Critical Chain Project Management | Principles & Process of CCPM

What is Critical Chain Project Management? Dividing deadlines in two, reducing costs and increasing the success rate of your projects, here are the benefits of the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) approach. This innovative planning and time-tracking technique is based on Theory of Constraints (TOC), a repository of interdisciplinary knowledge, methods and tools of organizations, developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.

This is an alternative to the critical path method, usually used in project management. The Critical Path method determines the total duration of your project, but does not take into account the dependencies between the different tasks or resource management, which makes the critical path unrealistic. These elements have therefore been added to the critical chain technique.

Principles of Critical Chain Project Management

Unlike the critical path technique, the critical chain method proposes to:

• Take into account the interdependence between tasks and resources,
• Rationalize the duration of each task.

In the critical path method, task delays are overestimated to protect against potential and unforeseen risks. Thus, a task that normally takes two weeks to complete is added a safety margin of two additional weeks, thus increasing its total duration to four weeks.

The problem is that tasks are rarely completed in advance mainly because of Parkinson’s Law which says that all work tends to stretch to occupy all the time allocated to it. The person in charge of the task will therefore take four weeks to complete it instead of the two weeks initially planned.

Using the Critical Chain method allows you to complete your project with fewer delays and costs.

Process of Critical Chain Project Management

As with any project, you must first define the list of tasks to be carried out, estimate their completion time and determine the resources (human and material) required to complete your project.

• Define the Critical path

The first step is to determine the critical path of your project, that is, the set of tasks to be completed so that the project is completed by the defined date. In this step, you must consider the resources as infinite and totally dedicated to the task. You must also plan the tasks at the latest starting from the end of the project.

• Dividing task time

In this step, you and your team must streamline the duration of each project task by removing the safety margins (the duration is usually halved). The set of safety margins is retained and will be used later to protect the project from possible hazards (this is the project buffer or buffer).

• Identify Resource Conflicts

Now, count all the human and material resources necessary to carry out the project. For each of them, measure the workload as the project progresses. Thus, you can identify and anticipate resource conflicts, either by finding additional resources (for example, through recruitment) or by replanting your project.

Resource conflicts are like multitasking, that is, only one member of your team finds himself working on two or more tasks in the critical chain at the same time.

• Manage Conflicts and identify the Critical Chain

To eliminate resource conflicts, rearrange your project from the end and respecting dependencies between tasks. Verify that the new schedule no longer contains any resource conflicts and prioritize your tasks to complete your project as soon as possible.

The critical chain is therefore the longest chain of tasks that takes into account the interdependence between tasks and between resources. It is here that this method differs from that of the critical path, which does not take into account the dependence between the tasks of the project. This gives you the time to complete the project.

• Protect with Project Buffer and Auxiliary Buffers

Since the duration of tasks has been halved, there is therefore a greater risk that a task in the critical chain will fall behind, thus delaying the entire project. There is therefore a time buffer called Buffer Project (or project buffer), which protects the critical chain and the project. This overall margin of safety is placed at the end of the project. It is equivalent to half the total duration of the critical chain.

Auxiliary Buffers help protect secondary tasks that are not on the critical chain and absorb the delays of secondary paths.

Auxiliary Buffers help protect secondary tasks that are not on the critical chain and absorb the delays of secondary paths.

• Countdown Timing

Countdown timers (also known as resource buffers) are used to notify the person (resource) of the next start of the task. It is set up a week before and consists of informing the person daily of the progress of the project.

Each task in the critical chain must have its countdown. A delay in starting a task in the critical chain can have a negative impact on the entire project.

• Control the project with Countdowns and Buffers

To monitor your project with the CCPM, you must follow the progress of the critical chain, use countdowns and monitor buffer consumption (priority to the project buffer). If buffers reach two-thirds of their consumption, you must assess the risks and take corrective action.

Advantages and Disadvantages of CCPM

• The CCPM reduces the time and cost of your projects.
• With this method, you quickly detect problems before they affect your projects and most importantly, you use your resources more efficiently.
• To ensure the success of this methodology, it is important to train and support your employees.

To Conclude

Little used, critical chain methodology is an improvement of the critical path method because it takes into account the management of the resources needed to carry out the project. It is therefore more realistic and more effective. In addition, the system of buffers allows to better estimate the duration of the tasks and to accelerate the completion of the project.