Critical Chain

Richard Silver is an associate professor at a business school, and Jim Wilson, the head of the Executive MBA program, a college program for professionals, asks Richard to teach a class in the program. Richard speculates that teaching this course will increase his chances of earning tenure as a professor, which would provide the security he wants. Richard’s main fear is that he has not published enough academic papers, but he hopes that teaching an Executive MBA course will expose him to real professionals and connections to companies for research. However, Richard is not sure what field in which he wants to conduct research.

Jim tells Richard that he thinks Richard’s teaching style, using open discussion in the classroom, will be well-suited to teaching professionals, who can benefit from each other’s real-world experience. Richard is nervous that he cannot command respect among professionals, but Jim reassures him. Jim asks Richard which course in the Executive MBA program he wants to teach, and Richard expresses his uncertainty. Reflecting on his time working under Jim as a PhD student, Richard notes that he should not try to take on too bold of a task, but he wants to engage in a field that needs fresh research. Jim suggests project management, even though Jim teaches that class and is conducting research in project management himself. Richard offers to aid in Jim’s research, and they agree that Richard will take over the course.

Three presidents of universities gather for a dinner: B. J. vonBraun, Alistair Franklin, and Bernard Goldsmith. All three note that their business school application pool is smaller this year, and they worry that the boom of demand for MBA, or master of business administration, graduates is over. Larger schools, like Harvard and MIT, seem immune from this downturn in demand, but the presidents speculate that they may have simply met the demand by increasing the size of their business schools. Goldsmith suggests passing a law to require an MBA for all managers in public companies, but another president at their table, Stanley, rejects the idea as anti-capitalist. B. J.’s concern is that she cannot offer the salaries and opportunities needed to draw in the most talented minds in the field. She wonders if she might be able to cultivate talent from the existing members of her business school.

On the first day of Richard’s project management course, he asks the students why they chose this course. Mark, Ruth, and Fred are all in the class, and Mark admits that he is hoping this course can provide him with the miracle he needs to complete the A226 project quickly. Mark admits that he took over the A226 from another project leader, who is now Mark’s boss, and he anticipates going over budget, missing deadlines, and lowering specifications, for all of which he will be blamed. Richard defines a project as any task with a beginning, middle, and end, in which a clear view of the task needs to be understood before starting the work. Other students work in computer programming and construction, but they all admit that the normal project takes longer, costs more, and is not as successful as anticipated. Richard tells the class about the channel tunnel between England and France and oil rigs in the North Sea as two examples of projects that went over budget, took too long to complete, and needed to sacrifice specifications to meet their goals.

Richard then presents the example of U-2 jets, which were developed in eight months, despite the usual project length for military aircraft being over 10 years. Fred notes that such projects are exceptions, and, as a project auditor, he rarely sees projects that meet their initial claims, making it even more rare to see a project exceed expectations. Richard concludes that most projects suffer overruns in time and budget, and they often need to compromise their intentions to complete the work. He notes that the U-2 project avoided these pitfalls, and he assigns the students their homework. They need to interview project leaders, workers, and managers, compiling two lists: one of the official reasons for project failures, and the other of the actual reasons. On his way home, Richard notes that his wife, Judith, overspends on shopping, and he is worried about their finances.

B. J. meets with Professor Christopher Page II, the Dean of the business school at her university. Page presents a budget for the next year of the business school’s operation, and he anticipates that B. J. will argue for some cuts. Instead, B. J. tells Page about how her previous university lost its standing by overinflating its agricultural department, saturating the demand for agricultural degrees and leaving the school with unused buildings and tenured professors. Page insists that the same pattern could not happen in business, as MBAs are needed to climb corporate hierarchies. B. J. points out that admissions growth is low this year, and she suggests delaying all tenure for professors in the business school. Page lowers his recommendation from eight new tenures to six, but B. J. insists. Page tries to delay the decision with a committee investigation into employment for alumni, but B. J. presents survey results showing that the freeze on tenure is necessary.