Project execution performance and the forgotten tasks

Despite a relatively long history and plenty of literature on the subject, project management keeps failing to consistently deliver on time and within costs. The usual suspects for these failures are called uncertainties, that ever growing safety margins are unable to absorb. >Lisez moi en français : Performance en mode projet et oubli de tâches Surprisingly, a …

7 questions to help you reduce projects‘ duration

On one hand, in current competitive environment, time to market and speed to respond to customers’ needs is a Critical Success Factor, often more important than sales price. On the other hand, projects templates used in companies have “grown fat” over time with an inflation of additional tasks, milestones and reviews, thus extending project's’ duration. …

Can CCPM reinforce Parkinson’s law?

In this post I share a post-mortem analysis of a situation we’ve encountered while helping a company to improve its performance. This company was specialized in custom-made machine engineering and asked for help to improve its On-Time Deliveries performance. We proposed to install Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), an obvious choice given the circumstances. Critical …

My takeaways from Breakthrough Project Management conference

Paris, October 17th, 2016. Ian Heptinstall, co-author of “The Executive Guide to Breakthrough Project Management, Capital & Construction Projects on-time in less time, on budget at lower cost without compromise” (full title), was there to deliver his conference on the subject. Before you turn away thinking this has nothing to do with my industry, you …

Critical Chain Project Management alone is not enough

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) alone is not enough to drastically reduce a project’s duration and improve the development process efficiency. CCPM is a proven Project Management approach to ensure a project, any project, will meet its finishing date without compromising quality nor any of the requirements, and even though CCPM can lead to terminate …

Theory of Constraints, Lean and aviation MRO

In a previous post, “CCPM helps shorten aircrafts MRO”, I explained the benefits of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) for reducing the aircraft downtime during their mandatory and scheduled MRO. If CCPM is great and helps a lot meeting the challenge, it will not squeeze out every potential improvement, thus time reduction, on its own. …

CCPM helps shorten aircraft MRO

Facts Aircrafts have to undergo periodic Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO). This is mandatory in order to insure the aircraft's airworthiness and overall safety. During these inspections and repairs, the aircrafts are grounded. For the owners and operators, the shorter the turnaround time*, the better. An aircraft is a huge investment and the ROI is …

Critical Chain and Lean Engineering, a promising pair

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) has proven its effectiveness to terminate projects on time and even quite often before estimated finish date. In development, engineering or Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO), using CCPM can give a significant competitive advantage. It can outperform slower competitors, earn premium for faster achievement and/or allow multiplying projects within similar …

Why secret weapons can’t remain secret

A secret weapon, in its metaphorical or literal meaning, is a means that trumps the actual known ones. It brings a decisive advantage to its user/owner, is more effective and... unknown. A secret weapon will create a surprise and grant its user a favorable opportunity to exploit,  and if exploited properly can lead to victory. …

Introduction to Critical Chain Project Management

Welcome to my introduction to Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)! Critical Chain Project Management is a "new" approach to Project Management, with connections to the Theory of Constraints. While in the 1980s the production management changed from mainly local unit cost control to a holistic approach that encourages flow (Lean), the project management has not …