The project buffer protects the project’s due date from variability within and along the critical tasks. There is one project buffer per project. Feeding buffers protect critical tasks from being delayed by variability along and within the non-critical feeding pathways.

During the initial planning, identify the lowest critical resource skill level capable of performing the job. The rationale is that later, before execution, if there is a need to further compress the schedule, we can identify the best places to put higher skilled resources as a way to do that, rather than counting on scarcer resources unnecessarily

“What are tasks waiting for the most?”

Project activation is a key event that should be publicized to all stakeholders and affected managers in the organization. It takes place on the earliest path start date for a project. Projects are not started earlier, even if the resource for the first task is available earlier, because that would decrease the amount of synchronization buffer avai

The periodic review is conducted to answer four questions: Is the operations flow quick enough to match or beat our significant competitors? Is the operation efficiency good enough to be price competitive? Is the operations quality sufficient to be acceptable to most customers? Is the operation still scalable to grow to meet the coming year’s marke

When the signal is given that a project is in danger, project and resource managers must know how they can work together in case recovery is needed. If options are not identified in advance, the typical approach is to escalate, which can result in overreaction and chaos. The organization must have sufficient capacity and skills to recover from typi

Overall project priorities are used to determine when to release a project into the system, based on which project is most important to the organization’s leaders. Task priorities are used during execution of all projects to determine which task on which project to work on, based on which task most endangers a project due date commitment.

What we are looking for are the tasks that must be completed immediately before beginning the task on the right, not how we are going to accomplish the task on the right. For example, for the task “Install Birch Cabinets,” it is tempting to detail that task by adding tasks such as “Remove Birch Cabinets cartons” and “Assemble Birch Cabinets.” This

Marking a task in process Gathering and posting task updates according to the designated schedule Providing comments on delays, significant findings, and when task completion criteria are achieved Marking a task complete