TOC Project Management has a Budget Planning and Execution Process that compliments Critical Chain.

Theory of Constraints Project Management

TOC Project Management: Synchronized Project Work Introduction
It turns out that just the act of introducing project work that exceeds the organization’s capacity will, in itself, lead to further capacity reductions because of increased bad-multitasking. Instead, TOC Project Management pre-selects a more heavily loaded resource to serve as a gate for work release. New project work will be scheduled to begin in an interval of time where its need for that resource (Synchronizer) can be accommodated.

Projects must be scheduled and synchronized before a completion date can be committed. This way, commitments are made based on feasible, immunized schedules that are in alignment with the organization’s true capacity to accomplish its work. Although it seems counter-intuitive to what many have come to believe over the years, the staggering of work introduction actually increases an organization’s capacity and shortens overall project durations. More work can be accomplished in the same interval of time.

TOC Project Management: Project Control and Impact Visibility
Project Control is accomplished though Buffer Management, which is a process of managing the aggregated safety that was placed between the final task of the Critical Chain and the project completion date. Delays along the Critical Chain consume Project Buffer time. Early finishes add to the Project Buffer.

Senior management typically watches Project (and Budget) Buffer performance versus progress along the Critical Chain. Functional (resource) managers assign resources to tasks, using the associated Project Buffer status to determine the relative urgency of the available tasks. Functional managers also use resource load profiles that highlight potential resource overloads early enough for effective and inexpensive resolution.

Project managers monitor their project status using Project Buffer and Critical Chain status. A Planning Threshold initiates their planning and an Action Threshold calls those plans into implementation. Most TOC Project Management software tools provide powerful “what-if” capabilities to assist project managers in their efforts to determine what actions will help them to recover a project with a collapsing Project Buffer.

Visibility to project status, visibility to current and future resource loading, and powerful “what if” analysis takes all the guesswork (and emotion) out of managing projects.

Senior managers, project managers, and resource managers have a clear and factual basis from which to make their decisions. This leads to shorter, more effective meetings that result in decisions that are more beneficial to good project performance.

Figure 3. An illustration of a Resource Load Profile.