Issue: August 14, 2007

Dear Managers,

Every other week we bring you one tip from our most successful implementations. This issue of Execution Management Minute is about a key rule for estimating and managing tasks. If you find it useful, please feel free to forward it to your colleagues.

The Realization Team

 

Full Kitting: Well begun is half done!

The current pressure to start projects ASAP often causes projects to be in execution without the needed preparations being completed (scope, requirements, authorizations, etc.). This creates unnecessary rework and frequent interruptions during execution, often leading to devastating effects.

Under Critical Chain, staggering project starts allows you extra time for dealing with preparations. You can get excellent results by exploiting this window of extra time. Many organizations doing Critical Chain even appoint a Full Kit Manager, who is responsible for making sure that the preparations are completed for all projects before their start date. They also give the Full Kit Manager the power to hold a project from starting if the preparations are not complete. And they find that projects get completed much faster.

And that's the Execution Management Minute for this week.