About this Presentation
This presentation explains the TOC solution of critical chain project management (CCPM) for use in modern software engineering. Key learning points include: 1. How to use drum buffer rope (DBR) with software engineering; 2. How to use throughput accounting (TA) with software engineering; 3. Understanding useful variation in software engineering; 4. Provide a TOC enabled maturity model for software organizations; 5. Identifying what’s fundamentally wrong with the SEI CMMI and SW-CMM; 6. The integration points of a TOC software solution with six sigma, Deming, and Toyota Production System (TPS) principles and lean thinking. Benefits to attendees: 1. Benefits of applying DBR, CCPM and TA to technology development; 2. Contrast of the TOC approach with traditional approaches; 2. Benefits of using lean cumulative flow diagrams for the DBR solution.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
This session reframes software development as a flow system, showing how Feature-Driven Development can combine TOC, Lean, and Six Sigma thinking to improve speed, quality, and predictability without relying on traditional task-heavy control methods.
A core insight is that features should be treated like inventory. By managing feature sets, work-in-process, and lead time visibly, software teams can expose bottlenecks, smooth flow, and make better decisions about release scope and execution.
The presentation shows how Critical Chain thinking can be adapted to software by scheduling around feature-set groupings, aggregating buffers, and managing the real system constraint instead of tracking every task in isolation.
It also brings in Lean and Six Sigma disciplines through cumulative flow diagrams, control charts, and variation analysis, giving teams a practical way to detect instability, manage uncertainty, and improve throughput at the software engineering constraint.
Instructor(s)
David J. Anderson
David Anderson is a software engineering methodologist and Program Manager with Microsoft Corporation in Redmond WA. He has 22 years experience in the software development business starting with computer games in the early 1980’s. As a pioneer in the agile software movement David has run around 20 software projects in the Fortune 100. He is currently creating the next generation of MSF (Microsoft Solution Framework), a set of process guidance and development tooling which enables the latest thinking in working practices and management techniques for software development.
David authored the popular and well received textbook, Agile Management for Software Engineering – Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results, published in 2003 by Prentice Hall, which introduced the concepts of Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain and Throughput Accounting for Software Development.
David has held management positions with Sprint PCS and Motorola before being attracted to Microsoft and the opportunity to bring his paradigm shifting thinking in software management to a wider audience.
He holds a degree in Computer Science & Electronics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland where he specialized in control systems engineering.