint; Exploit the constraint; Subordinate everything else in the System to Art. 2; Eliminate the root cause of the constraint; Go back to Art. 1 – and do not allow inertia to become the real constraint! ( E. Goldratt ) 9 How To Manage Project This Way? 1. Identify the Constraint! It is the Critical Chain that acts as project constraint; It defines its success or failure! 10 2. Exploit the Constraint! “Squeeze” the Critical Chain! Press timely implementation (“net times!”) of all tasks lying on it! Resources work without fixed deadline – their orders look like “Start at …, work with full priority and maximal intensity, and when you are ready – pass the task to the next resource!” Protect the whole project length by Project Buffer; Main indicator is consumption of the project buffer! 11 3. Subordinate everything else in the System to Art. 2! 1. The non-critical parts of project plan are completely subordinated to the Critical Chain. 2. These part are known as “Feeding chains”;“Subordination” means that these chains must be completed before planned start of next task in the Critical Chain; 3. Resulting protection time “gap” is called Feeding Buffer. 12 About Buffers: Project Buffer protects the whole project from variation along the Critical Chain; Project Buffer serves as main indicator for project progress; Feeding Buffer protect the project from variation along feeding chains; Buffer length is defined by application of ROT – “Rule of Thumb” often 50% from “net time length of corrresponding chain; Definition of timing for feeding chains is shown in sequence 1-2-3 below. 13 Tough Issues! We must create attitude in people which does not allow the “Student Syndrome”! Apply “relay race method” (“When I get a task, I will start it immediately, I will do it in the fastest possible way, I will do nothing else and I will transfer it immediately to next link of project chain!”) No multitasking is allowed! Make this basic part of Company culture! 14 4. Eliminate the root cause of the Constraint Double the resources along the Critical Chain; Other possibilities include doubling of feeding chains and/or their acceleration. 15 Project Buffer As Indicator 0 Project Buffer Consumption • The project leader sees a chart like that below; this may happen in real time; •Delay in accomplishment of certain task look like “crawling upwards” of corresponding task point – upwards to the red area; •Rule is simple: if points are in green area – do not do anything; if in yellow area – check what is going on; if in the red area – (only then!) take action! 0 25 50 75 Critical Chain Accomplishment (%) 100 16 Managing of More Projects Here we manage CRITICAL (Strategic) RESOURCE – a Company-level resource which defines whether things will be done on time ; Here we buffer this resource by STRATEGIC RESOURCE BUFFER; This buffer is located in front of the task(s) of the Strategic Resource in order to guarantee its continuous work. 17 Example for Two-Project Management Set 18 Project Monitoring Screenshot (Example) (Or what does the boss see…) Priority 1 Status Project name Project 1 Project manager Deadline % accomplished John Screw 98 25.12.2006 21 Project 2 Mary Mess 48 31.01.2007 13 Project 3 Peter Pickpocket 63 14.02.2007 54 Project 4 Mary Mess 15 23 Project 5 George Binladin 03.03.2008 24.05.2007 13 Project 6 Helluv O’Booze 01.08.2008 18 17 Project 7 Mary Mess 30.10.2007 38 41 Project 8 Helluv O’Booze 23.11.2007 34 The main indicator is the colour of the Project Buffer status! 41 19 But If We Still Have Problems … ... Just apply the Five Focusing Steps: Identify the constraint; Exploit the constraint; Subordinate everything else in the System to Art. 2; 4. Eliminate the root cause of the constraint; 5. Go back to Art. 1 – and do not allow inertia to become the real constraint! 1. 2. 3. 20