Customer Reviews

Critical Chain Project Management, Second Edition

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

I read Goldratt's Critical Chain and was interested but had no idea what to do next other than pay him a bundle of money for a seminar.

Not the problem here. Now I understand what they are proposing and I can explore these ideas further without forking up more money... at least until I need some good training. Which has it's place... after you've decided to committ.

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.

Books covers TOC integrated into Project management, with further integration of the TQM principles. Takes what was discussed in Goldratt's "Critical Chain" novel and puts it into a How-to format. Worth every penny!

If not the actual father of CCPM, Mr. Leach is at least the midwife who has championed its cause, written the book, given the talks and done more to bring it to life than anyone else. In this new book, the second edition, updates and expands on the first edition based on new research and on feedback from readers.

Often resistance to a new concept comes from the "we've always done it this way" crowd. If you are new to CCPM, you might consider it an extension to CPM where additional factors like resource and task logic constraints are also taken into account.

The first four chapters of this book present an excellent overview of how it works. The first three chapters primarily discuss CPM and point out areas of potential trouble. The fourth chapter presents a complete single-project solution that compares CPM with CCPM and clearly illustrates the advantages.

A book for Project Managers who have succeeded on projects by applying lots of hard work. This concept can offer improved project management techniques to complete projects on time and with less stress on the team members. Clearly, an advancement in the field.

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

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.

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.

Review of "Critical Chain, Project Management By Lawrence P. Leach"

Critical Chain by Lawrence P. Leach is a must read for anyone working on a project, managing a project or managing an organization that manages projects. Mr. Leach in the first three chapters provides a thoughtful well-researched description of the need for a better way to manage projects. He provides a well reasoned argument for the need to change the process contained in the Project Management Institute's (PMI), Project Management Book of KnowledgeTM (PMBOK). Mr. Leach does a masterful job of weaving Total Quality Management (TQM) and Theory of Constraints (TOC) into project management.

Mr. Leach then builds on this "learned" development and provides a very complete and knowledgeable primer for the process of planning and managing a project. The process he describes is complete and easy to understand.

If your organization is using project management tools and is still embracing Critical Path Method for scheduling and schedule control the information contained in this book should give you food for thought and the reason for swithching to Critical Chain.