The Basics of Critical Chain Management Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is an effective project management approach that enables a business to successf ully manage the relationships of their projects, deliverables and their relationships within a specific production environment. A common CCM approach is to first identif y the key relationships within a distribution or production team. Once identified, these relationships are then tracked via the "chain of command" so that all of the stakeholders are aware of the status of their projects and have a vested interest in track ing progress on a timely basis. The next phase of CCM is project analysis. This step of the CCM process evaluates the relationships found within the chain of command, identifying any weaknesses that need to be addressed and any improvements that should be made. The major objective associated with critical chain management is to create a simple model that is easy to understand for all stakeholders. The first goal is to reduce risks related to delays or deliverables. A task in the CCPM process is deemed "out of scope" when there is a realistic expectation of a delivery date that is more than 3 days away. If this task is delayed any longer, negative impacts will be seen by the stakeholders, negatively affecting the company's image and increasing its risk profil e. By implementing tasks into the planning of the project, and constantly monitoring the project buffer, all of the stakeholders will be well -informed and have an interest in the status of the tasks and in the delivery dates. CCM also allows a company to easily adjust the scope of their work, based on the current status of the tasks and their expected dates. W hen a task is already out of scope, adjustments to the scope can easily be implemented, saving time and money. This aspect of critical chain managemen t is often overlooked, which leads to costly mistakes that can have far -reaching consequences on the company's bottom line. W ith the use of a variety of tools and analytical methods, the CCM process analyzes project lifecycles and determines what steps are req uired to adjust the scope of a work plan to adjust to the current status of the project. Another important aspect of CCM is risk management. In most project management systems, the key benefit of this methodology is the ability to identify opportunitie s for risks. Through the use of CCM, companies are able to assess their exposure to risks, and therefore plan how to best mitigate these risks. For instance, if the focus of the CCM effort is to prevent downtime of the website, then the appropriate method of managing this risk would be to implement a number of in -house solutions, such as a load balancer, or better yet, to contract with a company that will do the load balancing for you (such as Amazon). The third aspect of successful critical chain methodolo g y is communication. CCM is not simply about managing time and delivering tasks. The success of a business depends largely on effective communication between the various stakeholders. If a task is assigned to a person who is not very involved with the dail y operations of the business, this task will often be neglected. In order to effectively communicate between all of the stakeholders, each must be adequately informed of the status of the task, and this will often require the sharing of various documents t hat provide
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