Webinar - Critical Chain Project Management revisited: Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag's Rules of Flow

The Project Management by Critical Chain, designed by Eliyahu Goldratt, is widely adopted by numerous organizations worldwide, from automotive manufacturers like Mazda Motors and Embraer to the United States Air Force. Its results are remarkable, with most implementations reducing project durations by half, ensuring on-time completion, and doubling worker productivity.

In 1997, Eliyahu Goldratt published the novel "Critical Chain," a global bestseller, staying true to his explanatory style through business fiction, much like "The Goal." He passed away in 2011, and today, Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag revisits the subject, drawing on two decades of learning. The initial justification for the Critical Chain stemmed from an analysis that revealed task duration variability hindered project management performance. The concept of solutions based on optimistic durations and buffers for projects evolved over time, ultimately recognizing that "bad multitasking" was often the main problem.

In this fresh depiction of the approach grounded in the Theory of Constraints, Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag presents eight flow rules. However, she emphasizes during the webinar that these rules do not constitute a rigid recipe but rather a list of possibilities. Each organization can draw from this list based on its specific environment. Efrat explains the usefulness of this list but underscores that the hierarchy and sequence of implementation will depend on the specific issues encountered in highly diverse project contexts.

Throughout the webinar, Efrat highlights the most crucial flow rules and shares anecdotes about the emergence of the Critical Chain. She also discusses the challenges and frustrations her father, Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, faced when envisioning this groundbreaking project management method, which he subsequently refined through feedback and practical implementations.