Reviewed by Frank Patrick
fpatrick@focusedperformance.com
http://www.focusedperformance.com
CRITICAL CHAIN is
a "business novel," in the tradition of Goldratt's seminal work, THE GOAL, the
book that rocked the boat of production management in the '80s. As such, it
uses a fictionalized setting with several interweaving story lines. The main
story is aimed at the topic of project management. The mechanism used is the
development of a way to think about project management by a professor and his
executive MBA program students. The Socratic interplay between the students, who
represent different industries and different organizational functions, and the
professor, result in what has become known as the Critical Chain Scheduling and
Buffer Management approach.
In the story, CRITICAL CHAIN starts
off with a review of various aspects of projects that make it difficult to bring
them in on time, in budget, and as specified. Discussion of the assumptions that
underlie the usual excuses for project problems bring about a new understanding
of how project teams often shoot themselves in the foot by their own practices,
and how these things that are actually under the control of the team and can be
the basis for a coherent methodology for the building and management of project
schedules. Experienced project managers who have read the book are sometimes
taken aback by some of Goldratt's assertions, and perhaps appropriately when it
comes to an understanding of acknowledged good project management practice. (A
questionable defintion of "critical path" comes to mind.) But in Goldratt's
defense, I believe his real target is those who follow "common practice,"
thinking that the acknowledged "good practice" is more bother than it is worth.
The exposition of the critical chain approach is meant to turn good practice
into common sense, and therefore pave the way for the implementation of much of
what is recognized "good practice."
The two chief contributions leading
to this "common sense" are:
1. The recognition of the impact of
common human behavior on the estimating process and on the way people work
against those estimates; the human aspect of project performance.
2. The emphasis of the understanding
of project tasks as variable, statistical entities and the use of that awareness
to build a rational and reliable overall project schedule.
CRITICAL CHAIN has been gigged by
some because it doesn't deal sufficiently with issues associated with multiple
project environments, or "program management," although the concepts presented
are needed for the single project that make up those environments. There are
simply more aspects needed to flesh out the complete solution for project
programs, which are left out of the scope of this conceptual introduction.
There have also been comments by
some that it isn't "how-to" enough. It's not meant to be so. It's meant to be a
"whack on the side of the head" of managers and teams to realize that much of
their project problems are of their own making. As such, it's an excellent book
on what makes projects tick for project owners, and people who depend on project
success, perhaps even more than for project managers themselves. At its heart,
CRITICAL CHAIN is a good introduction to what is really only a slightly
different view of good project management practice from a world-class
iconoclast.
