12:20 84 cosaconnect.ac.za ... INSTRUCTION: Read the article below and answer the questions that follow. ARTICLE: A Study on the Applications of Critical Chain Management in the Projects of Construction Industry The planning, organisation, and administration of a project's resources are the primary focuses of project management. This is done with the intention of ensuring the effective accomplishment of certain project goals and objectives. It is about making promises in the face of moderate to high levels of uncertainty, along with large degrees of complexity and interdependencies, and then sticking to those commitments. Before beginning a project, it is customary in the majority of settings devoted to project management to establish legally enforceable commitments with regard to three distinct aspects of the project. These aspects include the project's (i) schedule or time, (ii) resources or budget, and (iii) scope, quality or performance goals. If any of these obligations are not met, it is possible that the whole project may be labelled a failure, which will have severe repercussions for all of the stakeholders. Evidence reveals that there is a significant proportion of project management failure across all sectors, despite the fact that each sector has its fair number of projects that are completed successfully each year. According to the findings of a number of studies, just 44% of projects are regularly finished on time, projects typically conclude at 222% of the period first anticipated, 189% of the money originally budgeted, 70% of projects fall short of their projected scope, and 30% of projects are terminated before they are finished. All of this laid the groundwork in the 1970s for the creation of a system of project management known as the critical chain approach. The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a method of scheduling that has been used extensively for a very long time in a variety of sectors, including construction. On the other hand, as a result of the more competitive nature of the business environment, more stringent time limitations are becoming the industry standard. As a direct consequence of this, an increasing number of projects are falling behind schedule. Because of this, a novel approach to project management known as the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) Technique was finally developed. The Critical Chain is a chain of both precedence and resource-dependent activities that Eliyahu M. Goldratt devised in 1997 based on the Theory of Constraints (TOC). It is the sequence of these jobs that precludes a project from being finished in a shorter amount of time provided that there are limited resources. The Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) methodology operates on the presumption that projects are plagued by uncertainty, that task times are exaggerated in an effort to prevent the negative impacts of such uncertainty, but in practice, such extra safety time is squandered. The CCPM addresses this issue by ensuring that sufficient buffer management is in place. The CCPM framework is adaptable enough to work in either a single- or multi- project setting. By using CCPM, the projects will be finished ahead of schedule while making effective use of the resources. Nevertheless, the building sector does not yet make widespread use of it. Source: Extracted from: Manikanta, A. and Rafi, N. 2023. A Study on the Applications of Critical Chain Management in the Projects of Construction Industry. Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu, 19(7): 11-17. QUESTION 1 (15 Marks) Critically discuss what is meant by Goldratt's critical chain as referred to in the article, and how effective it is in scheduling resource constrained projects. Present examples to illustrate points crafted in the discussion. QUESTION 2 (15 Marks) Rationalise why Critical Chain Project Management recommends the use buffers and state each type of buffer's specific purpose. Use an example to illustrate and explain the application of buffers on a network diagram. ← 1