Critical Chain Project Management

Improving Project Portfolio Performance with Buffers
Improving Project Portfolio Performance with Buffers 150 150 Novaces | Lean Six Sigma Training | Process Improvement | Healthcare | Government | Defense

Click the link below to view the TOCICO 2015 presentation “Improving Project Portfolio Performance with Buffer-Type Flexibility and Task-level DBR”

TOCICO PPM Buffer-type Flexibility + Task-level DBR

See a video clip of our presentation at TOCICO
See a video clip of our presentation at TOCICO 1512 616 Novaces | Lean Six Sigma Training | Process Improvement | Healthcare | Government | Defense
Submitted By: Brian MacClaren

NOVACES and its collaborators are excited to have been selected for several presentations at 2015 TOCICO in Cape Town. Below is information about one of our presentations or click here to watch a promo video.

Improving Project Portfolio Performance with Buffer-Type Flexibility and Task-level DBR
Bahadir Inozu, Ph.D., NOVACES, LLC
Mike Hannan, Fortezza Consulting
Hilbert Robinson, Delta Airlines

This presentation focuses on two emerging techniques to improve project portfolio performance within a CCPM framework:

1)   The addition of scope buffers and budget buffers to augment CCPM’s traditional emphasis on schedule buffers, boosting portfolio reliability while allowing harmonious integration of scope-buffered project methods (such as Agile) into CCPM.

2)   The addition of DBR, Lean, and Agile methods to augment CCPM’s traditional emphasis on single tasking, boosting the flow of task completions to improve portfolio throughput.

While these two techniques have demonstrated performance improvements in software-development project portfolios, we will also present how they can also be applied in other project-centric domains.

New Course is offered on “Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance: Applying the Best of Critical Chain, Agile, and Lean” in Washington, DC
New Course is offered on “Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance: Applying the Best of Critical Chain, Agile, and Lean” in Washington, DC 150 150 Novaces | Lean Six Sigma Training | Process Improvement | Healthcare | Government | Defense
Submitted By: Robyn Burghard

In collaboration with BAU International University and Fortezza Consulting, NOVACES is offering a new one day course on an innovative mix of nine proven techniques from multiple leading methods—including Critical Chain, Agile, and Lean—integrated harmoniously to boost performance dramatically. This approach provides leaders in project-centric organizations with a framework for unifying project teams and stakeholders at all levels, for enhancing the flow of productive work, and for aggregating risk for much higher portfolio reliability.

In spite of decades of attempts to improve the performance of project portfolios, survey after survey reports persistently poor results in all project-centric industries across the globe. While some task-level methods such as Agile have helped in some cases, the portfolio-level throughput of reliable project completions remains stubbornly low.

This full-day class session presents an innovative mix of nine proven techniques from multiple leading methods—including Critical Chain, Agile, and Lean—integrated harmoniously to boost performance dramatically. This approach provides leaders in project-centric organizations with a much higher-powered framework for unifying project teams and stakeholders at all levels, for enhancing the flow of productive work, and for aggregating risk for much higher portfolio reliability.

Who Should Attend?

This course is for executives who are on a mission to jack up the performance of their project portfolios, and who are no longer satisfied that established “best practices” are sufficient to achieve their organizations’ business and mission objectives.

The course cuts through the confusion and zealotry of leading improvement approaches, and distills them down to a practical set of specific techniques you can apply for maximum benefit to your project portfolio.

If you seek a carefully designed set of proven, harmoniously integrated techniques engineered to deliver significantly higher performance thresholds–all presented in an applied, focused manner with executive audiences in mind–then this course is for you.

Instructors

Mike Hannan is CEO and Principal Consultant of Fortezza Consulting. He brings nearly 25 years’ experience as a Consulting Executive, IT Project Portfolio and Program Manager, Process Engineer, and Software Architect. His background in Project Portfolio Management started at NASA in the early 1990s supporting large, complex initiatives such as the International Space Station and High-Performance Computing & Communications (HPCC) programs. He has managed and consulted on $500M+ project portfolios, and trained CIOs and other senior executives in Federal Civilian, Military, and Commercial environments. Mike is an active speaker at industry events, including local PMI chapter and community meetings, webinars, PM symposia, and in the Agile community. He is a leading innovator of disciplined ways to integrate Agile, Lean, Critical Chain, and other techniques to drive dramatic breakthroughs in the performance of IT Project Portfolios. He is also the lead author of the recent book, The CIO’s Guide to Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance (2014). Mr. Hannan has been a Theory of Constraints Jonah since 2011, a PMP-certified PM since 2005, and has Masters degrees in Information Technology and International Affairs.

Bahadir Inozu, Ph.D. is a Co-Founder and Principal of NOVACES, LLC. He is a world-renowned expert in integrating best-of-breed methodologies for superior performance. He is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Theory of Constraints Jonah. He has more than 20 years of performance-improvement experience in government and the healthcare, maritime, and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industries and he has worked with over 40 organizations. He led more than 20 major applied research projects and wrote more than 70 journal articles and conference papers. Previously, he held the positions of Professor and Chairman of the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, and Professor in the Engineering Management Department at the University of New Orleans. He is a co-author of “Performance Improvement for Healthcare: Leading Change with Lean, Six Sigma and Constraints Management” (McGraw-Hill 2011).

When: Friday, August 28, 2015, 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.

Where: BAU International, 1510 H Street NW, Washington DC, 20005

Cost: $499

Government Employees and PMI Members get $100 discount. Government Employees who also have PMI membership get $200 Discount. If you bring your boss, it is free.

8 PDUs for PMI (Category B); lunch is included;

For Registration, please visit: http://www.fortezzaconsulting.com/registration/
For more information please contact:
Baha Inozu,
NOVACES, LLC
8 Robbins Street | Suite 101
Toms River, NJ 08753
Office 732.383.6010 x101
binozu@novaces.com

The 4 reasons why project managers must appreciate methods and tools
The 4 reasons why project managers must appreciate methods and tools 150 150 Novaces | Lean Six Sigma Training | Process Improvement | Healthcare | Government | Defense

Submitted By: Robyn Burghard

Project management has two essential elements to it, the theory and methods on one hand and the tools and techniques on the other. The further you move up the scale from random tasks to organized projects, the more important it is that you are versed in theory and methods. I come across many people struggling with tools – being less than satisfied with the payback after much investment of time because they failed to appreciate the importance of understanding the methods before considering the tools. Of course, by the time you have decided you need a better approach you are probably thinking that you don’t have a lot of time to spend studying theory. Let’s run through the 4 challenges a project manager faces that cause a real appreciation for both methods AND tools:

Challenge #1: How do you get your arms around the big stuff?

Lay out a step-by-step process for what it will take to complete the project. Identify who will need to perform each step and how much time they will need to perform that step. The key here is the need to recognize that some tasks cannot start until other tasks are completed. This implies that delays in predecessor tasks will move successor tasks into the future. If you have this basic logistical plan in a project management software (it isn’t a project management software if it can’t do this) then, as one task is delayed, all the affected tasks will automatically be adjusted to reflect the delays. This automation saves a lot of useless effort having to explain why something on the list has not been addressed. It also gives you a clear prediction on when the project will be completed. Note that this prediction will change as you make good progress or experience delays. One mistake new project managers and executives make is to hide from, downplay or deny the effects of delays on their expected completion date until the deadline is right around the corner.

The situation often transpires like this: I don’t have time to develop a comprehensive plan because the time wasted doing so could have been used to make actual progress on the project. However, without a plan I don’t know where to focus my time and attention, so there is a good chance that I am not working on the right things at the right time even though I am working hard. If I am not working on the right things all the time, then I am at risk of experiencing avoidable delays. If I don’t have a sound plan and a method for keeping it current, then I have no idea if and how these delays are affecting the project. Eventually, the truth will be revealed. Since I was working really hard the whole time, the fact that the project is late must be due to some reason outside of my control. Without a formal plan against which to compare the actual execution, no one can prove that the delays resulted from something I didn’t do well – and I live to repeat the pattern on my next project. The theory, methods and tools provide the basics for breaking out of this trap.

A tool like BeingManagement project portfolio management software (BM3) are part of the solution, and it’s especially helpful that a lot of the theory of critical chain project management is built right in. For example, look at the way that BeingManagement has implemented the project network tool. The drag and drop functionality is amazing in BM3, but the way that sound project planning theory is coded into the network diagram tool is even better.

Stay tuned for challenge #2 in an upcoming post!!

Twelve Days of Constraints Management: #4 EXECUTION
Twelve Days of Constraints Management: #4 EXECUTION 1656 1158 Novaces | Lean Six Sigma Training | Process Improvement | Healthcare | Government | Defense
Submitted By: Brian MacClaren

#4. EXECUTION

Performance improvement initiatives are projects. When projects are poorly executed, benefits are lost and penalties are incurred. This includes opportunity costs associated with wasted resource potential. Critical Chain Project Management, a component of the Theory of Constraints toolkit, accelerates Lean Six Sigma projects and is the gold standard for resource management.

12 Days of Constraints Management

That’s another reason and another day closer to the holidays. To get us into the spirit, I have been running the “Twelve Days of Constraints Management.” This holiday series focuses on why integrating Constraints Management (or Theory of Constraints) with Lean Six Sigma can be a force multiplier for your organization. Enjoy!

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