Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [24]
Guideline IX: Recognize that the current practice of minimizing costs by delaying activity expenditures might be counter to the objective of on-time delivery of the projects.
Guideline X: Recognize that measuring resource managers by resource utilization creates inflated activity time estimates, timing issues in the use of resources, multitasking within and across projects, and ultimately project lateness.
Guideline XI: Theory (research) must be revised to reflect and support practice. Activities on the Critical Chain or a near-Critical Chain should be scheduled to completion of the preceding activity instead of time. For example, traditional project management software usually provides schedules for resources and resources are available based on the schedule. Project research simulations initiate succeeding activities based on completion of proceeding activities. At a minimum, research should define its parameters from a systems perspective to match reality.
Guideline XII: Establish a clear and effective method for the planning and control of multiple projects looking at resource contention across projects. Recognize that not all projects can start as soon as possible. Projects should be pipelined based on the capacity of critical resources and staggered based on the capacity of those resources.
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Macro Issues
Goals, Objectives, and Measures of a Project
Granger describes the hierarchy of objectives as follows: “There are objectives with objectives, within objectives. They all require painstaking definition and close analysis if they are to be useful separately and profitable as a whole” (1964, 63). Remember, the goal of a project is to complete a project successfully, which usually translates into the lower level objectives of minimizing the costs associated with the project, completing the project on time, and completing the project as described in the specifications.
But what is the real goal of the project? Project goals can be classified as two types: (1) projects that have to be completed by a given date, and (2) projects that when completed generate revenues and therefore should be completed as soon as possible. The first type of project should be started as late as possible and still guarantee delivery of the project by the desired date (this strategy saves money). The second type of project should be started as soon as possible and guarantee delivery of the project by the desired date (this strategy makes money). The second type of project is much more commonplace, yet it is often treated as if it were the first type.
Cause: PERT/CPM does not overtly recognize the difference between a project that must be completed by a promised due date (due-date project) and a project that must be completed in order to make money as quickly as possible (money-making project).
This is addressed by Guideline I.
Defining the Scope of a Project
In his research, Feldman (2001) identified the seven deadly sins of project estimating. Included are that not all tasks or costs are defined and that estimates do not represent scope completeness. What is the goal of the project with respect to the goal of the organization (system)? What then is the scope of a project to support these organization and project goals? If we are defining a project that entails the opening of a new car dealership (see Rydell Group, 1995 for details of this example), what are the activities that should be included in the project? What is the goal of the project? In this instance, it is to make money from the sale of cars. In the past, a dealership would decide to open a new franchise in a large town. This might have been executed as if it were composed of several