Critical Chain Project Management (Artech House Professional Development Library)
Lawrence P. Leach | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | Artech House Publishers | 330 | Management
Providing the theory, tools and techniques you need to implement critical chain project management in your organization, you learn how to reduce stress on a project team, eliminate cost and scheduling over-runs, effectively manage project resources, and finish projects that meet or exceed expectations.
Reviews
I am a new starter to CCPM and TOC since last month. What I can say to this book is, you must have it on your bookshelf. It had enough details to implement CCPM if you want to apply it to the project management.
Reviews
Overall a good book. His positions on agile processes should be disregarded, as they fail to address changing requirements. The author suggests that on HIS projects, requirements don't change. Ridiculous.
The technique is definitely worth exploring, even if you are not a fan of the PMBOK material. The price of the book is way too high.
Reviews
I used this book as my primary reference to learn CCPM and guide me in leading a full implementation of Critical Chain PM across a complete portfolio of Pharmaceutical development projects. The author has taken his extensive experience in PM, TQ, TOC, and PMBOK to first show the reader how these methodologies weave together and then presents a clear and easy to follow walk through of the application of CCPM at the project and portfolio levels. If you are serious about leading edge PM, this is a must have reference.
BLR, PMP
Reviews
I have always been interested in Critical Chain from a PM perspective and, more generally, the concept of Theory of Constraints. I thought this book would be a great way to extend my knowledge of ToC and to learn about how to move away from critical path.
The real meat of this book doesn't even kick in until about Chapter 4. Prior, there are lots of thoughts about the many sins of "critical path" and how we're all doomed to failure if we don't change our ways. Then, the book starts to get into how to actually use the technique. It's a long discussion... without a lot of "knowledge checks" to make sure you understand what is going on. There are technical diagrams, lots of them, many of them without a whole lot of explanation. I found myself occasionally having to re-read sections two or three times to really understand what the author was driving at.
I'm sure this is a practical book if used as a "complete reference" but in my opinion it's not a good guide for someone who wants to understand the basics quickly and then gain extensive knowledge of the topic over time.
Reviews
While not a devotee of critical chain project management (CCPM), I embrace several features of the approach.
Overall, this is a fine book despite some typos and minor organization flaws.
Mr. Leach has been promoting, teaching, and consulting in this area for years. It appears that the book is intended to complement his training and consulting---and that's okay. Anecdotes are frequently from questions arising at training or during client implementations. His experience shows.
Leach works to integrate concepts from theory of constraints (Goldratt), Project Management Institute's "PMBOK® Guide," lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. He does this reasonably well, building upon and extending the foundation laid by Goldratt.
Some standout features of the book include a) implmentation barriers and issues; b) table of project model (logic) checks; and c) extensive notes and a chapter on implmentation.
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The first reading about CCPM should always be "Critical Chain" (1997) by E. Goldratt. This is an easy, insightful reading, by the guy that popularized (invented?) CCPM.
Then, before attempting implementation, I suggest studying Larry Leach's (this)book. Another credible guide is "Project Management in the Fast Lane: Applying the Theory of Constraints" (1998) by Robert Newbold
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