Delivering Projects On Time – Every Time!

Project management body of knowledge has evolved considerably in the last fifty years, nevertheless effective project delivery (time/budget/scope) is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.  Those few projects that are commissioned on time become front-page news – as if they were not supposed to complete on time!  Studies and research establish that existing project management practices are not successful.  Software Development, New Product Developments, Construction; and Engineering projects – all fields of project management are equally impacted by time and budget overruns attributed to ineffective Project Management Technology.  Is there a scientific way of managing projects which can deliver desired results? 

Project managers desire to have a perfect world that consists of (i) detailed plan with high-confidence estimates, (ii) best resources available, (iii) ideal vendor partners and (iv) final project specs that should not change.


Projects are unique, thus by definition, have higher levels of uncertainty.  Hoping for a project environment without uncertainty is a paradox.  Uncertainty needs to be managed as part of the project plan and execution.  A good solution should necessarily have a process to actively manage uncertainty.

The common solution to project management - creating a detailed project plan, estimating durations, assign resources to meet the task deadlines – consistently fail to deliver results.  During implementation, murphy strikes and firefighting takes over – resources are multitasked, conflicts surface, more resources are pooled in – cost and time overrun are nevertheless observed.  Projects are dynamic in nature, where the original plan will be modified and evolved based on day-to-day realities.  With this understanding of a project environment -- Is there a scientific way of managing projects which can deliver desired results?

Necessary conditions for a project management methodology to deliver results are the following:

  • Actively managing uncertainty in planning & execution;

  • Avoid pitfalls of highly detailed planning;

  • Avoid wastage of resources & capacity through Bad Multitasking, Student Syndrome, Parkinson’s Law;

  • Reliable monitoring & execution of project plan updated with latest status.

  • Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) was developed and publicized by Dr. Eli Goldratt in 1997. This is a significant progress (and paradigm shift) from the established project management standards.   Critical Chain Project Management recommends significant changes to the prevalent project management philosophy:
          
    1. Project Planning: Actively and consciously account for uncertainty in project environment.  
    2. Project Scheduling: Eliminate multi-tasking by accounting for resource loading for activity scheduling. 
    3. Project Execution:  Full Kit based activity planning and execution.
    4. Project Monitoring: Real time visibility of project progress & monitoring based on remaining duration for project completion, as opposed to %age completion. 


    The scientific methodology propagated by CCPM in planning and execution challenges the prevalent paradigm in project management.  Critical Chain Project Management has been implemented across different industries & functions, in India and worldwide.  With CCPM, projects achieve both speed and reliability in delivery.  The results observed in the last 10 years are noteworthy – reduction in lead-time by upto 50%.  Deploying CCPM requires to think differently about project management – as it challenges how projects, resources and priorities may be currently managed.  But if project speed and reliability are important, Critical Chain Project Management paradigm is the solution to achieve the desired results.

    Comments

    1. Dear Amani: You may want to find out a little more about Critical Chain Project Management - and consider certification for this. This may provide you an alternate perspective of enabling project execution.
      Best.
      Harish

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