Tonight, I had a great conversation with Chad. It got my brain spinning about Critical Chain and EVM. Although my notes aren’t available right now, I wanted to share some of the key concepts and challenges that I’ve encountered so far.
First, let’s ask the question: Why bother? Although I believe in Critical Chain and TOC concepts, I don’t think it is feasible for organizations to adopt them unless they are innovative and embrace positive change. EVM reporting is required by most government contracts, as well as many private organizations. This eliminates a lot potential change to CCPM.
Most CCPM enthusiasts believe that it is necessary to completely discard existing paradigms and implement it immediately. (EVM, for example) This drastic shift is almost impossible for any organization that has a critical mass bureaucracy and subsequently lacks innovation capacity. I believe that a gradual shift is better for these entities. It can be done in the opposite direction, I know of many instances where the entity seemed very bureaucratic. However, since I don’t have any personal experience with these companies/agencies, I can only speculate.
My goal is to find a way to use CCPM for project management while still using EVM metrics in a useful manner. This will be possible without having to go back to re-baseline the schedule with a traditional critical path approach. Although some software packages can do this, I believe the EVM analysis results are not tied to how the project is managed. This is where the problem lies. If traditional EVM is used to measure the project, it will be the determining factor in how the project management is done. This is a problem because a project team can focus on non-critical tasks while they should be focusing on critical chains tasks. They can then meet their EVM numbers and pretend that they are on time. This directly contradicts the whole concept behind CCPM.
These are my rough requirements. To schedule and manage your project, use CCPM methods. Modify CCPM to include cost buffer management. To create meaningful metrics for schedule performance and cost performance that are EVM (embedded in the language and intent) and linked directly to Critical Path performance, use CCPM cost and schedule buffer usage. CCEVM reporting should be useful for all project stakeholders. It should also be clear to the project manager and team. CCEVM must make sense for all parties. CCEVM must be written in a way that organizations that require EVM on projects can accept CCEVM metrics after a reasonable assessment effort.
These are some of the routes I can see already: Based on the specific information required by the risk management phase, I have created formulas to calculate project buffer and feeder sizes for cost and schedule. I can see how adding more statistical information to CCEVM metrics could make the data more valuable. This will show how the aggregate uncertainty decreases with each project’s progress. Modification to the traditional CCPM fever charts analysis to include the aggregate uncertainty at various stages of a project.
Last but not the least, I need to figure a way to do this without creating analysis paralysis or having to hire an extra person just to do it! !