The challenge, as I've discovered, is not Critical Chain Buffer Management itself. Rather it is getting organizations to the point where they can reap its benefits. This is no simple task. Data gathered during Adept Group's benchmarking research for NPD Portfolio and Pipeline Management suggest that benefits from such project management improvement efforts can run neutral to negative for a considerable amount of time. Not until 85% or so of the NPD projects in a discrete portfolio are fully engaged in Critical Chain Buffer Management and these projects share a central repository of data on people resources and project tasks do major benefits accrue. Getting to 30% to 40% inclusion of projects appears to be simple for most organizations. It is getting and staying over the 85% level that is the challenge. Once this critical mass is achieved, benefits can accrue quite rapidly. The gap between 40% and 85% seems to be somewhat of a Sisyphus rock rolling experience for many. How an organization gets there -- exactly what the organization does to get a high level of steady project inclusion -- is the key to success.

Why Critical Chain Buffer Management Is So Important
Critical Chain Buffer Management will quickly boost NPD output by greater than a 50%. Think of this as equivalent to expanding your resource base by greater than 50%. This is an extraordinary gain.

The Investment, Value Proposition 

and Commitment

Depending on the organization, the total investment for Critical Chain Buffer Management implementation -- inclusive of software, process changes, implementation supports and training -- can range from $2,000 to $10,000 per product developer (technical and marketing personnel). My estimate of the value proposition for Critical Chain Buffer Management is that, at minimum, it offers a 10-fold return on investment within less than two years, with ongoing returns accruing thereafter. Cutting the investment or organizational effort before critical mass is reach, though, could be quite harmful to the initiative. Serious top management commitment is requisite to success. Managing the investment - doing the right things at the right time - is what makes the difference. This is where consultants can help guide the effort. There are ways to manage the timing of efforts, minimize the investment, maintain the focus, and anchor the benefits. 

The significance of Critical Chain Buffer Management is, quite notably, the significant gain in NPD output. Most organizations cannot afford to ignore it. Competition will eventually force it. An interesting question arises with Critical Chain Buffer Management, though. If your organization could maneuver to exploit the method and could quickly double its NPD productivity, would doubling the number of projects the correct thing to do strategically? Or, would top management prefer to cut resources in half? My bet is that Critical Chain Buffer Management will simultaneously induce output improvement and an increase in the innovativeness in those products being development. Fewer resources will be expended on development activities (think stage gate) and more resources will shift to innovation (think front-end). To reap this strategic gain an organization will likely need to improve its front-end processes. Still, no matter how an organization chooses to gain from Critical Chain Buffer Management, it is serious stuff, with serious benefits. 

My message is that the benefits from Critical Chain Buffer Management are tremendous. No one should want their organization to be last among competitors to embrace the methodology. 

Ten Reasons For My Conclusions About Critical Chain Buffer Management
1. The value proposition is too attractive to ignore.
2. Industry is now moving beyond the early adopters of Critical Chain Buffer Management. We've seen the gains and we've learned from mistakes. It is time to transition Critical Chain Buffer Management to mainstream use.
3. We can explain why organizations have realized the benefits. It is not a mystery how Critical Chain Buffer Management works. In fact, understanding Critical Chain Buffer Management sheds considerable light on the lunacy of expecting great gains from traditional project management in NPD. 
4. The magic 85% project inclusion level recently discovered in our research reveals that the central issue in gaining benefit from Critical Chain Buffer Management is that of reaching and maintaining critical mass. The issue is not Critical Chain Buffer Management itself.
5. Critical Chain Buffer Management recognizes and accounts for the fact that NPD tasks are uncertain in both duration and outcome. Traditional project management techniques (think MS Project like) do not do this.
6. Critical Chain Buffer Management is the managing of the projects and resource allocation… not just planning of the project. It tells project leaders where to take action when the action is required.
7. Critical Chain Buffer Management is not industry specific. Some think it is just for high tech industries. Others think it is specific to the construction industry. Both are wrong. Critical Chain Buffer Management is highly suited to project settings where there is uncertainty of task durations, variety of possible task outcomes, interconnects across projects and resources. This is new product development across many industries.
8. Strategic gains from shifting resources to creating innovative concepts that are more innovative can dwarf the direct economic return on Critical Chain Buffer Management.
9. Critical Chain Buffer Management, as a method, recognizes that people can only work on one task at any instant in time. Just because a task is on a Gantt chart does not mean a person is doing it or that it will be completed on schedule.
10. Critical Chain Buffer Management offers too much potential benefit to wait for after-the-fact longitudinal studies by academics to empirically prove its worth. These studies won't show up for another two or three years. If you wait, you'll need to add to that time another year or so before benefits accrue to your organization. It is simply more prudent to get on with it and be smart about it.

Benchmarking Summit on NPD Productivity
Needing to understand New Product Development productivity investments is not limited to Critical Chain Buffer Management. Similar questions abound for front-end processes, portfolio management, technology mapping, training, collaboration software, restructuring, product line planning, market mapping, and stage-gate redesign… to name a few. Which combination of software and activities should an organization invest in? If a management wishes to increase the output of NPD resources, how should it proceed? 

These questions are at the heart of our unique Benchmarking Summit.  The Benchmarking Summit is a 3-day event, limited to just 7 companies. Each company pays a single participation fee and may send up to 4 management participants. 

The summit is highly interactive and intended for VP's, Directors and key managers. We negotiate among the participants the date the Summit will happen in order that these key individuals will and do come. This enables interactions between participating companies to be at key responsibility levels. The goal is to share both best practices and the challenges each organization confronts. The Summit provides the forum for each organization to wrestle with and get answers to questions about improving NPD productivity.

If your organization is the least bit interested in improving NPD productivity, please download the pdf brochure by clicking NPD PRODUCTIVITY SUMMIT