Identify the critical chain of a project schedule accounting for both dependencies and resource constraints.
Project Management
Critical Chain Project Management with Feeding and Project Buffers
An in-depth course on Critical Chain Project Management: building a critical chain schedule, sizing project and feeding buffers, and removing the multitasking that erodes delivery.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Conventional scheduling asks each task owner for a safe estimate, then loses most of that safety to student syndrome, multitasking and Parkinson's law, so the project still finishes late despite every individual estimate being generous. Critical chain project management, built on the theory of constraints, takes a different approach: it strips safety out of individual task estimates, identifies the critical chain by accounting for both task dependencies and resource constraints, and pools the removed safety into a project buffer at the end of the chain and feeding buffers where non-critical paths join it. This course constructs the method from the ground up, building a critical chain schedule, sizing buffers using an accepted method, and managing execution through buffer consumption, tracking what fraction of the buffer has been used relative to chain progress, rather than chasing individual task deadlines. Attention also goes to the organisational shift critical chain project management requires in practice, including relay-race task execution, resource availability for critical chain tasks, and the resistance a move away from task-level due dates tends to provoke. By the final session, participants can build and run a critical chain schedule and explain buffer management to a team used to conventional deadlines.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Remove padding from individual task estimates and relocate it into project and feeding buffers.
Size a project buffer and feeding buffers using an established buffer-sizing method.
Track buffer consumption against chain progress to judge project health during execution.
Apply relay-race working practices that pass completed work forward without unnecessary delay.
Identify and reduce multitasking that is silently extending the critical chain's actual duration.
Explain buffer management to a team accustomed to fixed task deadlines and secure their cooperation.
Who Should Attend
Project managers and schedulers considering or adopting critical chain project management.
Programme managers overseeing multiple projects that compete for the same critical resources.
Manufacturing, engineering and construction project professionals scheduling constrained resources.
Project management office staff evaluating critical chain against conventional scheduling methods.
Consultants introducing theory of constraints methods into project-based organisations.
Team leads whose staff are regularly pulled across multiple tasks or projects at once.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Rethinking Scheduling Around the Critical Chain
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1From Critical Path to Critical Chain
- Identify how student syndrome, Parkinson's law and multitasking erode conventional task estimates.
- Distinguish the critical chain from the critical path by including resource constraints explicitly.
- Strip safety margin out of individual task estimates to reveal the true underlying duration.
- Identify resource contention points that would otherwise be hidden in a conventional schedule.
Session 2Building the Critical Chain Schedule
- Sequence tasks by dependency and resource availability to determine the project's critical chain.
- Resolve resource conflicts by adjusting task sequencing before the schedule is finalised.
- Identify feeding chains that join the critical chain and require their own buffer protection.
- Validate a draft critical chain schedule with the resource owners it depends on.
02Sizing and Placing Buffers
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Sizing the Project Buffer
- Apply an established method, such as the square root of the sum of squares, to size a project buffer.
- Place the project buffer at the end of the critical chain to protect the overall finish date.
- Adjust project buffer size to reflect the level of uncertainty in the underlying task estimates.
- Communicate the purpose of the project buffer to a sponsor unfamiliar with critical chain method.
Session 2Sizing and Placing Feeding Buffers
- Identify every point where a non-critical chain feeds into the critical chain and needs protection.
- Size feeding buffers proportionally to the length and uncertainty of the feeding chain.
- Place feeding buffers so a delay on a feeding chain does not directly delay the critical chain.
- Decide when a resource buffer is also needed to guarantee availability at a critical handoff.
03Managing Execution Through Buffers
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Tracking Buffer Consumption
- Set up a buffer consumption chart that compares buffer used against critical chain progress.
- Define green, yellow and red zones that trigger different levels of management attention.
- Distinguish a buffer consumption trend that is stabilising from one that is accelerating.
- Report project health using buffer status rather than individual task lateness.
Session 2Responding to Buffer Erosion
- Trigger a recovery plan when buffer consumption enters the zone requiring management action.
- Identify which task or resource issue is driving buffer erosion before committing a response.
- Decide when consumed buffer represents an acceptable trend rather than a genuine threat to delivery.
- Update stakeholders on buffer status in terms that avoid reverting to task-level due date pressure.
04Embedding Critical Chain Behaviours
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Establishing Relay-Race Working Practices
- Introduce a relay-race ethic where finished work is passed on immediately rather than held.
- Remove artificial task-level due dates that encourage staff to start work at the last moment.
- Set clear rules for when a task owner should start work as soon as a predecessor finishes early.
- Address the loss of individual due-date accountability that critical chain method requires.
Session 2Reducing Multitasking and Securing Buy-In
- Identify where staff are being multitasked across tasks or projects in ways that extend the chain.
- Negotiate dedicated focus on critical chain tasks with functional managers who assign staff.
- Address team resistance to working without individual task deadlines during the transition.
- Pilot critical chain management on a single project before extending it across a portfolio.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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