WHY ARE SO MANY PROJECTS LATE AND OVER BUDGET?

Discover the REAL reason why projects are often late and over budget
and the best ways to avoid it

GET THE VIDEO RECORDINGS OF THIS CHALLENGE

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Are you worried that your current projects will be late and over budget?
If you are, you are probably worried because…
  • Many of your past projects were late and over budget despite your best attempts.
  • Maybe your original time and budget estimates were cut.
  • ​Your Project Management Software probably does not consider all the task variability, uncertainties, complexity, and resource or supply constraints your project will encounter.
And yet you are expected to make reliable time and budget commitments?!

During this challenge, you will discover how a new innovative technology - Project Portfolio Digital Twin - can help YOU answer four critical questions for YOUR project environment!
  • Will your projects be on time and within budget?
  • If not, what are the main reasons they would be late and over-budget?
  • ​How much better could you do by just changing the rules you use to manage your projects?
  • ​How much better could you do by adding more resources?
This Challenge is like a MASTERCLASS in Project Management, where attendees discover how small changes in the way projects are planned and executed can dramatically impact the ability to do MORE PROJECTS, FASTER, WITH LOWER COST.

Get the video recordings of this challenge and discover the REAL reason why projects are often late and over budget and the best ways to avoid it. 

Along with the recordings, you will also get...
 - The Q&A recordings that we had each day.
 - Get access to the Project Portfolio Digital Twin for a month!
My name is Dr. Alan Barnard
I am the co-founder and CEO of Goldratt Research Labs (co-founded with Dr. Eli Goldratt).

Over the past three decades, I have managed many large and complex projects. 
First, as part of the executive team of two consumer goods companies, where I was responsible for managing infrastructure, research, maintenance, product development, and IT projects. 

And later in my career, as a Theory of Constraints expert and advisor, helping manage and improve the performance of large projects for our clients. 
In each of these cases, we faced the same challenges.

Firstly, how to make reliable time and budget commitments despite the higher levels of uncertainty, variability, and resourcing constraints, so typical in most project environments. 

And secondly, where to focus improvement efforts and investments to reduce avoidable delays to do more, in less time, with fewer resources.

So why are so many projects late and over budget?

If YOU had to list the reasons why your projects have been late and over budget… what reasons would be on your list?

Here are a few of the most common reasons project managers have shared:
How does it compare to your list?

When you look at lists from project managers in different industries (construction, software, research, IT, manufacturing, etc.), you will find that their lists of reasons for why projects are late are almost identical, regardless of the industry.

What do the reasons on the list have in common?

In the mid-1990s, Dr. Eli Goldratt, creator of Theory of Constraints and author of "THE GOAL", asked himself this question.  

His observation was that all the reasons that project managers use to explain why projects are late and over budget seem to be examples of “On projects, many things can happen that are simply out of our control.” 

Or put differently, most Project Managers believe it is the Variability and Uncertainty that is the MAIN cause of delays and budget overruns.

Is this really true?

Dr. Goldratt challenged this assumption. 

What if the leading cause was how we manage projects? 

How could we check the hypothesis of what the MAIN cause is for project delays and cost-over-runs? 
Is it the level of inherent variability and uncertainty in projects? 
Or is it the way we manage projects?"

The traditional way of testing is through pilot studies. You can implement new rules for planning and executing projects like Critical Chain or Agile Kanban and see what happens. 

However, this can be a risky and costly way to test the impact of changing how your organization manages projects. 

In Multi-year Projects, even if the changes are relatively simple and can be done quickly, it can take a long time to see the effect of your change. 
That means it can take a long time to know whether the change was helpful, not so beneficial, or even harmful. 
And the more counter-intuitive the change that is being tested – and Critical Chain and Agile are both counter-intuitive - the more likely you will encounter resistance to change.  

Is there a better alternative?

For many decades, industries like aerospace, mining, and manufacturing, have used simulation models to do low-cost, low-risk virtual pilots.

Simulation can be used to check if operational and financial commitments were viable if we thoroughly considered the variability, capacity constraints, and unplanned events. They could even be used to compare the operational and financial performance of different strategies and tactics for how we plan work, allocate resources, and manage execution.

But unfortunately, building simulation models or digital twins of complex systems like Project Management environments is very costly and time-consuming. It would take months, often years, and it would cost hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to build them… So only the largest companies and organizations could afford to develop such simulation models.

A few years ago, I challenged myself and my team to see if we could develop a Project Portfolio Digital Twin (PPDT) that is almost entirely self-configurable from data that most companies already have about their projects. If this were possible, we could offer this breakthrough technology to practically any size company. 
What was the outcome?

I am super excited to share with you that we were successful. We have recently completed our first round of beta testing with a number of very large and complex project-based organizations. And the results our clients got from it were amazing! 

They could use our PPDT to quickly build a virtual model of all their projects and add likely task variability and unplanned events to check if their time and budget commitments were feasible. And if not, what would be the simplest, fastest, lowest cost, lowest risk options to meet or exceed those commitments. 
Most importantly, they got new and often counterintuitive insights into why so many of their past projects were late and over-budget despite using the latest Project Planning and execution software and best practices like Critical Chain and Agile. 

But success with just a few organizations is not enough. We want to expand our test.

That is why I decided to do this 5-day Why-Are-Projects-Late challenge.

I want organizations of all sizes, from both the private and public sectors, that manage projects critical to their profitability and/or purpose to discover the power of Digital Twins and how it can be used as a decision support and analytics tool.

If you want to be part of this challenge, you can get access to the recordings by clicking the button below.

What is presented in this challenge?

Recording of - Day 1:
What is the minimum data you need to build a digital twin of your project environment?

Recording of - Day 2
What insights can you gain from this data to create a testable hypothesis on whether a project or even a portfolio of projects can meet time and budget commitments?

Recording of - Day 3:
What are the questions that can be answered? and... 
How do you set up scenarios to answer these questions within a digital twin?

Recording of - Day 4:
What insights can you gain while running the Project Portfolio Digital Twin. What are the key operational and financial metrics to track and what can be learned from these?

Recording of - Day 5:
What insights can be gained from the outputs of the digital twin, what new hypothesis can be created and what additional experiments should be done to test these?

Our clients have gained so many valuable insights when using this digital twin, that we thought we had to share it and give everyone that manages projects access to this new technological breakthrough, so you can also gain these valuable insights!

Therefore, I decided to host this free 5-Day WhyAreProjectsLate Challenge, and to give everyone that attends access to the PPDT.

The FREE 5-Day Why-Are-Projects-Late Challenge

Organizations that have benefited from Digital Twins developed by Goldratt Research Labs

What People Say About Our Simulation Models and Digital Twins

"Both Alan and me learned everything we could from our late mentor Dr. Goldratt. But we also have continued to identify what is missing and what needs to be improved. I look with a lot of amazement at how Alan has taken his and his team's expert simulation skills and theory of constraints knowledge and incorporated it into a decision tool for project managers to see the value of one way relative to the other way, to look on the risks and to see what can be done to further improve. I think his digital twins will be of more and more value in the future."
- Eli S.

"Both Alan and me learned everything we could from our late mentor Dr. Goldratt. But we also have continued to identify what is missing and what needs to be improved. I look with a lot of amazement at how Alan has taken his and his team's expert simulation skills and theory of constraints knowledge and incorporated it into a decision tool for project managers to see the value of one way relative to the other way, to look on the risks and to see what can be done to further improve. I think his digital twins will be of more and more value in the future."
- Eli S.

"I love the entire framework. This can provide insights into most of the challenges most businesses face when trying to grow their business. I really appreciate everything you've shared with us during the entire 5 days. Thanks!"
- Godwin K.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from this challenge."
- John S.

"Amazing framework and brilliantly explained by Alan. I'm more optimistic about the future than ever to achieve our goals with this framework."
- Narinder G.

"Tremendous insights gained! Especially for organizations that accomplish their work through multiple, simultaneous complex projects competing for resources (e.g. ship construction and repair, road construction and improvement, new building construction, aerospace projects, Elon Musk's entire portfolio of projects, etc.) Thanks so much, Alan."
- Steve H

"Tremendous insights gained! Especially for organizations that accomplish their work through multiple, simultaneous complex projects competing for resources (e.g. ship construction and repair, road construction and improvement, new building construction, aerospace projects, Elon Musk's entire portfolio of projects, etc.) Thanks so much, Alan."
- Steve H

"In today’s world, we need more of this thinking. Rather than rush headlong into problems that always seem to re-occur or be surprised when we create new ones, it pays to slow down and step through these vital steps to create real, sustainable breakthroughs. Thank you, Alan,  for sharing this important process." 
- Andrew K.

"In today’s world, we need more of this thinking. Rather than rush headlong into problems that always seem to re-occur or be surprised when we create new ones, it pays to slow down and step through these vital steps to create real, sustainable breakthroughs. Thank you, Alan,  for sharing this important process." 
- Andrew K.

"I love simulation. We can gain so many new insights that are not possible when doing pilots in the real-world where we cannot control all the factors. It's very exciting that Alan and his team has brought the power of simulation to better understand the complex question of why are projects often so late despite significant contingency."
- Nancy M.

"I love simulation. We can gain so many new insights that are not possible when doing pilots in the real-world where we cannot control all the factors. It's very exciting that Alan and his team has brought the power of simulation to better understand the complex question of why are projects often so late despite significant contingency."
- Nancy M.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the time commitment?

There are five videos, 90 minutes each, 60 minutes of presentation, and 30 minutes for Q&A, where participants got the chance to ask questions. 

Who is this challenge for?

This challenge is for: 
1) Project & Portfolio Managers (both new and experienced)
2) Agile, Scrum, and Critical Chain Consultants and Coaches 
3) Academics Teaching or Learning Project Management

What are the main benefits I will gain from this challenge?

In this challenge, you will discover how digital twins can be used to help you and your team confidently and quickly answer the following three questions:

1. Will we achieve the commitments we’ve made, and if not, why?

2. Can we do better by just changing the rules we use to plan and execute projects?

3. How much better can we do if we always have enough of each type of resource - not too few, but also not too many?

What is the Project Portfolio Digital Twin?

The Project Portfolio Digital Twin (PPDT) is an award-winning self-configurable Project Portfolio Management Simulator platform developed by a passionate team of Simulation, Project Management, and Theory of Constraints experts at Goldratt Research Labs.

PPDT combines the power of human intuition, simulation, best Project Management practices, and AI; all into one simple-to-use platform. For the first time, it allows users to consider ALL critical Variabilities, Uncertainties, Complexities, Constraints, and the Ambiguity of competing objectives so you can make reliable commitments and decisions with confidence.

I am concerned that our project data is not detailed or accurate enough to use digital twins in our company/ organization...

You do not need any project data to participate or get value from this challenge. All participants will receive a data set of a relatively complex portfolio of projects to use during the challenge. There will be an option for those who want to use their own data to do so towards the end of the challenge.

How does the PPDT Simulation platform work?

Our PPDT allows you to import data directly from your Project Management software to instantly build a virtual model of your full project portfolio. And then, using the power of simulation, it shows the impact of known VUCCA on existing time and budget commitments.

It can accurately simulate the impact of random variability of task durations, unplanned events, and capacity constraints. And it comes with an extensive library of Project Management best practices like Critical Chain and Agile so you can determine which planning and execution rules will give the best overall project performance for your company/ organization.
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