Tim sits in the coffee shop, calmly waiting. After a few minutes, Randal enters followed by another man in his early 40s with thinning grey hair
.
“Hi Tim, please meet Gary, our engineering manager. He’s excited to hear more about your TOC expertise and he can fill in any engineering and scheduling specifics we need.”
“Hello Gary, it is good to finally meet you,” says Tim.
“Hi Tim,” says Gary a bit cautiously, “Randal has told me you have quite a bit of experience with Critical Chain project management and he thought you would be able to help us out.”
“Yes. I am looking forward to it,” replies Tim.
“So Tim,” Randal says a bit sheepishly, “Just to let you know, I’m closing out a few loose ends with your contract. Once that is taken care of, I can get your office and security badge set up.”
“Sounds good. Thanks Randal. So Gary, Randal said that you have already started looking into Critical Chain?”
“Well Tim, we tried Critical Chain at our company and it looked promising, but it did not seem to work very well.”
“Interesting. Can you let me know who helped you put the Critical Chain methodology into place?” inquires Tim.
“Actually we did some research looking at a few white papers and articles we found on the Internet,” Gary dryly replies.
“So Gary I assume no one is certified in Critical Chain, the TOC Thinking Process, and has prior experience in implementing Critical Chain at your organization?”
“Well, not really. The concepts seemed pretty straightforward at the time. You know set up some buffers, tell people not to multi-task, and all that.”
Tim sighs, “On a high level, the Critical Chain concepts are simple. In fact they can be deceptively simple. Yes, the ideas and concepts on the surface are pretty straightforward, but the details and what is really needed to successfully put them into place can be pretty involved.”
“Tim, is this your consultant speak for saying we might of overlooked some things?” inquires Randal.
“When you are getting started with any process you can certainly read up and get some initial experience implementing it. But it also helps to have someone with prior experience to help look things over as well so you can learn from them what works and does not work.”
“So Tim on that note, a quick question,” asks Gary.
“Sure.”
“Randal tells me you were just recently let go?”
“Yes.”
“And you are trying to apply some of your TOC concepts there?”
“Yes.”
“Yet the company failed, Tim?”
“I see your point, Gary. Well, I can share a few things with you. First I can point out a few other implementations I’ve done as well as references for them.”
“That would be helpful, Tim.”
“As far as my prior company, I was hired to help out with project management. Critical Chain was something the organization was not familiar with, but were initially open to hearing about. As I started working on improving their schedules, I looked at applying Critical Chain and some of its principles. The company was very rooted in their existing process. So I had to implement schedules their way, but I was working on influencing some of their key people. It takes time and the company’s funding ran out before I was able to get them to try a pilot.”
“I see,” replies Gary. “Well, we can continue to look at Critical Chain, but I will be looking for solid reasons and justification. I’ll also want to talk to some of your references. That will help me feel a bit more comfortable implementing something established.”
Key Characteristics of Successful Implementers and Implementations [frt 2]
Tim looks over a bit at Randal and then at Gary. “So Gary, as we discussed we both want to be successful with implementing Critical Chain. Just be aware it is not enough to try to implement the concepts. In my experience, I’ve seen several things contribute to
successful implementations
:
- A Critical Chain implementation expert who really understands the mechanics of the Critical Chain solution, including how to use it correctly to help organizations increase throughput, and how to successfully implement it in an organization.
- Someone who has Critical Chain software tool experience.
- For complicated and political environments, I personally like to see someone who has a Theory of Constraints thinking process background that can do an organizational analysis.
- The organization has a compelling need and desire to change.
- We set up the correct metrics.”
“Interesting list, Tim,” states Gary.
“So Gary, let me walk through each of these, one-by-one.”
Critical Chain Implementation Expert
First, you need a
Critical Chain implementation expert
who really understands the solution. Someone who understands the mechanics of the solution (creating buffers, removing safety at the task level, etc.). You also need someone who understands how to use the Critical Chain solution to increase the organization’s throughput (managing constraints, Process of Ongoing Improvement (POOGI), reducing bad multi-tasking, and so on). In regards to understanding Critical Chain, the question is—where and how did they learn about Critical Chain? Did they just read a book and wing it? Where were they trained? Are they certified and what is the background of the organization that certified them? Is it a methodology-based organization or a tool-based organization?
The second and very critical part is
experience
. How many implementations have they done? What were the results? What is their process? Have they done implementations in organizations or industries similar to yours? If the results were so good, is there someone who would be willing to be a reference that you can talk to?
“So Tim, you are saying there is a whole set of expertise involved in understanding the solution and being able to implement it into an organization?” inquires Gary.
“Exactly, expertise and experience. For example, I went through certification training on Critical Chain and the Theory of Concepts thinking process, and I went through the recommendations process at the Goldratt Institute. I am not an expert to the degree they are, but I am familiar with the mechanics of the solution and using it to move an organization to increase throughput as a whole. I’ve worked at implementing TOC at several companies. Some of those implementations went well, and as with my last company, some did not.”
“So Tim, is this expertise and experience something we could eventually bring in house to our organization?” asks Gary.
“Yes, in fact it is necessary to help the solution succeed. I can help with training your team in the methodology. Your team in turn will then be responsible for managing and setting up future schedules using the methodology.”
“Okay, Tim. I will need a better understanding from you as far as what is involved in the team training. How long will it take? What benefits we should expect?”
“Sure, Gary. Not a problem! That will be part of the implementation plan I can provide.”
Critical Chain Software Tool
“So Gary, the second point is having Critical Chain
software tool experience
. To support a Critical Chain implementation, you need software that supports the Critical Chain methodology. Which Critical Chain software vendor does your Critical Chain implementer recommend and why? Who can provide training and support in the software tool to best support your organizations needs? As a customer, have you compared the pros and cons of the various Critical Chain software solutions? Without the Critical Chain software, it is difficult to impossible to effectively manage the projects within the Critical Chain methodology.”
“That part I guess makes sense. We were just trying to make it work with MS Project,” replies Gary.
“Gary that is a good starting point, but when it comes to actually putting the Critical Chain buffers in, identifying the Critical Chain, and managing the buffer consumption, it is a lot easier if your project management tool can support the Critical Chain methodology. I have seen a few good Critical Chain software tools, and like everything, each one has its advantages.”
“I guess that makes sense. Is the Critical Chain software expensive? Is it scalable?”
“Gary, we can pilot with a few licenses. As your needs grow, you can decide if a site license makes sense.”
“Sounds reasonable, Tim. We can start small, review the results, make sure it is addressing our needs, and scale up as it makes sense from there.”
TOC Thinking Process Background
“So the third successful characteristic is having the
Theory of Constraints Thinking Process (TOC TP)
background
. So for complicated and political environments, I really like to see someone who has a Theory of Constraints thinking process background that can do an organizational analysis. It helps get everyone on the same page regarding the project management issues everyone shares, highlight the costs of these combined issues, and the value and steps needed to switch to a new system. The organizational analysis also highlights that there may be several things that need to be addressed in addition to just implementing the Critical Chain solution. For example, if the organization lacks good requirements management, basic project management fundamentals, or has policies that make sense locally but could hinder the overall organization’s success, the organizational analysis will help highlight these areas. The analysis will help us with creating an overall picture.”
“Tim, I can kinda see your point here,” Randal jumps in. “I have put together simple marketing processes and the changes were fairly easy to do within our own department. When it came to trying to make our entire organization customer focused, we not only had to change marketing, but get the whole organization—engineering, sales, marketing, and HR—to align and work with us. It was really challenging, time consuming, often dragged things to a halt, and caused us to put several compromises into our overall solution.”
“Exactly. When you start crossing and trying to coordinate multiple departments, it can become a much larger issue. This is where the Theory of Constraints thinking process can help significantly.”
Compelling Reason to Change
So the forth point is that the
organization needs
to have a compelling reason to change. Desperation works best, but a really strong drive to keep succeeding, desire to grow, or vision can work too. Companies losing key customers due to repeatedly missing deadlines or under strong competition are by nature more willing to take steps to change and improve their processes… or they will simply be driven out of business. Organizations that see themselves as successful can often be very hard to change. They are successful, their current processes got them there, so why would they want to change or mess with what is already working so well?
Using the TOC thinking processes
can help us better understand the organizational issues and clarify the significant value of changing thus helping to motivate them to improve the organizations processes. One way to look at it is a desperate situation often gets people motivated to start making changes; a determined organization is more likely to keep on the path of ongoing improvements.
Randal looks at Tim directly, “Well Tim, as we have talked before, I think that is where we are and I am sure Gary will agree. We keep missing key deadlines. We know this is critical if our company is to succeed. In addition, Micky, our interim CEO, is very determined to make a difference and significantly grow the company. So he is not willing to sit idle with what has been done in the past as well. ”
Gary looks over at Tim
with a sigh, “Actually Tim, the missing deadlines situation is getting pretty bad; engineering has been slipping features and schedules for a while [crt 15]. This in turn has stressed our customers and in some cases caused us to renegotiate existing contracts and lose some future contracts [crt 25]. This has put Micky a bit on the war path. He is working to amend agreements with our customers and find new contracts to replace the lost ones, but he is infuriated by engineering for putting him into this position. Rumor is that if we do not dramatically change things soon the company will be out of business within a year [crt 28].”
Randal
looks at Gary with a bit of shock. “I did not realize things were that severe.”
“We have some time Randal, but we need to make changes and do something quickly and it needs to make a significant difference,” says Gary. “That is why Tim talking to you is very timely.”
Tim pauses for a little bit. “Randal you said Micky was the interim CEO; can you clarify this a bit for me?”
“Sure thing, Tim. Roger was our last CEO. Great guy. Had a good feeling for the overall business. Engineering, marketing, the customers. He had a good sense of it all. Well, he ran into some medical issues. So he has temporarily stepped down so he could focus on the issues and spend some more time with his family. Micky pitched that he could cover for Roger and the board approved it.”
“And one more thing, Tim,” Randal says, continuing. “Micky was the Director of Marketing and is a pretty aggressive guy. He is great with customers and contracts. He sees this as his big play to move up. He wants to deliver outstanding results so the board will keep him in the CEO spot and he is hell bent on it.”
“Interesting…interesting,” thinks Tim. “Thank you for letting me know, Randal.”
“Sure Tim, I just want to be sure you don’t get bored.”
Everyone pauses on that thought for a minute…
Setting Up the Correct Metrics
“So Gary, one last item. I have seen it where Critical Chain implementations have gone really well and the team is successful and then the whole thing gets unraveled by executive management. Management looks for ways to make the schedules more aggressive or pushes traditional metrics into a Critical Chain schedule. It is a bit disheartening after all of the hard work that goes in.”
“Tim, I am not sure I entirely follow you. Can you give a few examples?”
“Sure, Gary. So Critical Chain works by driving teams to work on aggressive focus times and then using a project buffer to protect the overall deadline. Some managers feel that if they pile on work and drive their teams to very aggressive deadlines, they will get more out of their teams. So when these managers see the schedule with the focused time finishing weeks to months ahead of the buffered date, they want their teams to commit to delivering to the aggressive focused time or they want the teams to cut the size of the project buffer.”
“I think I can see your point Tim,” states Randal. “I could see Micky being that aggressive.”
“The problem, Randal, is that the aggressive focus times are exactly that. If everything goes perfectly well the dates would work, but that is completely unrealistic and never happens. So the teams that are forced to meet an overly aggressive date will miss it and then management will blame the team and the Critical Chain methodology for not working.”
“So Tim, what do you do in these cases?” inquires Gary.
“It depends on the level of trust. If exec management is willing to learn and work with the Critical Chain methodology, then we can openly discuss aggressive focus times and the project buffer. If exec management is not that involved then it is best to focus on the team’s committed deadline (the end of the project buffer) and focus discussions on how well they are tracking to meet this deadline.”
“That makes some sense Tim,” states Gary. “It has always been a balance for us when we provide dates to the execs. It has to be both aggressive and realistic. Although our definitions and their definitions of what this means can vary a great deal.”
“True, the metrics also require managers to change how they manage their teams.”
“What do you mean, Tim?”
“If we move the teams to work with focus times, we know that sometimes they will run late. We cannot punish them. If we do they will start padding their dates more and more and that will undermine the point of having focused times.”
“Hmm, that will be tricky Tim. We need accountability.”
“True. In the next meeting we can talk about the rate that the project buffer gets consumed as a way to help manage the project. At this time, just note for Critical Chain the focus is on the overall project deadline and less on the individual deadlines.”
“Fair enough, Tim. I can appreciate the points you make in regards to successful implementations, but I really need to see the details you have regarding the mechanics of the solution so I can understand how Critical Chain is going to deliver the results we need.”
“Sure Gary; perhaps we can talk more about the Critical Chain mechanics in our next meeting.”
Environmental Factors
“So Tim,” Randal interjects, “By finding a wiz-bang TOC consultant like yourself to help us with the points you mention can we pretty much guarantee the success and results we need?”
“It’s not that simple, Randal. If you find a wiz-bang TOC consultant, your odds of succeeding significantly increase, but there are still a variety of issues that could happen as well. Critical Chain is not just the mechanics of how you set up a schedule. Ideally you are changing and improving the process, culture, and overall way the organization approaches projects.”
Randal looks a bit crestfallen. “Tim, you are starting to sound like a glass half empty kinda guy. So I see from the implementation side what you think is needed, but from our side—the client side—are there issues that could derail an implementation?”
“Randal, the possible problems can be endless, but some of the main
organizational issues
I have seen include:
- Does the organization’s project team take ownership of the Critical Chain solution? If you have not won them over and they do not understand what you are trying to achieve and how, it will limit or prevent your success.
- Has senior management bought into the solution? Do you have a senior manager who is the organization’s TOC champion? Does management understand what Critical Chain changes and how they need to change what they manage and focus on? If not, they may try to make changes that violate the methodology and limit your success. They also may actively or passively fight adding the new methodology that they do not understand or threatens what they were used to, even though you are trying to use the new methodology to improve the organization.
- The other way of looking at it is your department independent and isolated enough that you can set up and manage schedules how you want without senior management involvement as long as you deliver products successfully?
- How complex is your project environment? It is more straightforward to implement Critical Chain in a small simple single project environment than a large heavily matrixed multiple project environment?
- How good is the organization’s project management practices? If the organization does not have basic project management fundamentals, it makes implementing a more developed project management methodology difficult. Critical Chain can help underscore key practices, but the organization will still need to have a plan to develop the project management basics as far as requirements gathering, charters, managing requirements, planning, etc. www.pmi.org is one organization that helps with overall project management certifications.”
“So Tim, all these issues pretty much make Critical Chain a difficult solution
to implement?”
“Overall Randal, these organizational issues are not Critical Chain specific. They are general organizational issues that could make implementing any project management methodology (Critical Chain, scrum, agile, ) hard or impossible to successfully implement. There is a cost-benefit decision. Do you understand what is involved in putting the solution into place, what benefits you are looking for, and does the cost justify the benefits? The benefits and improved organizational throughput should be significant enough to justify the cost of putting the new solution, training, and changes in place.”
“Well Tim, I guess the same is true for our company as well. The more we understand Critical Chain and the characteristics and factors you mentioned, the better we can help move the implementation along as well as make sure the person I have helping implement it in our organization is covering everything we need.”
“Exactly Randal, and sometimes you might have different people cover different roles. One person might focus on the organization issues where another specializes in the Critical Chain software.”
Gary looks over, “Tim, engineering is pretty swamped already. There is no way we have the time for our resources to work on making an organizational change.”
“No worries Gary,” Randal jumps in. “That is what Tim is for. He is to help guide and educate us;. He will help make the transition as smooth as possible and work with me on moving management.”
“Okay, Randal. But we should be clear on roles and responsibilities
,” states Gary.
”Sure Gary,” states Randal.
Wrapping Up
“So to move things forward, we should look at the following,” Randal continues
:
- Tim, can you work with Gary to improve the project team’s understanding of Critical Chain.
- I will work with Tim on getting senior management buy-in. Micky, the interim CEO, definitely sees a need to improve project management. We just need to gather some real results first to help convince him why this approach will work.
- Tim, environment wise, I think we’re okay. We have several projects running in parallel, but we’re not a Fortune 500 company yet.
- Gary, what is your take on our project management practices?
“Randal,” Gary says, now a bit more confident, “I think we’re okay. Our project managers have good experience and know our projects. We did some initial research with Critical Chain, so we know some of the concepts. What we really need is for Tim to help us understand the concepts in more detail and help us get better results without thrashing the projects we are working on currently.” Turning to Tim, he says, “Tim, can we walk through the concepts in a lot more detail in our next meeting? I really need to see how they are going to work so I can feel confident that they will actually help us get back on track.”
“Sure Gary. I will set up a meeting for it.”
Randal looks around, “Any other issues?” Randal sees that no one speaks up. “Good then, sounds like we have the starting of a plan.”
Future Reality Tree (FRT)
As Gary heads out, Tim waits a few minutes and takes out the piece of paper he has been drawing the Future Reality Tree (FRT)
on.
Randal lingers behind and looks on, “More boxes to add to your chart?”
“Just one,” says Tim.
Tim says to Randal, “In order to 6) successfully implement Critical Chain what is needed? We need 1) to understand and implement the Critical Chain concepts. We also 2) need to be aware of the factors for successful implementations. A good start, but there are still a few more items needed to help us successfully implement Critical Chain.”
“I see, Tim. Your tree is pretty thin. Is the goal to fill the page with boxes?”
“Not really. I’m just trying to capture the key items that are needed. As we get further along, the page will fill up.”