Projects in Less Time:: A Synopsis of Critical Chain

by Mark Woeppel

Everyone who has managed a project (or been involved in one) knows how difficult it is to finish on time. If you've managed many projects, your frustration is even greater; you not only have to finish on time, but in less time. Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) has been hailed as the biggest innovation in project management in 40 years. Projects in Less Time; A Synopsis of Critical Chain by Mark J. Woeppel explains the main ideas behind this breakthrough concept. Woeppel builds on a short, easy to understand synopsis of Eliyahu M. Goldratt's pioneering book, Critical Chain, by deftly augmenting it with commentary, case studies and implementation advice. Readers not only gain a meaningful appreciation for the ideas behind CCPM, they clearly see significant implications for real projects.

134 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2005

About the author

Mark J. Woeppel is the founder and President of Pinnacle Strategies International, a management consulting firm focused on improving productivity in production, project management, and knowledge work. The author of two earlier books—Manufacturer’s Guide to Implementing the Theory of Constraints and Projects in Less Time: A Synopsis of Critical Chain—Woeppel has also penned numerous white papers and eBooks and has taught or lectured at several universities, including Northwestern Kellogg School, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Kansas. Married to the same fantastic woman for over thirty years, he is also the father of three wonderful adult children.

Reviews

[Ash Moran]

Clear and concise guide to the Critical Chain application of Theory of Constraints for project management. Summarises the reasons behind the human behaviours that cause projects to massively overrun, and provides practical implementation tips. This book also contains useful explanatory material for some of the things Goldratt was not explicit about in his original business novel.

[Jack Vinson]

Nice synopsis of Goldratt's _Critical Chain_ with some useful commentary. Much faster reading.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Great summary

condenses all the critical information in a two hour read, it is a great refresher, however reading the books is a must, it is not enough to know the answer but one must understand them and that is possible only by going trough all the dialogs and dillemas in the books

[Suhrob]

Pretty pointless summary:
1. it summarizes the plot which is unnecessary
2. the critical chain is summarized highly inconsistently - some things are left out, some (less important) added

I don't think you can read it without the original, and it is pretty much worthless along it...

[Indra Jayanthan]

Goodsynopsis

[Ravi Warrier]

This book is a synopsis of the original book, Critical Chain, by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt and provides end of chapter commentaries. My recommendation is to use it for quick understanding if the topics in the original book get heavy.
The book is useful, but since it's a synopsis, there's not much to rate.

[Tony]

i j=hope it will enhance my project management skills