CCPM or critical chain management is an approach to project management that involves practices like planning executing and also the management of projects. A look at the stages of CCPM and an explanation of how CCPM differs with the conventional techniques of project management help in understanding project management in a superior way.
Planning
Critical chain involves a long chain where tasks are dependent on each other. This means that resources across the project are dependent on the project task. Because of this, it is important for project managers to reduce the time wastage in projects through planning. For example, cutting task estimates into half of the normal duration of these tasks is necessary for the purpose of avoiding time wastage.
In CCPM, planning is also important for safety purposes where safety does not necessary apply to harm, but to risks associated with uncertainties that surround a project. Because of this, buffers should be created as a way of making sure that a project is secure from uncertainties that may arise in the future. In planning, a project buffer ensures that the completion date of a project is not altered by any internal or external factor that may want to affect the project in a negative way. Project buffers may take various forms. For example, there are resource buffers that help in making sure that the project does not run out of resources during its execution (Pinto, 2010).
Project Execution
Project execution in CCPM is the process of carrying out the planned tasks. Execution takes various things into consideration. For example, it takes all the resources into priority, which ensures that the critical chain remains healthy all through the lifetime of the project. Execution ensures that the project goes through all the stages to the completion stage where speed in relation to time is important while still taking care of harming the quality of the project.
Management
The last CCPM stage is management where the project managers have the task of checking important issues in the entire project. For example, the management is endowed with the task of checking the project progress in order to avoid lateness. It is also the work of project management to determine the correct action to take when faced with a problem or when decision is needed. The management monitors the project from the beginning to the end and also carries out resource planning to make sure that resources are used fairly without wastage. They also work to avoid delays of the project where maximum project success is ensured after completion (Pinto, 2010).
The difference between CCPM and conventional practices is witnessed at all the stages of the project. For example, in the planning process, task duration estimates are necessary for the purpose of saving time and resources. This provides increased probability followed by high confidence that the task will be completed within the set time. However, conventional techniques like not starting the project at the required time and delaying of the completion of different tasks harm the project in different ways. Besides this, management conventional techniques lead to longer time when working on the project since planning is not done correctly. Because of this, various problems like lack of enough resources and wastage arise, which leads to poor project quality.
In conclusion, CCPM has three major practices that include planning, execution and management. All these steps make certain that the project is of high quality and is delivered at the right time. However, conventional techniques are different from CCPM since they lack proper planning, execution and proper management.
Reference
Pinto, J. K. (2010). The Project Management (2nd Edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.