Analysis Essay On Critical Chain Project Management

Critical Chain Project Management Analysis Essay

Critical chain project management refers to a method of executing, planning and managing projects in a multiple and single projects environments. Most of the time projects are dogged by poor performance which is as a result of taking a longer time and duration than expected, increased costs which exceeds the previously allocated budget, missed deadlines and less work delivered than originally promised (Goldratt, 1997). This is where the theory of constraints by Dr. Eli Goldratt comes to the picture.  When Traditional critical path techniques are used to plan for an upcoming project, we estimate for the duration that the task will take. If the plan is to be realistic, a lot of time is spent calculating the estimates to ensure that the estimates are accurate. The probability that we give for the completion of the project on time is 100 % since we have high confidence with the estimates. So we safely allocate extra time for the project beyond the required time. This technique has its own shortcoming. So the more time we allocate for safety of the completion the more we tend to have the student syndrome as illustrated by Goldratt’s theory. The tendency of not starting the work immediately or may be the delays and taking our time  in starting the work is what he is referring to as student syndrome (Lang, 2008).

The other problem is shortage of resources, since most of the time we tend to have more than one project running at the same time and so we tend to divide each resource on several other projects. While we have 10 project a particular resource may be involve in 5 or all of those projects. In addition when time seems to be running out, the management may results to extreme measures in order to save time. So some staffs are deployed from one task to the next resulting in Multi-tasking. So due to bad multi-tasking the staff end up having the effects of being over worked. So you would assume that due to multitasking it would all average out and the project may be complete on time. But that’s not how it happens according to Goldratt. As some tasks complete they may not pass the resource to the next project since they may not be ready for it, or the fear of being expected to finish within the same time next time and there is always some thing to improve when you do have extra time. So the delays are simply passed to the next task (Lang, 2008).
     So the solution to all this problems is critical chain management which comes with a lot of benefits. It addresses these problems by reducing the safety time allocated to each task by half. The remaining time is fed at the end of the chain and by doing this the whole project is buffered. This reduces the tendencies of time wasting and allocates the time to the projects that needs time more. It also uses the buffers spared from other projects to manage the variations and impact of uncertainty around all the projects. The theory also recommends the consideration of resource contention to determine the critical chain. This ensures that that people with appropriate skills are available to work as soon as possible when they are required (Lang, 2008).
In order to reduce the high expectations that the management has on employees and as result workers are fatigue. The critical chain management recommends a change of measures. It is alright to let everyone know that it is understandable that there is only 50% chance of completing the task and that it is okay to take more time since that is what the buffers are for. Continues improvement is also another solution provided by critical chain management. The projects are divided in to different categories depending with the urgency of the project and so it is easy to track those that a lot of attention. So by doing this the management can determine which project has a risk of being left behind and acts accordingly (Lang, 2008).
References:
Dettmer, H. W. (1997). Goldratt's Theory of Constraints: A Systems Approach to Continuous Improvement. New York: ASQ Quality Press.
Goldratt, E. M. ( 1997). Critical Chain. New York: North River Press.
Lang, D. (2008, March 17). Youtube. Retrieved from Critical Chain Project Management Overview