Critical Chain

Great book! It’s amazing how multiple scenarios are tied into one. Definitely some great takeaways for those having issues dealing with project management.

This is the book to start with on Critical Chain (i.e. Critical Path with resource considerations). Eliyahu Goldratt was one of the founders in this field and this book is the logical starting point for learning about Critical Chain project management. This is written like a novel so you can easily finish the book within a few hours if you are a normal reader. The concepts seem to be easier to grasp since they are repeated within the pages a few times and that most ideas are backed up by examples with projects examples from people in the bookPros:Easy read since it is written like a NovelCritical Chain is an interesting project management styleWell though out and well executed with good examples.Cons:Critical Chain is shown as the ultimate savior to projects, even though there are issues that this method containsSometimes we spend a lot of time reading the story without any business insightsOverall this is great books and a good starting point for Critical Chain Managment

Eli Goldratt continues his application of Theory of Constraints (TOC) to various business processes by focusing on project management with this latest business novella. TOC is a method of creating ongoing improvement in operational processes, as well as a general management philosophy. Goldratt introduced this theory to world in his best-selling book THE GOAL, where he applied the principles to a manufacturing setting.In CRITICAL CHAIN, Goldratt builds upon the teachings found in THE GOAL. He quickly describes of constructs of TOC, while spending more time addressing some specific phenomenon of project management versus process management. This is where the "Aha"s come into play.Goldratt's characters debate and learn why projects often run overdue and over budget, or finish with less completed than originally specified. The characters debate critical path vs. non-critical path tasks, early vs. late start, resource conflicts, safety buffers in each task, negotiating with subcontractors and suppliers, as well as the erroneous progress accounting/measurement techniques that give everyone a false sense of progress toward completion.Each of these topics were useful in challenging the conventional wisdom of project management. Each presented some new techniques for managing projects more aggressively. In my job, I indirectly manage a large number of construction project managers, and this was useful in understanding some of the reasons we struggle to deliver on time and on budget.For those of you looking for the same enlightenment that you probably derived from THE GOAL, you will be mildly disappointed. For those of you who have not yet read THE GOAL, I highly recommend reading it, because it will provide the foundation material (TOC) in much more depth and clarity.For me, TOC completes the loop of operational concepts that I have pondered over my career, namely how to improve processes and improve overall organizational productivity, while eliminating "fire fighting" and bottlenecks in production. CRITICAL CHAIN furthers the progress of this thinking relative to a project vs. a process environment.

Very important book

Critical Chain is another of the well-known Goldratt business novels related to Theory of Constraints. This one is ToC applied to traditional project management. ToC-wise itself there isn't much news. The new thing is the application of critical chain thinking to project management. I found the new parts somewhat disappointing as it assumed that one person has a fixed amount of skill and didn't seem to be open for the possibility of cross-functional teams. That was kinda a big bummer on the book for me, even though the story was pretty good.The mentor in the story is Rick Silver, who is a lecturer at a university on the eMBA program. One difference in structure of this business novel compared to many others is that the mentor is still figuring things out himself and he doesn't have all the answers. He wants to understand it all and discover something so that he can get tenure at the university. He gives a class on project management, and decides to focus on the real problems that people have. He discovers that projects have tasks that are sequenced and that each task is estimated with a buffer. The buffer is filled up (due to the scheduling) when it is estimated and thus adding a small buffer to every task will cause the total buffer to be small. Thus critical chain focuses on removing these small task buffers and put them at the end instead, to avoid the problem of many small buffers being eaten. Rick Silver helps his class in the eMBA through this thinking process and they try it out in their projects. Of course, it works and then... well I'll need to leave something for the reader still :)Eli Goldratt is a good author, so the story is nice and easy to follow. It keeps the reader engaged and it is an excellent way to explain the concepts of ToC and critical chain planning. For story, I'd give it a 4 or 5 stars. However, I was uncomfortable with the content and some of the ideas. It doesn't really discuss breaking constraints a lot, especially not breaking skill constraints through learning and teaming. But instead, it accepts all the supposed constraints and calculates buffers around them. Also, it doesn't really talk a lot about changes or about the fact that the tasks planned might not be the reality. All of that, made critical chain planning an interesting idea, but didn't trigger any wow moments and left me with more questions. These project assumptions and missing topics caused me to dislike the book at times, and thus I'll leave it with 3 stars. Not really recommended unless you are in very traditional projects with true constraints or you are a Goldratt fan.

I revisited this book to bridge the Multi-project Environment concepts to the Patient Flows in the Healthcare setting.It is so apparent to me that I’ll start applying it and measuring the outcomes.Excellent book and highly recommend to my colleagues in Healthcare Management.

I read the book 20 years ago and since then I do all my projects based on Critical Chain even the agile ones. When reread last week I found out that it's not so much about project management - but much more about Throughput Accounting and first of all management as such! I was flashed 20 year after the first reading again!

Excellent livre. Je l'utilise pour concilier mon travail avec les devoirs de mes deux enfants et je commence à constater des résultats très satisfaisantes.

I am first time reading a book from this author. I loved the book. You get to learn a concept like Theory of Constraints or Critical Chain Project Management. But, you don't feel like it's boring content on a text book.I loved the story and how real life project management challenges are presented one at a time. You get absorbed into the story and travel along the project management challenges as they unravel.A great book for any one who is involved in project management or production.

Critical chain est l'ouvrage de référence de la Chaîne Critique, il s'appuie sur la théorie des contraintes et de l'ouvrage "The Goal" du Même auteur, Eliyahu Goldratt. Comment faire plus avec moins de ressources du Lean avant l'heure...

The media could not be loaded. After reading "The Goal" by the same author, I thought: "this is good about working through manufacturing bottlenecks, but how do I apply it to IT projects?" This book - Critical Chain - was the answer.Like "The Goal", "Critical Chain" is written as a novel, rather than a textbook, although the author cleverly places it in a college situation where the professor is teaching about project management.There were so many lessons I took from "Critical Chain", that I wished I was either a project manager or working as an influencer on bigger projects.It's easy to follow and apply the lessons from this book, and I'm impressed how the author translated his manufacturing expertise into other environments, outside of the manufacturing field.