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:
- Project Planning: Actively and consciously account for uncertainty in project environment.
- Project Scheduling: Eliminate multi-tasking by accounting for resource loading for activity scheduling.
- Project Execution: Full Kit based activity planning and execution.
- 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteBest.
Harish