Theory of Constraints & Project Management
William Agadzi
RPJM-103/Fall 2009
Exercise: Goldratt
How Does The Theory of Constraints Apply To Project Management
The goal of every project is to make profit. The sooner the project is completed, at least by the deadline, the better it is for the project to accrue its potential benefits –and vice versa. Constraints, negatively affect project goals. In the triple-constraints (time, cost, scope), time remained the most impacting constraint to projects. The critical chain resolved this issue by removing protection time from tasks, aggregating them into feeding and project buffers, and placing them in strategic locations within the project network where they will serve to protect the project as a whole. This way, the fixed elements of each task is the aggressive but possible estimate, whilst the variable components are called safety. The safety is managed and adjusted time after time to the needs of the schedule. However, time is not the only constraint affecting projects, and the technique of Theory of Constraint (TOC) deals with these constraints to optimize project performance.
While applying TOC the project manager first and foremost, identifies the most important factor that constraints the project in that stage of development. This is done by continuous assessment of the project and process management to recognize the most pressing constraint. For in any given project scenario, there are constraint of resource, quality etc that present challenges to project’s success. To avoid applying the right solution to wrong problem however, the project manager above all pinpoints, through the technique of TOC, the number one constraint that has the potential to derail the project.
Then, supposing after the initial assessment the issue turns out to be one of a resource constraint the project manager takes advantages of the drawback. For instance, if the resource is equipment that does not produce to a required capacity at a given time, it will be scheduled to
RPJM-103/Fall 2009
Exercise: Goldratt
How Does The Theory of Constraints Apply To Project Management
The goal of every project is to make profit. The sooner the project is completed, at least by the deadline, the better it is for the project to accrue its potential benefits –and vice versa. Constraints, negatively affect project goals. In the triple-constraints (time, cost, scope), time remained the most impacting constraint to projects. The critical chain resolved this issue by removing protection time from tasks, aggregating them into feeding and project buffers, and placing them in strategic locations within the project network where they will serve to protect the project as a whole. This way, the fixed elements of each task is the aggressive but possible estimate, whilst the variable components are called safety. The safety is managed and adjusted time after time to the needs of the schedule. However, time is not the only constraint affecting projects, and the technique of Theory of Constraint (TOC) deals with these constraints to optimize project performance.
While applying TOC the project manager first and foremost, identifies the most important factor that constraints the project in that stage of development. This is done by continuous assessment of the project and process management to recognize the most pressing constraint. For in any given project scenario, there are constraint of resource, quality etc that present challenges to project’s success. To avoid applying the right solution to wrong problem however, the project manager above all pinpoints, through the technique of TOC, the number one constraint that has the potential to derail the project.
Then, supposing after the initial assessment the issue turns out to be one of a resource constraint the project manager takes advantages of the drawback. For instance, if the resource is equipment that does not produce to a required capacity at a given time, it will be scheduled to