Theory of Constraints in Project Management

Quick answer

Theory of Constraints: every system has one constraint that caps throughput — find it, exploit it, subordinate everything to it, elevate it, repeat. In PM: the critical chain.

The five steps

Identify the constraint → exploit it (feed it fully) → subordinate everything else → elevate it → repeat as it moves.

In projects

The constraint is often a scarce person, a decision bottleneck or the critical chain — feeding it is the job.

Critical chain

Goldratt applied ToC to schedules: buffer the chain, not each task — protects the finish date cheaply.

The lesson

Local optimization wastes effort — only improving the constraint improves the system.

Bottom line

Theory of Constraints: every system has one constraint that caps throughput — find it, exploit it, subordinate everything to it, elevate it, repeat. In PM: the critical chain.

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