TOPAZ

What is TOPAZ?

TOPAZ is a tactical system designed to guide a project to successful completion. TOPAZ is specifically designed to defuse Parkinson’s Law (Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion).

What is the key element of TOPAZ?

The key element of TOPAZ is the Project Time Bank, a time accounting system. While people generally pay lip service to the concept that time is money, the use of a time accounting system helps really treat time like money. When dealing with money, a budget is assigned for every expense, the expense is noted against the budget, and the difference between actual expense and the budgeted amount is recorded as a profit or loss. Applying this concept to time, we can budget a duration for every task, draw against the budgeted duration while working on the task, and record the difference between budgeted duration and actual duration as a profit or loss.

How does this help?

For one, task estimates are usually “padded” just in case the task takes longer than expected. In TOPAZ, the padding is separated from the estimate as in Critical Chain Project Management or CCPM devised by Eliyahu Goldratt. Where TOPAZ goes beyond CCPM is that in addition to separating the padding from the estimate, the padding tracked in a different account. In fact, the estimate and padding are tracked in several accounts in order to provide layers of insulation against Parkinson’s Law. When the resource does not know exactly how much time is really allocated for a task, the task has better chances of on-time completion. Drawing against the “pad” accounts (i.e. when the task account is depleted and the task is not yet completed) can serve to alert the project manager of possible schedule slippage and allow preventive measures to be taken. Additionally, the pad accounts are treated as lines of credit or loans. Drawing against these accounts require payback (with the currency of time), failure to do which could impact performance evaluation, which in turn impacts raises, bonuses and promotions.

For another, people feel strongly about “bank balances.” It is a score that they use to measure themselves and take pride in successes. The Time Bank balance (tracked at resource level) can serve as a motivation tool. Management can use the Time Bank balance to measure resource performance and tie rewards to this metric.

TOPAZ serves both as a carrot and a stick to encourage resources to complete tasks quickly. When individual tasks are executed efficiently, the efficiency trickles up to the project level TOPAZ enables efficient project implementation.