57 pages • 1 hour read
Critical Chain
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Background
Authorial Context: Eliyahu Goldratt and Business Novels
Eliyahu, or Eli, Goldratt is an Israeli business management expert known for his innovative theories in his field, often published in the form of business novels. His first business novel was The Goal, which developed the Theory of Constraints using the manufacturing field as a backdrop for his methods of improving accounting and organizational practices. His second book, The Race, is a nonfiction work that was intended to help with continuing to implement TOC using the drum-buffer-rope method. Critical Chain is Eli’s third business novel, and it seeks to apply the Theory of Constraints to project management, with the result being CCPM, or Critical Chain Project Management, which focuses on organizing projects around constraints to more efficiently manage and schedule tasks and resources. Goldratt continued to refine TOC and expand on its applications through the Goldratt Group, which he founded and funded, and he published 12 works of fiction and nonfiction, as well as one play, before his death in 2011.
Business novels, also called business fables, are fictional works that seek to explain critical facets of business and management through inspirational or motivational narratives. Literature has often been viewed as a means to communicate morals and social conventions, which business novels adapt to communicate theories, practices, and methodology to readers. The narrative of a business novel is oriented around helping the reader to better understand main ideas proposed by the author through characters. For example, in Critical Chain, the professors and students work collaboratively to explore and adapt TOC to a project management setting, allowing Goldratt to explain through question-and-answer format as the novel progresses. Readers get the benefits of being in a classroom with other invested, active students without needing to enroll in such a class.
Critical Context: The Impact of Critical Chain Project Management
Critical Chain Project Management, or CCPM, as defined in Critical Chain, was well received in the business community on release, and CCPM and TOC are both still taught and practiced decades after the publishing of Goldratt’s novel. In 1999, Lawrence Leach, in “Critical Chain Project Management Improves Project Performance,” noted that projects using CCPM finish up to 25% faster than without, which implies the overall success of the methodology. One of the key benefits of TOC and CCPM is their adaptability to other management methods, such as Lean and Agile, which focus on waste reduction and iterative approaches to project management, respectively, allowing companies to combine methods for greater results. As with TOC, CCPM presented innovative thinking that is continuously improved through research, case studies, and implementation in industry.
Some critics note that CCPM is not universally applicable, meaning that CCPM will not solve all issues in project management in every situation, nor is it necessarily better than other methods of project management depending on the project at hand. In such cases, adapting additional methods could be necessary for overall success, or different methods may be needed altogether. Some of the initial reception of CCPM may have been influenced by firms that lacked a concrete or practicable standard method for project management, making CCPM a beneficial adaptation more because it was at least some form of formal management structuring for these firms. Critics also note the potentially inaccurate time estimates used in CCPM and the rigidity of scheduling as possible detriments to implementing CCPM.
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