I have to say it again, who would have thought that someone would write a novel about Project Management that anyone would read? Well, I just read Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt and it's a novel about project Management! The back cover says this:

CRITICAL CHAIN, a gripping fast paced business novel, does for Project Management what Eli Goldratt's other novels have done for Product and Marketing.

Now, you won't catch me saying that the book is fast paced but it is gripping if you are studying, or are in, business and are remotely interested in such things.

I read Goldratt's The Goal a short while ago and told everyone I met who is stuyding anything to do with business to read it and I am doing the same with Critical Chain. I think that this book, though, is even better than The Goal in that it is easier to read, the main character's family life doesn't get in the way quite so much; and the project management aspects are more clearly spelled out.

The basic plot is that the central character is a lecturer at a college in America. This chap is relatively old and has little faith in himself. We learn, however, that this man's teaching skills are advanced and envied and that he is trying to secure a tenured Professorship. We also learn that his wife is tired of being supported in the poverty to which she has long taken an aversion because she has the desire to go shopping ... seriously shopping.

I should say that because of a stylistic problem, it's not always clear what the central character's name is: is it I or is it Rick? I will assume it's Rick from now on.

We aren't treated to the spectre of living with an absent minded professor but we are led to believe that he is learning on the hoof at times: actually learning as he's teaching. The message is that Rick has read a lot but because he is just an academic he is not worldly wise and he doesn't always understand what he teaches. There's nothing wrong with that and given his teaching style, no one notices so he gets away with it, handsomely at times too.

Of course, one needs to ask Goldratt whether that teacher is himself: interesting though the answer might be, it's really like asking Arnold Schwarzenegger if he's as smart in real life as a Terminator. Of course not, nowhere near. But I digress.

Rick is given the job of teaching an MBA class and his style is, essentially, to have a theme in mind, have read loads of things about it but then, because all the students are working managers, to have them teach themselves. He does this by asking his students what they do, what problems they have, how does this relate to their work. The homeworks are all centred around real projects from the students' work ...

In one of the early chapters, he starts the class by picking the nicest looking piece of homework from his desk at the front of the class and using that as his notes and lesson plan all rolled into one. That's teaching on the fly and, in the book at least, it works.

I'm not entirely sure from the way the classes are presented in the book how the end of course examination will go but at least Goldratt convinced me that Rick convinced everyone else that they've learned a lot.

Along the way, Rick has his hopes of becoming a tenured Prof dashed but then this is compensated by his picking up some consultancy work via his students when they ask him to help them and their companies solve the kinds of problems he's been rattling on about in class.

At this stage, we meet the wife in greater relief than before. We already know that they are far from rich and we already know that she went out a bought Rick an SUV that he claims they couldn't afford. She agreed but then decided that life is for living so they kept it. Having got himself one of these consultancies he says,

... I head down town. I'll find Judith a real Valentine's Day present in the jewellery shop. Tonight for once, my wife will get a gift she deserves. Finally.

I would have written this paragraph as follows:

... I head down town. I'll find Judith the kind of Valentine's Day present she wants. In spite of myself, I feel the need to get my wife a gift she tells me she richly deserves. Finally.

Just two pages later on it gets worse, much worse. They are talking about his career and salary again when this happens:

Rick, can't we for once in our lives, feel that we have enough? For six months? Even for four months.

I try to digest what she is saying, She wants us to spend it all. It's crazy. It's crazy, but it makes sense.

Think about it as an investment, she says. We will invest the money in what is most valuable. Good memories. Good, lasting memories.

... The more I think about it the more sense it makes.

Finally, I agree. As the money comes, it will go.

She smiles at me. Proudly. And I know I have made the right decision.

That man is mad! What's worse is that just a few pages later, he lets her pay almost $1,000 for a Persian rug and then she announces that she wants a silver tea set that costs just $6,000. Boy does he need to take a firm grip of that woman. They never mention what she does and what her salary is, by the way.

I should say that the book actually starts away from Rick and with three people who become one of his students and who are given the challenge, with the promise of a load of valuable shares as a reward, of ensuring that one of the company's projects is put/kept on track. They do that, at least in part with Rick's class's help but there is an iffy moment when they try to claim their shares.

Along the way we are introduced to BJ, the College President: BJ is a woman and she is portrayed as a hard hearted business woman with a mission cast in stone. We are also left in no doubt that accountants are a scourge (see this on page 216 Like an accountant whi is forced to give an answer accurate to the cent, when even the first digit isquestionable ..."); and that academics can see things only in terms of the articles they can squeeze out of a situation.

You will find for some of the chapters are essentially self contained lessons in one aspect of project management: nothing frightening or off putting but it's definitely the way the book works in part. There are no long formula and horrific theories to worry about either although there are a few flowcharts in this one that weren't to be found in The Goal even though they could have been!

Overall then, if you are interested in such matters as the theory of constraints, project management and related issues, I do recommend that you find and read this book. If you are a teacher or trainer or lecturer of some sort, you might find Rick's teaching style of interest. The worst part of the book are the stereotypes that Goldratt builds in: like the president of the college, the accountant and the academic I just mentioned and alluded to in the previous paragraph. He does the same at various stages with other stereotypes too.

Duncan Williamson
29 October 2005