57 pages • 1 hour read
Critical Chain
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Themes
The Impact of Resource Management and Task Scheduling on Project Efficiency
The novel is designed to follow the discovery of CCPM, or the Critical Chain Project Management method as a means of efficiently managing resources and scheduling in one or multiple projects. The predominant theme of the novel, then, is the importance of managing resources and scheduling tasks as those elements contribute to overall project success and efficiency. Early in the class, Charlie asserts: “Everybody knows that projects don’t finish on time or on budget, and if they do it means they had to compromise on content” (35), which effectively outlines Goldratt’s goal in Critical Chain. Richard’s, and therefore Goldratt’s, intention is to find a way to manage projects so that they maintain quality, finish on time, and remain within the established budget. It is important to note that quality only becomes a concern due to the remaining two issues, which implies that only budget and time need to be considered in resolving these issues. Buffers are the main method Richard finds for managing time and resources, and the variety of buffers in the novel contributes to overall efficiency in project management, which is most discussed as an issue of “focus.”
Focus is the main concern of most of the characters in the novel, and when Ruth comments that “losing focus is one thing a project leader cannot afford” (89), that sentiment quickly spreads to all areas of a project. The project managers cannot “afford” either the cost in money or time that losing focus would lead to, and the solution comes from the Theory of Constraints, which then develops into the variety of buffers and scheduling techniques that compose CCPM. By focusing on the critical path, adding in buffers in time and resources to protect the critical path from delays on noncritical paths, the class seems to have found the answer to their concerns. However, the issue of bottleneck resources, like Genemodem’s digital processing department, presents a new issue in dealing with constraints. The answer is another buffer, called the bottleneck buffer, which works in tandem with precise organization of scheduling for the bottleneck resource. In this way, the bottleneck is always dedicated to one focused task, with a buffer allowing for some delays. With the implementation of buffers and rescheduling, the project leader is then able to focus on the critical path, or on whichever buffer may be running out of time. Instead of focusing on every element that might be a problem, or trying to juggle multiple critical and noncritical paths, the buffers ensure that the only paths in need of immediate focus are those whose buffers are almost consumed, which is the premise of CCPM.
The Theory of Constraints and Its Application in Business
The Theory of Constraints is a theory developed by Eli Goldratt in his previous novel The Goal, and it asserts that every system has a primary constraint that needs to be alleviated for the greater efficiency of the system. TOC was initially restricted to production, focusing on issues like bottlenecks in a chain of facilities and using analogies like Johnny’s line of soldiers building a road. However, Critical Chain is oriented around how TOC can be applied to project management by identifying the primary constraint in a project, or in a series of projects, using the same conceptual methods as TOC in production to find a way to manage projects more efficiently. When Richard explains the issue of vendors profiting from delays, Johnny summarizes TOC as: “Win-lose situations do not exist” (246), and the application of this tenet within and around a project is the premise of Richard’s methodology, CCPM, in the novel.
In developing the Critical Chain method, the evaporating cloud technique, in which two seemingly mutually exclusive assumptions need to be resolved, plays a critical role in eliminating “win-lose situations.” When Ruth and Brian confront the issue of noncritical paths directly impacting the critical path in a project, Richard compares need to maintain the critical path as the primary constraint in project management with the potential interference of noncritical paths that have consumed their buffers, and the result of this evaporating cloud seems to assert that projects can have two constraints to which the remainder of the project must be subordinated. The Critical Chain method is the subordination of scheduling around a bottleneck resource, much as the identification of the critical path as the primary constraint of a project requires subordination, leading to a path of critical tasks for the project and a chain of dependent tasks that use a common resource.
The application of TOC in business, then, centers on the innovative thinking needed to define constraints effectively, as well as how other tasks might be subordinated to that constraint. Brian realizes that documenting code “is essential for the integration of the various parts of the software,” but “a lot of the documentation is needed only for future maintenance” (270), meaning that task can be subordinated to the critical chain and moved to a later time. Likewise, TOC in projects impacts focus, as Mark asserts that they “are not going to be hysterical and consider every department a constraint just because they claim to be overloaded” (291), highlighting the importance of sorting which issues require subordination and which need other tasks subordinated to them. The conclusion is that TOC can be applied to business effectively, though most terms and applications need to be translated into the appropriate environment and processes.
The Role of Leadership and Communication In Project Success
In Johnny’s colloquium, he provides a definition of good management, saying: “In order to manage well, managers must control cost, and at the same time, managers must protect throughput” (110), and these are the essential elements of leadership and communication in the novel. B. J., for example, is concerned with the budget of the business school and the quality of knowledge students gain from the MBA program, while Mark, working on the A226, wants to ensure that the project stays within the budget, finishes on time, and retains the initial specifications of the product. These fundamental markers of good management, though, rely on effective execution of leadership and communication techniques, which vary across the different leaders in the novel. A crucial aspect of these roles is trying to see a situation from another perspective, both in terms of innovation and of interpersonal interaction.
The greatest example of good leadership and communication in the novel is Richard’s involvement with Roger’s vendor negotiations, in which Richard, as the leader of the classroom, becomes personally involved in Roger’s desire to implement the ideas of the class. This implementation relies on communication, specifically Richard’s use of communicating with the vendor’s perspective in mind, commenting: “You need more net profit. Roger’s company needs shorter delivery times. I suggest you put it in your proposal” (225). The excellence of Richard’s leadership, here, lies in his ability to identify the key needs of both parties: the vendor needs more profit, and Roger needs a shorter lead time. Additionally, by referencing the proposal, Richard is still essentially leaving the details of the arrangement to the parties involved, rather than imposing a specific solution on them. Sometimes, a specific solution is mandatory, such as when Mark implements the critical chain across multiple Genemodem projects, but most situations in the novel involve leaders allowing their subordinates a degree of freedom in determining the exact implementation of a solution.
Crucially, Richard’s solution follows Johnny’s criteria for good management, as he both controls the cost of Roger’s project by balancing the benefits of early completion against the cost of shorter lead times, and he controls throughput by necessitating the early delivery of specifications and the priority of Roger’s project with the vendor. The issue of leadership and communication rests on these foundations, and the ultimate test in the novel is Mark’s acknowledgement that managing multiple projects is difficult because “two project leaders are involved” (285), meaning two sets of cost and throughput management techniques need to be melded into a single purpose. The solution is to subordinate all project leaders to their common resource, as efficiency will protect both the cost and throughput of each project, therein heeding the needs of each party involved and allowing each to manage their own projects without conflict.
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