This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

The Billion Dollar Solution

Rob Newbold's 2008 book Billion Dollar Solution is one of the better guides to Critical Chain Project Management I have read. It doesn't get deep into the theory, which I don't need. I thought Newbold did a good job of describing both the how of implementing CCPM and the why behind his thinking. This book is unabashedly subtitled, "Secrets of ProChain Project Management." ProChain is one of the CCPM software options, of which there are several (as listed in my ongoing list of Critical Chain Software).

The book is basically set out as a how-to, but Newbold interspersed a fabricated story to use as an example of the various points throughout the book. Rather than use the story as the core of the book, as done in many TOC-related business novels, this is used to highlight the core message of the book.

The book arcs through three sections that describe the underlying principles required of CCPM, the new Tools, Behaviors and Processes required, and then wraps up with commentary on how to make it happen. For people who don't have a lot of time, I'd suggest starting with the final three chapters and then jumping back into the earlier chapters to dive into more detail. The discussion resonated fairly strongly for me, as most of of the ideas Newbold describes are very much in line with what I would promote in implementations. I do like that he has distilled his knowledge into something that is fairly readable.

I particularly liked the interspersed ideas of how to demonstrate the problems with traditional project management. Newbold included descriptions of a number of "games" that he has used to demonstrate the effects of multitasking and others that were new - or new versions of games that I have used in my own training around CCPM.

Best practice conversations vs. requirements

Change or anti-change?