Critical Chain

Critical Chain is a business novel by Eliyahu Goldratt, a business management guru. Critical Chain expands on Goldratt’s prior business novel, The Goal, and the integral theory of The Goal, the Theory of Constraints. Goldratt is a well-known business novelist and innovator, having published 12 fiction and nonfiction business management titles focusing on the Theory of Constraints. Critical Chain was initially published in 1997, and it follows the development of Critical Chain Project Management, or CCPM, through the story of Richard Silver, a professor in the business school of a struggling university. As Richard Silver works to secure tenure in his role at the university, he must envision new ways to manage projects that can have a real-world impact on his students’ companies. When his coworker Johnny shares the Theory of Constraints, or TOC, with the other business professors, students and professors alike share in an open discussion on innovation in resource management and task scheduling.

Critical Chain, as with many of Goldratt’s business novels, was well-received, and the primary proposition of the work, CCPM, is a useful tool in project management.