Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) addresses these issues in project management
:Constructing plans which are feasible and robust against change, at the project level and at the pipeline (programme) level
Clear focus and prioritisation for project teams and managers
Simple measures of project progress and health status
Objective triggers for corrective action
Steering ongoing improvement efforts to the most productive areas
The result is to make delivery on time in full a matter of routine
CCPM builds on - but goes beyond - todays traditional methods - Prince, MSP, PMBoK, etc
CCPM is established in major organisation in the US but is not yet mainstream in the UK
Organisations which wish to improve their project delivery performance through adopting CCPM go through the following stages:
Proof-of-concept through trialling CCPM with a single project
Establish a sound baseline through training in project management and establishing work breakdown structure, dependencies and resource requirements for all projects
Training in CCPM-specific techniques in planning and execution phase
Installation of CCPM software
Bedding-in period when new techniques are put into practice and become routine
It is our goal to help organisations through these steps so that they can move out of the world of crisis management, rescheduling, de-scoping, overruns and disappointment, and into the world of on time in full to budget delivery as a matter of routine.
References:
Eliyahu Goldratt, 'Critical Chain', ISBN 0-88427-153-6
In the 1980's Goldratt made a big stir in the field of factory production planning systems, coming up with a completely new way of doing things, sharply different from the prevailing methods then in use. He has since broadened the scope of application of his thinking into other areas, including project management. This book illustrates his ideas in this area, in his own particular way, by telling a story. Goldratt's insights are refreshing, practical, and highly effective in application.
Lawrence P. Leach, 'Critical Chain Project Management', ISBN 1-58053-074-5
An excellent how-to (and why-to) textbook which takes the ideas sketched in Goldratt's book and states them more clearly and explicitly, including the conflicts and concordances with traditional Project management techniques and concise and elegant displays of some of the tools of the Theory of Constraints, which was the foundation for the development of Critical Chain. This book belongs in the hands of every Critical Chain practitioner.
Ted Hutchin, 'Enterprise-Focused Management', ISBN 0-7277-2979-9
Ted tells the story of implementing the ideas in 'Critical Chain' in a number of companies. As usual, the thinking is refined in the process of working with real people for practical results. At the end, what distinguishes the successful companies and managers from the unsuccessful is their ability to ruthlessly discard the habits and behaviours which have brought them success in the past, and replace them with those necessary for success in the future.