Rating: 
Summary: Good idea, bad book
Review: Surpisingly, few of the reviews here touch on the quality of the writing in Critical Chain. In The Goal, Goldratt had the help of Jeff Cox to write a book that was not only instructive, but a pleasure to read as well. Apparently Goldratt decided to write this book on his own, and overall it suffers for it. It reads like a first draft in need of a significant rewrite, and Goldratt's editor did not do a very good job of editing. The point of view shifts frequently, the sentences are overly wordy, and he commits the cardinal sin of writing -- he doesn't show, he tell's.The book accomplishes its goal of applying the Theory of Constraints to Project Management, it's just very sloppy in the execution of that goal. Perhaps its saving grace is that it is a very quick read.
Rating:
Summary: Good but too wrapped up in fable
Review: The points this book makes are great - once you wade through the "fable" part. The rambling discussions of the characters often makes it hard to focus on the concept being discussed. The key points could have been covered within a chapter if all the fluff was cut. That said, the concepts are useful - as is the concise summation of "The Goal" offered by one of the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it, but wanted more...
Review: I particularly liked the analysis of the steel operation, turning from losses to profits within a short period. Although critical chain, as a concept, was wonderful, I wanted much more information on project management issues. And the financial discussion at the end was less than satisfactory. Despite those shortcomings, it's a wonderful book. I reread it every year. There needs to be more "Business Fiction".
Rating: 
Summary: A Novel Presentation of Basic Concepts
Review: Goldratt has been an especially prolific author in recent years. This is the third of three books; the others are The Goal (1992) and It's Not Luck (1994). As in those earlier works, Goldratt presents his ideas in this volume within the structure of a novel. When doing so, I think he is much less effective as a storyteller than he is introducing and then developing his core concepts about project management. I am among those who are convinced that process management and project management are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, I believe that effective project management must be integrated within effective process management inorder to improve, for example, cycle time and first pass yield. Moreover, one of the greatest challenges is to identify root causes of barriers to the process and then eliminate them. Another formidable challenge to any organization (regardless of size or nature) is to become and then remain performance-driven, rather than culture-driven. Whatever the "critical chain" may be, its weakest "link" is the limiting factor. One of the worst mistakes made, when problems develop, is to respond to symptoms rather than to root causes. As a result, the weakest "link" is seldom strengthened and perhaps not even identified. In this volume, Goldratt once again examines a fictional context within which there is a cast of characters, a multi-dimensional narrative (or plot), and all manner of disagreements which create conflicts. Never before have executives had more to read and less time for reading. One of this book's most appealing qualities is that it is so easy to read. (The challenge is to make effective applications of TOC in an increasingly more competitive marketplace.) Goldratt is an authority on the business subjects he discusses as well as an excellent teller of tales. That's a rare combination. Once again, he suggests all manner of applications of his Theory of Constraints (TOC). And once again, Goldratt helps the reader to determine how to apply the TOC to her or his own organization. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read his other books, The Goal and It's Not Luck; also, to check out David Maister's Practice What You Preach and David Whyte's The Heart Aroused. With all due respect to the core concepts which Goldratt examines so brilliantly in this volume, they are worthless unless and until embraced by everyone involved. Master and Whyte can help managers to achieve that "buy in."
Rating:
Summary: Several Moderate "AHA"s Make This Book Valuable
Review: Eli Goldratt continues his application of Theory of Constraints (TOC) to various business processes by focusing on project management with this latest business novella. TOC is a method of creating ongoing improvement in operational processes, as well as a general management philosophy. Goldratt introduced this theory to world in his best-selling book THE GOAL, where he applied the principles to a manufacturing setting. In CRITICAL CHAIN, Goldratt builds upon the teachings found in THE GOAL. He quickly describes of constructs of TOC, while spending more time addressing some specific phenomenon of project management versus process management. This is where the "Aha"s come into play. Goldratt's characters debate and learn why projects often run overdue and over budget, or finish with less completed than originally specified. The characters debate critical path vs. non-critical path tasks, early vs. late start, resource conflicts, safety buffers in each task, negotiating with subcontractors and suppliers, as well as the erroneous progress accounting/measurement techniques that give everyone a false sense of progress toward completion. Each of these topics were useful in challenging the conventional wisdom of project management. Each presented some new techniques for managing projects more aggressively. In my job, I indirectly manage a large number of construction project managers, and this was useful in understanding some of the reasons we struggle to deliver on time and on budget. For those of you looking for the same enlightenment that you probably derived from THE GOAL, you will be mildly disappointed. For those of you who have not yet read THE GOAL, I highly recommend reading it, because it will provide the foundation material (TOC) in much more depth and clarity. For me, TOC completes the loop of operational concepts that I have pondered over my career, namely how to improve processes and improve overall organizational productivity, while eliminating "fire fighting" and bottlenecks in production. CRITICAL CHAIN furthers the progress of this thinking relative to a project vs. a process environment.
Rating: 
Summary: Reading in progress
Review: The ideas and concepts in this book are repeatitive of those in Goldratt's other books (The Goal etc.) If it were not for fulfilling school requirements, I wouldn't have spent money and time on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Goldratt
Review: As he did in The Goal with production operations, Goldratt approaches project management in Critical Chain from a novel, even radical, perspective and makes some impressive insights. Through his main character, a business professor, Goldratt maintains that something is fundamentally wrong with current methodologies, and proposes a simpler, crisper alternative. Typical of Goldratt's style, the essence of Critical Chain could be condensed into less than 20 pages. The remainder of the book consists of a superfluous, poorly developed novel, including details of the professor's troubled marriage and the attempts of a university president to turn around a faltering business school. Goldratt is harshly critial of current business school cirriculums and characterizes an MBA as essentially useless. Goldratt's unconventional grammar, especially with regard to punctuation, and his insistence in switching between first and third person narration is distracting, but manageable. Overall, however, Critical Chain is an achievement and should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in project management. tpm May 28, 2001
Rating:
Summary: Helpful Thoughts About Scheduling and Coordinating Projects
Review: There is an old saying. To a carpenter, every problem looks like a nail. Having now read two of Mr. Goldratt's books, it appears that to him every management issue is a scheduling and coordination problem. While that's true, product development management of difficult tasks is also sensitive to many other things like getting competent resources, having the right amount of input from each function early in the process, and developing the ability to produce the finished product efficiently and effectively. Those other issues are essentially untouched in this book. Think of this book as applying the system coordination and optimization concepts of Mr. Goldratt's famous novel, The Goal, to project management. If you have already read The Goal, this book will be much easier to understand than if you have not. Although many of the same concepts are explained here as in The Goal, the explanations in this book are not nearly as thorough and clear. Also, the plot and plot line in this book will probably not be as enjoyable to you as The Goal. I rated the book down two stars for these kinds of weaknesses. If you have read The Goal, Mr. Goldratt basically substitutes scheduling safety margins for work-in-progress inventory, and then applies the same debottlenecking concepts as in The Goal. If you have not read The Goal, Mr. Goldratt's argument is that schedules are put together with too much slack. Everyone wants to be almost sure they can meet a deadline. The deadkube date they pick usually relates to the most they can get away with. Usually, that much time is not needed and people start late. If they end early, they never tell anyone. So any delay puts the whole project back because there is no project scheduling slack. With many tasks going on simultaneously, often none of them get done well. The solution is to cut back on each individual schedule in favor of having all of the slack managed for the whole project, and communicating frequently about when the work really will be done so the next step can be ready to take up the baton. Then focus all measurements on project completion, rather than task completion. Give priority to whatever can hold the whole project back. Add resources there, too, if possible. In doing this, focus on both activities and resources as potential bottlenecks. The book also has some good sections on how to negotiate with external suppliers to improve performance, and how to think about the tradeoffs between speed and cost as a supplier and as a purchaser of supplies and services. Without changes in top management policies, most project managers will not be allowed to use all of these principles. So be sure to share this book upward, as well as sideways, and downward in the organization. If you are in a small company, it will be much easier to do. After you have finished reading this book, I suggest that you look at the last 20 projects that your organization has done. What was done well? What was not? Which of these issues can be helped by Mr. Goldratt's ideas? Which cannot? For these latter, I suggest you look for best practices and imagine what perfection could look like to design a simple, but effective, alternative with better communications. The new book, It's Not the BIG etc., may be helpful to you in this regard. May you continuously improve your effectiveness in project management!
Rating:
Summary: Must have for Project Managers
Review: This book lays out the basic techniques that you need to improve your performance in projects. Goldratt shows you how to attack the simplest to most complex problems in managing projects. The only problem is now coming in on-time and on-budget will not be enough!!!
Rating:
Summary: For all level Project Managers
Review: This is a great book for every Project Manager, because here are described problems what are for many projects common. Goldratt shows to us, where we as project leaders made the biggest mistakes. And it's not enough to know, where is the problem, we should solve these problems too. Goldratt shows us, how can we use TOC in project management to solve our problems. I'd like the Goldratt's idea, that the best way to teach people is through novell, through peoples self expierence. It will be great, if based on this book could be produced a movie, that will help to the people much, much more, because lot of people are lazy to read books.
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