"Metrics Are Made by Fools Like Me..."

Metrics are nice little things--but only if they impact BEHAVIORS in a positive way!

30+ yrs ago I was helping a Texas Instruments client compress his schedule. Total float & free float weren't much help. In fact, it was where there WASN'T any float that I needed to compress, i.e., the critical path. And there WAS no metric on the CP--other than TF = 0!

So I "discovered" critical path drag, and that allowed me to shorten my client's schedule from 143D to 78D.

It took a few weeks to crystallize rules for SS, FF, SF & lags. And then I had a tool that, with input from the technical experts, routinely enabled me to help teams shorten schedules by 15% - 40%. And that helped me pay for my kids' college tuitions.

The value of drag (& drag cost) during planning/scheduling was clear. And as clients hired me to recover slipping schedules, it was soon obvious that drag was, if anything, even MORE valuable for schedule recovery!

***

A dozen years later, I met Bill Duncan. I was initially intimidated, because (a) he was author of the 1st edition of the PMBOK Guide; (b) he's brilliant; (c) he doesn't suffer fools well. Somehow I got the nerve to tell him I had a new metric in the half-century-old practice of critical path analysis! I'm not sure what his initial thought must have been--but he heard me out. And he understood it! And he immediately saw an extension of its value that I hadn't:

Not only is drag useful in planning, but also in execution:

Imagine that our team is doing a project. Activities A, B, C & D have TFs of 0D, 5D, 10D, & 15D.

The natural reaction is: "It's okay if B, C, & D slip 5D, 10D, & 15D. But A is critical & can't slip!"

But what if a SHORTER project is BETTER? If Time is COSTLY? As it ALMOST ALWAYS IS! Saving just 5D by compressing A might allow us to beat a competitor to market and gain greater market share; or get an early delivery award; or reduce risk of LDs; or reduce overhead costs; or, yes, SAVE TWO LIVES because this new hospital will open a week earlier!

(For factors in the value/cost of time, read to the end of this article: https://tinyurl.com/35fznk9h )

I have always told clients NOT to include TF on the working schedule. But PMs SHOULD include drag on the CP items--so that, as they are working, team members can visualize ways to shorten the whole project (especially if they might get a bonus out of the $75K they've just saved the company!). If they do, they should inform the PM, and, if approved, implement their idea!

So in the graphic of the schedule above, there is, correctly, no TF shown. But it SHOULD show, on the bar for each CP activity, its critical path drag (and perhaps, in some cases, its drag cost!)

And that's one way to get shorter projects, even AFTER planning is finished.

Oh, here is the article Bill Duncan wrote (I helped) about 20 yrs ago, "Scheduling Is a Drag!"

https://tinyurl.com/5n8vjprb

Notice that it was HIS idea that, just by seeing on a Gantt chart the amount of time that a CP activity was adding, it could change behaviors. That's Bill. With apologies to Joyce Kilmer:

Metrics are made

By fools like me.

But it took Bill Duncan

Some benefits to see!

And so I'd urge all PM software developers not just to compute drag, but also to enable color-coding on the Gantt chart bar to show the amount of drag a CP activity has.

Steve the Bajan

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