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Chapter11.AdvancedTopicsinPlanningandSchedulingAgileandCriticalChain.pptx

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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 (X P) 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.

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.

P M B o K Core Concepts (1 of 2)

Project Management Body of Knowledge (P M B o K) covered in this chapter includes:

Collect Requirements: Tools and Techniques (P M B o K 5.2.2)

Rolling Wave Planning Method Sequence Activities (P M B o K 6.2.2.2)

Sequence Activities (P M B o K 6.3)

Estimate Activity Resources (P M B o K 6.4)

Estimate Activity Durations (P M B o K 6.5)

P M B o K Core Concepts (2 of 2)

Develop Schedule (P M B o K 6.6)

Develop Schedule (tools and techniques) (P M B o K 6.6.2)

Critical Chain Method (P M B o K 6.6.2.3)

Resource Optimization Techniques (P M B o K 6.6.2.4)

Control Schedule (P M B o K 6.7)

Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management (Agile P M) 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

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.

Figure 11.1 Waterfall Model for Project Development

Unique Feature of Agile P M

Agile P M, 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

Figure 11.2 Scrum Process for Product Development

Key Terms in Agile P M (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.

Key Terms in Agile P M (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.

Steps in Agile

Sprint Planning

Daily Scrums

Development Work

Sprint Review

Sprint Retrospective

Figure 11.4 Stages in a Sprint

Figure 11.5 Sample Burndown Chart For Day 9 of a Sprint

Problems with Agile

Active user involvement and close collaboration of the Scrum team are critical throughout the development cycle.

Evolving requirements can lead to potential for scope creep.

It is harder to predict at beginning of project what the end product will actually resemble.

Agile requirements are kept to minimum, which can lead to confusion about the final outcomes.

Testing is integrated throughout lifecycle, which can add cost to project.

Frequent delivery of project features puts a burden on product owners.

If it is misapplied to traditional projects, it can be an expensive approach without delivering benefits.

Keys to Successful Agile P M

Cross-functional teams

Empowered team members

Shared accountability

Servant leadership

Continuous flow of value

Attention to technical excellence

Rapid risk reduction

Early feedback and adaptation

Total openness and transparency

Trust

Extreme Programming (X P)

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 X P:

Refactoring

Pair programming

Advantage of X P is whole process is visible and accountable.

Agile P M and X P have grown out of need to combine the discipline of project management methodology with the needs of modern enterprise to respond quickly.

Critical Chain Project Management (C C P M)

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 (T O C)

Represents both cultural shift and change in scheduling processes

Applies technical and behavioral elements of project management

Theory of Constraints and Critical Chain Project Scheduling

A constraint limits any system’s output.

The Goal – Goldratt

T O.C Methodology

Identify the constraint.

Exploit the constraint.

Subordinate the system constraint.

Elevate the constraint.

Repeat the process.

Figure 11.6 Five Key Steps in Theory of Constraints Methodology

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

Figure 11.7 Reduction in Project Duration After Aggregation

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.

C C P M 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.

Figure 11.8 C C P M Employing Feeder Buffer

Changes in Critical Change Example (1 of 2)

Figure 11.9a Project Schedule Using Early Start

Figure 11.9b Reduced Schedule Using Late Start

Changes in Critical Change Example (2 of 2)

Figure 11.9c Critical Chain Schedule with Buffers Added

Figures 11.10a Critical Path Network with Resource Conflicts

Figures 11.10b Critical Chain Solution

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.

Critical Chain Adjustments to Resource Conflicts (1 of 2)

Figure 11.12 Scheduling Using Late Start for Project Activities

Critical Chain Adjustments to Resource Conflicts (2 of 2)

Figure 11.13 Reconfiguring the Schedule to Resolve Resource Conflicts

Critical Chain Project Portfolio Management

Capacity constraint buffer (C C P) 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.

Steps to Apply C C P M to Multiple Project Portfolio

Identify company resource constraints or drum.

Exploit resource constraints.

Subordinate individual project schedules.

Elevate the capacity of the constraint resource.

Go back to step 2 and reiterate the sequence.

Figure 11.15 Three Projects Stacked for Access to a Drum Resource

Figure 11.16 Applying C C B to Drum Schedules

C C P M Critiques

No milestones used

Not significantly different from P E R T

Unproven at the portfolio level

Anecdotal support only

Incomplete solution

Overestimation of activity duration padding

Cultural changes unattainable

Summary (1 of 2)

Understand why Agile Project Management was developed and its advantages in planning for certain types of projects.

Understand the key features of the Extreme Programming (X P) planning process for software projects.

Understand the logic behind Theory of Constraints and its implications for Critical Chain scheduling.

Distinguish between critical path and critical chain project scheduling techniques.

Summary (2 of 2)

Understand how critical chain methodology resolves project resource conflicts.

Apply critical chain project management to project portfolios.