Project Management: Achieving
Competitive Advantage
Fifth Edition
Chapter 11
Advanced topics in
planning and scheduling:
Agile and Critical Chain
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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
11.1 Understand why Agile Project Management was
developed and its advantages in planning for certain types
of projects.
11.2 Understand the key features of the Extreme
Programming (XP) planning process for software projects.
11.3 Understand the logic behind Theory of Constraints and
its implications for Critical Chain scheduling.
11.4 Distinguish between critical path and critical chain
project scheduling techniques.
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Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
11.5 Understand how critical chain methodology resolves
project resource conflicts.
11.6 Apply critical chain project management to project
portfolios.
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PMBoK Core Concepts (1 of 2)
Project Management Body of Knowledge (P MBoK) covered in
this chapter includes:
1. Collect Requirements: Tools and Techniques (P MBoK 5.2.2)
2. Rolling Wave Planning Method Sequence Activities (P MBoK
6.2.2.2)
3. Sequence Activities (PMBoK 6.3)
4. Estimate Activity Resources (P MBoK 6.4)
5. Estimate Activity Durations (P MBoK 6.5)
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PMBoK Core Concepts (2 of 2)
6. Develop Schedule (PMBoK 6.6)
7. Develop Schedule (tools and techniques) (P MBoK 6.6.2)
8. Critical Chain Method (PMBoK 6.6.2.3)
9. Resource Optimization Techniques (P MBoK 6.6.2.4)
10. Control Schedule (PMBoK 6.7)
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Agile Project Management
Agile Project Management (Agile PM) reflects a new era
in project planning that places a premium on flexibility and
evolving customer requirements throughout the
development process.
• Planning the work and then working the plan
• Customer needs may evolve and change over course of
project
• Importance of evolving customer needs leads to
incremental, iterative planning process
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Waterfall Model
Waterfall project development process works well when:
• Requirements are very well understood and fixed at the
outset of the project.
• Product definition is stable and not subject to changes.
• Technology is understood.
• Ample resources with required expertise are available
freely.
• The project is of short duration.
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Figure 11.1 Waterfall Model for Project
Development
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Unique Feature of Agile PM
• Agile PM, referred to as Scrum, recognizes mistakes of
assuming once initial project conceptualization and planning
are completed, project will be executed to original
specifications
– Example, software projects are prone to constant changes
• Flexible, iterative system designed for the challenge of
managing projects in midst of change and uncertainty
• “Rolling wave” process of continuous plan–execute–evaluate
cycle
• Emphasis on adaptation, flexibility, and coordinated efforts of
multiple disciplines
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Figure 11.2 Scrum Process for Product
Development
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Key Terms in Agile PM (1 of 2)
• Sprint—one iteration of the Agile planning and executing cycle.
• Scrum—the development strategy agreed to by all key members of
the project.
• Time-box—the length of any particular sprint, fixed in advance,
during the Scrum meeting.
• User stories—short explanation of the end user that captures what
they do or what they need from the project under development.
• Scrum Master—person on the project team responsible for moving
the project forward between iterations, removing impediments, or
resolving differences of opinions between major stakeholders.
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Key Terms in Agile PM (2 of 2)
• Sprint backlog—the set of product backlog items selected for the
Sprint, plus a plan for delivering the Sprint Goal.
• Burndown chart—remaining work in the Sprint backlog.
• Product owner—person representing the stakeholders and serving
as the “voice of the customer.”
• Development team—organizational unit responsible for delivering
the product at the end of the iteration (Sprint).
• Product backlog—a prioritized list of everything that might be
needed in completed product and source of requirements for any
changes.
• Work backlog—evolving, prioritized queue of business and
technical functionality that needs to be developed into a system.
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Steps in Agile
1. Sprint Planning
2. Daily Scrums
3. Development Work
4. Sprint Review
5. Sprint Retrospective
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Figure 11.4 Stages in a Sprint
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Figure 11.5 Sample Burndown Chart For
Day 9 of a Sprint
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Problems with Agile
1. Active user involvement and close collaboration of the Scrum team are
critical throughout the development cycle.
2. Evolving requirements can lead to potential for scope creep.
3. It is harder to predict at beginning of project what the end product will
actually resemble.
4. Agile requirements are kept to minimum, which can lead to confusion about
the final outcomes.
5. Testing is integrated throughout lifecycle, which can add cost to project.
6. Frequent delivery of project features puts a burden on product owners.
7. If it is misapplied to traditional projects, it can be an expensive approach
without delivering benefits.
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Keys to Successful Agile PM
1. Cross-functional teams
2. Empowered team members
3. Shared accountability
4. Servant leadership
5. Continuous flow of value
6. Attention to technical excellence
7. Rapid risk reduction
8. Early feedback and adaptation
9. Total openness and transparency
10. Trust
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Extreme Programming (XP)
• A more aggressive form of Scrum; a software development
methodology intended to improve software quality and
responsiveness to changing customer requirements.
• Two guiding features of XP:
– Refactoring
– Pair programming
• Advantage of XP is whole process is visible and accountable.
• Agile PM and XP have grown out of need to combine the
discipline of project management methodology with the needs
of modern enterprise to respond quickly.
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Critical Chain Project Management (C CPM)
• Developed by Dr. Eli Goldratt in mid-1990s
• Alternative scheduling mechanism to speed up project delivery
• Make better use of project resources
• More efficiently allocate and discipline the process of
implementing projects
• Based on theory of constraints (TOC)
• Represents both cultural shift and change in scheduling
processes
• Applies technical and behavioral elements of project
management
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Theory of Constraints and Critical Chain
Project Scheduling
A constraint limits any system’s output.
The Goal – Goldratt
TOC Methodology
.
1. Identify the constraint.
2. Exploit the constraint.
3. Subordinate the system constraint.
4. Elevate the constraint.
5. Repeat the process.
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Figure 11.6 Five Key Steps in Theory of
Constraints Methodology
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Critical Chain Solutions
• Central Limit Theorem
• Activity durations estimated at 50% level
• Buffer reapplied at project level
– Goldratt rule of thumb (50%)
– Newbold formula
• Feeder buffers for noncritical paths
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Figure 11.7 Reduction in Project Duration
After Aggregation
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Developing Critical Chain Activity Network
• Resource leveling is not required because resources are
leveled within the project in the process of identifying the
critical chain.
• CCPM advocates putting off all noncritical activities as
late as possible, while providing each noncritical path in
the network with its own buffer.
• Noncritical buffers are referred to as feeder buffers.
• Feeding buffer duration is calculated similarly to the
process used to create the overall project buffer.
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Figure 11.8 CCPM Employing Feeder
Buffer
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Changes in Critical Change Example (1 of 2)
Figure 11.9a Project Schedule Using Early Start
Figure 11.9b Reduced Schedule Using Late Start
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Changes in Critical Change Example (2 of 2)
Figure 11.9c Critical Chain Schedule with Buffers Added
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Figures 11.10a Critical Path Network with
Resource Conflicts
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Figures 11.10b Critical Chain Solution
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Critical Chain Solutions to Resource
Conflicts
• After revising a schedule, resource conflicts may be
identified.
• Since start dates are already pushed off as late as
possible, work backward from the end of the project to
eliminate sources of conflict.
• Select the option that minimizes total network schedule
disruption.
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Critical Chain Adjustments to Resource
Conflicts (1 of 2)
Figure 11.12 Scheduling Using Late Start for Project Activities
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Critical Chain Adjustments to Resource
Conflicts (2 of 2)
Figure 11.13 Reconfiguring the Schedule to Resolve Resource
Conflicts
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Critical Chain Project Portfolio Management
• Capacity constraint buffer (CCP) refers to a safety
margin separating different projects scheduled to use the
same resource.
• Drum buffers are extra safety applied to a project
immediately before the use of the constrained resource to
ensure that the resource will not be starved for work.
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Steps to Apply CCPM to Multiple Project
Portfolio
1. Identify company resource constraints or drum.
2. Exploit resource constraints.
3. Subordinate individual project schedules.
4. Elevate the capacity of the constraint resource.
5. Go back to step 2 and reiterate the sequence.
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Figure 11.15 Three Projects Stacked for
Access to a Drum Resource
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Figure 11.16 Applying CCB to Drum
Schedules
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CCPM Critiques
1. No milestones used
2. Not significantly different from PERT
3. Unproven at the portfolio level
4. Anecdotal support only
5. Incomplete solution
6. Overestimation of activity duration padding
7. Cultural changes unattainable
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Summary (1 of 2)
1. Understand why Agile Project Management was
developed and its advantages in planning for certain
types of projects.
2. Understand the key features of the Extreme
Programming (XP) planning process for software
projects.
3. Understand the logic behind Theory of Constraints and
its implications for Critical Chain scheduling.
4. Distinguish between critical path and critical chain
project scheduling techniques.
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Summary (2 of 2)
5. Understand how critical chain methodology resolves
project resource conflicts.
6. Apply critical chain project management to project
portfolios.
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Copyright
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