Capturing time estimates:

• Account for task and iteration variability
• Drive desired work behaviors

Theory of Constraints Project Management

The Solution for the Main Roots - Identifying "To What to Change?"

The TOC Project Management provides a comprehensive solution to address these root causes and coping mechanisms. The solution includes 1) a robust planning process, 2) a more effective scheduling process, 3) a methodology for introducing work that actually leads to increased capacity, 4) execution processes that provide excellent project control, visibility and decision support, and 5) work behaviors that are more conducive to good project performance.

TOC Project Management: Project Planning
Project planning (called Network Building) begins with a combined meeting of project stakeholders to gain complete clarity on the intended objectives, deliverables, and success criteria of the project. This gets everyone on the same page at the earliest possible moment, identifies areas where more definition may be required, and typically prevents mid-project surprises and rework. This session also surfaces any constraints (boundary conditions) within which the project’s objectives must be accomplished.

Starting with the project deliverables, the project network is constructed backwards in time with the participation of the project manager and key content experts. The process identifies the important task, path, and resource dependencies. Each individual task is defined in terms of its completion criteria and the resources and skills that will be required to accomplish it. This results in the same clarity of path identification as working a maze from its ending point, back toward its start, while ensuring the project work itself is planned to deliver the complete, necessary scope.

While constructing the project networks, the leader of the network building activity works with the content experts to define the minimum skills required for each task, identifying the few tasks that truly need limited, specialist skills versus the many tasks that can be accomplished by lesser skilled personnel. This aids the reduction of resource dependencies within the project, which can reduce project cycle time. It also helps to reserve the highest skilled personnel for where they are truly needed.

Once the resources and required skills are defined, the network building team estimates the potential variability associated with each task and the potential iteration variability associated with specific sequences of tasks. Each task is characterized in terms of a “highly probable” time to complete and an “aggressive, but possible” time to complete.

A similar process is followed for identifying iteration variability. The team estimates a highly probable number of iterations that may be required for the appropriate task sequences. They also estimate an aggressive but possible number of iterations. Both task and iteration variability estimates feed into the scheduling process defined below.

In all, there are six independent safety nets in the TOC Project Management process of building project networks. People who follow the process rarely experience difficulties that can be traced back to faulty planning. In fact, the results of this process are frequently so dramatic that many users report this is the first time they have truly understood the work that needs to be done!