Introduction to Theory of Constraints (TOC) Project Management
Two-Day Workshop

Whether your organization manages stand-alone or multiple projects, whether those projects are small or large, whether your customers are internal or external, or whether the nature of the work performed is product development, construction, design, IT or service; most projects are difficult to manage because of two things:

1. They involve uncertainty
2. They involve the three different and opposing commitments of due date, budget, and content

Some of you are familiar with the topic of TOC Project Management through the book Critical Chain by Eli Goldratt. In his book, Dr. Goldratt takes you through the story of Associate Professor Rick Silver, his university and his class’s experiences. Professor Silver must figure out the processes for solving problems in project management as he develops the curriculum for Project Management for in his Executive MBA. He also must work through and resolve the issues his students raise, so they can gain success in applying what they have learned in their companies. The story is entertaining and common sense, but does not unfold the practicalities of how to directly apply TOC Project Management to your stand-alone project or multi-project environment.

Introduction to TOC Project Management lays out the fundamentals and practicalities of implementing the common sense approaches in Dr. Goldratt’s book in an entertaining and interactive way. The first day of this two-day program lays out the underlying root conflict that leads to many of the problems of project management environments, such as:

• Existing project work is not complete before new projects require a shifting in priorities.
• Promised lead times are longer than desired.
• There are difficulties completing projects on time, within budget and with full content.
• There is too much rework activity.
• Project Managers and Resource Managers have frequent conflicts about priorities and resource commitments.
• Problems in one project cascade into problems in other projects.

The first day continues by taking the participants systematically through the direction of the solution (often referred to as Critical Chain and Multi-Project Management) covering planning, scheduling, synchronization, Buffer Management and the resulting needed behaviors.

The second day goes into more detail in covering project scheduling and synchronization, budgeting and the necessary paradigm shifts. Through the use of exercises and simulations the participant leaves with a concrete understanding of the TOC Project Management Solution.

Agenda

1. What to Change
   1. The Problems
   2. The First Root Cause – The conflict of when to release individual project work into a multi-project environment.
   3. The Second Root Cause – Planning, scheduling, and execution of the individual projects that have been released.
   4. The organizational response to the existence of the root causes
      1. Management
      2. People
      e. Summary – the five things that must change
2. To What to Change
   1. Network Building – the solution to the problems of planning
   2. Critical Chain Scheduling – the solution to the problems of scheduling
   3. Synchronization – the solution to the problems of conflicting priorities
   4. Buffer Management – the solution to the problems of management control and visibility
   5. Relay Runner Culture – The solution to aligning the organization
3. How to Cause the Change
   1. Resistance to Change
   2. How to go about implementing
4. Going deeper into the solution

Price: $995 per person