The Critical Chain Method (CCM) is a relatively new project management technique that dramatically reduces project duration.
The technique responds to risks that cause delays on projects. It removes wasted buffers from the project activities, and manages a project by focusing on the parameters that lead to the roject success. It also transforms the traditional mistrust-based attitude between management and team members into one based on trust, cooperation and shared interests.
Results reported by organisations and projects that have used this technique might seem too good to be true. Some reported savings of two thirds of the traditional time that projects used to take them by using this method. This means that a nine-month project can be finished in three.
Before getting too excited about the technique, it is necessary to recognise that it requires full support and commitment from upper management and all other stakeholders on the project. It also requires a major shift in attitude on how to plan and control a project and how to deal with team members and suppliers.
Applying the CCM to a project starts with an agreement between the project manager and management to apply the rules of critical chain. They also need to agree on how important it is for the project to save time or finish on time, and accordingly agree on bonuses for team members and suppliers. Bonuses set under this method are based on the ability of the whole team to deliver on time, not on individual performance. This means that no one gets a bonus if the organisation misses on the project's deadline, even if a team member performs really well on his own.
After an agreement is reached with management, the project manager works with the team members to reduce the project schedule or duration by asking all team members to remove safety time they have added to their project tasks. The technique assumes that all team members add time safety to their tasks to deal with risks and with management's traditional negative behaviour in dealing with deadlines and activity duration. In return, team members are offered a clearly set bonus if they meet the set objectives.
To help team members meet the objectives, the project manager adds a buffer to the overall project. This buffer prevents project delays caused by the impact of negative risks occurring during the project. The technique calls on the project manager to allocate as much as one-third of the project duration as a buffer. This is feasible given that the theory assumes that removing activity buffers will save as much as two-thirds of the original exaggerated project duration.
Once the project work is started, the project manager focuses on managing several buffers placed in the project to protect it from risk and loss of critical resources. The project manager trusts team members to finish tasks as soon as they can, and does not penalise a team member for being late on his task. The project manager must trust team members, knowing that the objectives of the team members are completely aligned with those of the project, due to the incentives promised to the whole team, if they finish on time.
There are many other important rules used in CCM. Most of them can be used even if one cannot apply the whole technique. These include how to work with team members and management to eliminate buffers placed by team members on individual activities. Project managers can also learn how to respond to risk by adding a buffer at the project level, not the activity level. Avoiding multitasking is another interesting and valuable concept one can learn from this technique. Multitasking means giving a team member more than one task to work on at the same time. This is considered a bad practice and should not be allowed during the application of the CCM as it leads to project delays. The CCM also encourages focus on critical tasks and resources while accepting the probability of delay, or even forcing delay, of less critical tasks.
Results of the proper application of the CCM are very impressive, given how much organisations lose from project delays which lead to loss of market opportunities and revenues.
By Ammar W. Mango
© Jordan Times 2006
