Traditional Vs Critical Chain PM

Traditional Critical Chain Benefits obtained from CCPM

Project Project
Management Management
Methods (CCPM)
1. Schedules Schedules Task times do not collect safety
worst-case task average task time "fudge factors". Risk,
durations. durations. stress, and effort are shared
equally amongst all tasks &
resources. People start to think
differently than before. "Sacred
cow" schedules are avoided.
People can see what's really
consuming the elapsed time.
Management can manage,
project durations are cut, people
can go faster with less stress.
Everybody and every resource
are treated fairly & by the same
rules. Ineffective hierarchies are
broken down.

2. Protects Protects overall Safety time is not hoarded by

individual tasks project individual tasks and people, but
with safety time. completion with shared by everyone. Safety time
buffers. is conserved and used most
wisely over the entire project.
Focus is placed on what is most
important to the customer:
speedy deliverables.

3. Emphasizes Emphasizes Everybody sees the "Big

task progress. project progress. Picture". Micro-management is
avoided. Project Managers have
a consistent outlook through the
entire project. Events that slow
the project are constantly in the
schedule spotlight. People stay
focused on the problems.
Problems get identified more
Traditional Vs Critical Chain PM

quickly, and get solved sooner.

4. Starts gating Starts gating Critical and limited resources are

tasks ASAP. tasks when they not plugged up with non-critical
need to start. tasks which block & slow critical
tasks. This is similar to Fire
Lanes and sirens on emergency
vehicles. Non-critical traffic
stays off the roads until the
emergency vehicles have passed.
Use of bottleneck resources is
based on priority, not "first come,
first served". Projects get
completed faster.

5. Starts and Starts tasks as Project is managed and

finishes tasks at soon as implemented like a relay race.
scheduled start predecessors are The baton always goes around
and finish times. done, finishes the track at maximum speed.
tasks as quickly Runners pace themselves for
as possible. hand-offs so the baton never
stops nor slows down. If you are
carrying the baton, just finished
carrying, or getting ready to
carry it next, your activities are
tightly monitored, controlled, and
managed; all others are of lesser
priority and have freedom to self-
manage. People focus better,
and projects get done faster and
cheaper.

6. Makes Resolves Bottleneck resource is identified

resource resource by CCPM schedule. All users of
contention a PM contentions the critical resource are
"fact of life". explicitly. identified up-front and conflicts
resolved. Project Managers
watch only the critical resource;
constantly focusing on what's
important and preventing
Traditional Vs Critical Chain PM

problems from occurring.

Constraints are managed.

7. Makes multi- Minimizes multi- The terrible cost of multi-tasking

tasking a PM tasking by is exposed. All personnel are
"fact of life". setting priorities. trained on "bad multi-tasking".
People hunt down & eliminate
their own multi-tasking, multi-
tasking forced on them by
others, and multi-tasking done by
others. This alone can cut
project schedules elapsed time
by up to 40%.

8. Reacts to Manages Project schedules and their

uncertainty by uncertainty by priorities stay consistent.
changing monitoring People don't get confused, nor
priorities, impact of events lost as readily. The impact of
expediting, and on buffer one project on all other projects
creating a new consumption. is minimized. Entire organization
schedule. stabilizes into busy and
productive status quo activities,
rather than chaos. People feel
benefits from CCPM; they are
more productive, less frustrated,
involved. Their contributions &
efforts matter. Morale climbs.

9. Makes task Makes task "Sacred cows" like "we've always

linkages and linkages and done it that way" get challenged.
constraints constraints People innovate. Opportunities
reflect ad hoc or reflect only are identified automatically.
habitual physical Historical systems are re-
scheduling scheduling designed & changed to take
decisions. requirements. advantage of theoretical
opportunities; making these
opportunities reality. Rate of
learning in the organization &
adaptability are maximized.
Competitors are left behind with
Traditional Vs Critical Chain PM

their old, non-competitive

paradigms. You become a world-
leader in your industry.