International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman

Improving eciency: time-critical interfacing of project tasks

Ari-Pekka Hameri a,*, Jussi HeikkilaÈ b
a
CERN, EST-Division, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
b
TAI-Research Institute, Helsinki University of Technology, FIN-02150 Espoo, Finland

Received 14 April 2000; received in revised form 17 July 2000; accepted 1 September 2000

Abstract
The paper discusses the management of time-critical operations and their dynamic interrelations in project environments. It is
well known in theoretical literature that delayed operative tasks generate a cumulative e€ect, which delays the overall delivery time
making ecient time management dicult. However, practising managers seem to be helpless with this phenomenon if judged by
the often reported poor performance of project management. To control the use of time, managers tend to plan safety bu€ers in
their operations, which bias the overall planning of projects. The result of all this is uncontrolled and unknown outcome of the
whole operation and, even worse, it inherently makes development e€orts very dicult to implement, as the true performance of the
organization is hidden in the realization of airy plans. Based on case studies in various industrial environments, we propose that
project schedules need to be managed by putting special emphasis on the time-use within individual tasks and by ensuring that work
proceeds smoothly along the critical chain of tasks. To enable this, high transparency is needed on how time is used in project
organizations. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Time-based management; Project management; Operations management; Throughput time; Distributed operations; Supply chain man-
agement

1. Preamble and contributed to Britain's entry to the EC, so it

A study by the Standish Group scanned more than
8000 projects and compared their anticipated results
with the real outcome. According to this study, only
16% of the projects were able to meet the goals set in
terms of time, budget and quality [1]. Further on, the
project management literature (e.g. [2]) clearly points
out that success in project management is often judged
according to subjective perceptions:
1. The Fulmar Oil Field in the North Sea was late,
but extremely pro®table for the owner, so it was
judged to be successful.
2. The Thames Barrier was late and overspent, and
was quite badly managed in its early stages, but is
a tourist attraction and made a pro®t for most of
the contractors, so it is now judged a success.
3. Concorde was late and overspent, but was a tech-
nical success, gave France an aerospace industry,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +41-22-767-9596; fax: +41-22-767-
8890.
E-mail address: ari- pekka.hameri@cern.ch (A.-P. Hameri).
0263-7863/01/$22.00 # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0263-7863(00)00044-2
is judged to be successful.
4. Heysham II Nuclear Power Station was well man-
aged, and nearly on time and budget, but the
judgment is clouded by the rest of Britain's nuclear
power program, and the public's perception of the
nuclear industry, so it is judged to be unsuccessful.
These large-scale examples highlight the rather ad hoc
manner how project success is generally assessed. When
measured with critical project success criteria Ð i.e. on
time, on budget and delivering what was promised Ð all
the above-mentioned projects were failures, with the
exception of the power station.
The underlying argument in this paper is that the
ultimate measure of project success is time, which pre-
cedes all other measures. Associating the time-manage-
ment approach with the main problem classes of project
failures [3] one can see that time-based coordination
plays some role in all problem classes (Table 1).
Juran [4] has de®ned project as a problem scheduled
for solution. This de®nition highlights the importance of
time-based approach in project management. Although
the time-management problem has been known for a
long time in project management, the essence of using
144 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153

Table 1
Reasons for project failures viewed against the time-based management paradigm

Why projects fail? Relationship with time-based management

Ignorance on what other Interfaces between consecutive tasks are not coordinated
project teams are doing The time-related interdependencies are not mediated between parallel tasks
Lack of discipline in Parallel processes are not using same procedures making time-based measuring incomparable
design change control Plans and schedules are not based on same premises
Diverse views on what are Bu€ering time (and bu€ering all the safety) in individual
the objectives of the project tasks bias the true due-date objective of the project
Rigid project planning and Reallocating time in tasks is time consuming because of resource constraints and politics of
scheduling routines defending safety bu€ers of individual managers and work teams
Poor ability to react on sudden changes in Preparations for contingencies generate unforeseen e€ects,
the project environment because true performance is diluted in the plans
Unforeseen technological diculties, Project baseline is not up-to-date leading to product con®guration-related
excluding force majeure situations. problems in later phases of the project

time e€ectively does not seem to get appropriate atten-
tion in project management practice. Even if the theo-
retical basis of time-based management is well-known in
the project management literature, the actual practice
seems to be missing the point in many cases. Through
the case studies described in this paper, we want to
highlight the critical issues of time-based project man-
agement to practising project managers.
Studying how time-based management is applied in
every day in project management is the main objective
of this article. It consists of four main parts. We start
with the research method description and the data used
in our research. The research questions for the study are
outlined, further formulated into a set of research con-
structs. Then the empirical cases are presented to probe
the practice behind the constructs. The obtained results
are discussed and suggestions given for practising pro-
ject managers. Finally, conclusions are drawn and pro-
positions for future research given.
2. Research method and data
During 1980s and 1990s time was promoted as the
prime performance criterion to assess productivity in
manufacturing operations [5]. The time-based manage-
ment literature [6±12] has highlighted the importance of
timely and well-concerted operations to achieve faster
throughput times resulting in rapid and accurate deliv-
eries. [13] describes how time has become one of the
most important sources of competitive advantage in
manufacturing industries. He describes the background
for the ``Japan's secret weapon'' or ``lean thinking'' [10]
by illustrating how the competitive advantage of Japa-
nese manufacturing industry evolved from low labour
costs-through scale Ð based strategy, focused factory
and ¯exible manufacturing Ð to time-based competitive
advantage.
Following the theory of constraints and its later
enhancement on project management [14,15], the focus
of this research is on management of implementation
time in individual project tasks and the critical chain of
tasks scheduled around the e€ective use of resources.
According to [15] the traditional critical path method of
scheduling is too narrow and often ignores the appro-
priate planning of bottleneck resources Ð particularly
in the multi-project environment. Goldratt suggests, like
in his earlier work in manufacturing, that the use of
bottleneck resources should be taken as the basis for
scheduling. Scheduling is traditionally based on average
experienced implementation times of tasks including the
used or non-used safety bu€er in the tasks. This results
in wrong use of safety in project schedules. The embed-
ded uncertainty in tasks is naturally known to experi-
enced project managers/employees, who mentally rely
on the bu€ered safety when executing their project
tasks. The reality tells that despite the safety existing in
project plans, project implementation overruns the esti-
mates. This is the very paradox that time-based project
management is confronting. On the one hand there is
bu€ered safety, which should enable timely completion
of the project. On the other hand it is the ¯awed use of
this safety that often causes delays and discrepancies
between expected and real outcome.
According to the time-based management paradigm,
companies are considered as systems with competitive
advantage achieved by breaking the ``debilitating loop
strangling traditional manufacturing planning'' [13].
Traditional manufacturing required long lead-times to
resolve con¯icts between various jobs or activities that
require the same resources. The long lead-times required
sales forecasts to guide planning. Long lead-times made
the accuracy of sales forecasts decline. Forecasting
errors increased inventories and the need for safety
stocks at all levels. Errors in forecasts meant more
unscheduled jobs in the production line, increasing the
 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153
lead-times for the scheduled jobs. The planning loop
expanded, drove up costs, increased delays, and created
system ineciencies. Stalk [13] suggests that companies
have two choices: to produce according to uncertain
forecasts or reducing the time delays in the ¯ow of
information and material throughout the delivery sys-
tem. Focusing on time-based competitive performance
results in improvements throughout the system.
The method applied in this paper relies on the case
study research approach. We search answers for
research questions supporting the knowledge accumu-
lation in the way time is used in project management.
The data used are cases from the real industrial envir-
onment with multiple project deliveries and highly cus-
tomized products. According to [16], case studies are
preferred when how or why questions are being posed.
Such questions deal with operational links needing to be
traced over time, rather than mere frequencies or inci-
dences. The case study method allows an investigation
to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of
real life events, such as organizational and managerial
processes. We outline the following research questions
to study time-based management in the project man-
agement environment:
1. How is time used in planning and implementing
projects? Comparison of the real use of time and
the planned use of time. Distribution of the time
used versus the planned average duration of tasks.
2. How can the lessons from time-based management
in manufacturing industries be applied to improve
the time-based competitive advantage in project
management?
3. Time-based management means fundamentally the
management of information ¯ows across interfaces
between tasks and passing of work smoothly from
one task and resource to the next one. Transpar-
ency in the use of time makes timesaving possible
in project schedules, especially in multi-project
environments. How is this transparency used and
applied in project management?
The unit of analysis is time-based management in
projects. Selected research constructs direct attention to
what should be studied within the scope of the study.
The constructs in this research are:
1. time use in individual project tasks;
2. transparency of time-use in project management;
3. interfacing between project tasks; and
4. bottlenecks in the use of critical resources.
The method of generalization in case research is ana-
lytic generalization, in which a previously developed
theory is used as a template against which the empirical
results are compared. The template theory of this
145
research is time-based management. The main hypoth-
esis of this theory is that focusing improvement e€orts
on time improves the overall performance of operations.
The central idea of analysing case research results is to
constantly compare theory and data Ð iterating
towards a practical theory that closely ®ts with the data.
The underlying logic is replication, i.e. the logic of
treating a series of cases as a series of experiments with
each case serving to con®rm or discon®rm the hypoth-
eses that are being studied. In replication logic, cases,
which con®rm the researched relationships, enhance
con®dence in the validity of the relationships. Cases,
which discon®rm the relationships, often can provide an
opportunity for richer understanding of the phenom-
enon and extension of the theory studied [17].
To increase reliability, the quantitative analysis is
based on the quantitative controllability analysis [18],
where analysis is based on real data and not on gut-
feelings. Although the cases di€er from each other with
their product to be delivered, annual volume and stra-
tegic positioning in the markets, the operational mode
in each case company is the management of projects. In
each case the data were sanity checked with the
employees and/or managers of the company. Four cases
were studied in di€erent industrial environments. The
cases and the data studied are described brie¯y in the
following:
1. A case from the paper industry and its supply
chain management is used to show a typical
approach of time-based management in the man-
ufacturing environment. The case shows that by
removing the possible sources of uncertainty in a
supply chain, one carves out the true performance,
which can be better managed, monitored and
improved.
2. Delivering a telecommunication network breaks
down into numerous sub-deliveries of base trans-
ceiver stations (BTS). Each BTS site forms a small
project with its own location and coordination
tasks. The numerous parallel projects result in a
challenging multi-project environment. Because of
these numerous scattered and parallel, yet con-
nected tasks the project encloses major uncertainty
as the task implementation times vary greatly. This
case describes a failure in meeting the planned
implementation deadlines.
3. Software projects are known to be chronically late,
and once the product is released the quality may
not meet the demand. This case concerns a large-
scale distributed engineering data management
system and its new version's release. The software
is in production use and the case highlights how
the ``bug'' reporting, ®xing and testing can be bet-
ter integrated through closer and visual time-based
monitoring with links to other tasks of immediate
146 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153

impact. The approach presented enables improved
transparency and predictability for the project by
providing the project team and management with
exact understanding of the progress status.
4. Reduction of project implementation times in new
product development. The case explains how a
time-based management approach was imple-
mented in a technology company, what were the
important contributing factors for success, and
what were the results of the initiative for the com-
pany.
3. Case studies
3.1. A reference case from supply chain management in
the manufacturing environment
The case paper mill is situated in Scandinavia with
main markets in central Europe. Managing the opera-
tions was dicult because of biased demand information
and the bu€ering of goods in inventories in each echelon
of the supply chain to secure good customer service.
Because of the uncertainty and long production cycles
the delivery times were lengthy and production batch
sizes large. The company initiated a radical change pro-
cess, the product palette was revised and low-volume
products were omitted, the production cycle was cut
from 4 weeks to 1 week, and key customers were tied
with new partnering schema [19]. The aim was to turn
the supply chain into one well-controllable pipeline
providing the customers with rapid, frequent and reli-
able deliveries in smaller batches.
To analyse the change process the relatively long
supply chain from the mill to the end-customers was
divided into ®ve physical ¯ow stages: (1) from paper
machine to packaging; (2) from packaging to dispatch,
i.e. the ®nished goods inventory at the mill; (3) from
dispatch to shipping; (4) from shipping to the sales
oce; and (5) from sales oce to a customer delivery.
In addition to these ®ve steps of the physical material
¯ow, we measured the time between receiving an order
and the commencement of its production. This deter-
mined the time available for production planning.
Fig. 1 shows that after the changes towards speedier
operations in the mill and its supply chain took e€ect
the general trend has been very positive in most steps of
the logistics chain, right from the paper machine to the
shipment and sales oces. The ®rst step from paper
machine to packaging shows continuous improvement.
After packaging, in step 2, the deliveries enter dispatch
with a delay of a couple of days, at the same time
throughput time distribution became smaller. Step 3,
between dispatch from the mill and shipping, has
improved as the over 50-days class has practically van-
ished. Step 4, the shipping-sales oce leg has improved
signi®cantly, due to improved and synchronized opera-
tions in the preceding steps. Consistently with the other
steps, step 5 has also improved. What is similar to each
step is that uncertainty in the use of time and particu-
larly the over 50 days-class of time use has diminished
radically.

Fig. 1. Throughput time distribution in days (four classes as the legend indicates) during the three time periods analysed, for each step of the
logistics chain. The y-axis denotes the percentage completed during each time category. The x-axis is divided by the steps in the supply chain, which
are further divided into three time slots to indicate the progress taking place in throughput time improvement.
 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153
During the change process the volume of the pro-
duced paper tons increased signi®cantly. While the
volumes increased, the average throughput times fell by
two-thirds both at the mill and in the supply chain. The
variation of throughput times had also reduced during
the period. This means that the improved operational
procedures were being applied to all deliveries and
therefore practically no slow deliveries existed. This is a
very positive trend, as a distorted distribution pro®le in
throughput times tends to generate extra ¯uctuations
and even false demand ampli®cation in the long run
[20]. At the same time signi®cant change in punctuality
can be detected, ``too late'' deliveries have almost dis-
appeared while the ``in advance'' deliveries remained on
the same level throughout the period.
To summarize, the logistics chain analysis shows that
the case mill has improved its operational eciency sig-
ni®cantly. Faster throughput times with small variation
at the mill make it possible to coordinate and plan
deliveries more accurately in the following steps of the
supply chain. In the beginning of the change process, it
turned out to be dicult in the subsequent steps to
make people rely on the new and shorter cycles with
smaller batch sizes. But once people began to trust in
the improved performance of the preceding step the net
e€ect was dramatic; the bu€ers vanished as the need for
bu€ering goods disappeared because of frequent and
reliable deliveries. Production plans could be based on
reliable demand, not on estimates and security needs,
which further streamlined the process by improving the
punctuality of the mill to world-class level.
This reference case from time-based management in
manufacturing environment produces the following
results in relation to our research constructs:
1. focusing on time as the primary performance
measure of operations resulted in shorter average
execution times and lower variability than before;
2. removal of bu€er inventories and smooth ¯ow of
materials was possible when information and
material ¯ows were made transparent in the supply
chain;
3. resource constraints were reduced through ratio-
nalized product range and better planning of
operations; and
4. the overall success in time-based management was
good; the average throughput times were reduced
by two-thirds and their variability was con-
siderably diminished
3.2. Delivering telecommunications networks
The second case is about a turnkey delivery of a tele-
communications network from the beginning of build-
ing the network until the ®rst launch of the network for
trac [21]. Full quantitative data were available for
147
analysis of all the 226 BTS sites in the building and
installation process by the time when the ®rst agreed
launch of the network for commercial use was due. The
target had been over 300 completed BTS sites, but only
about 100 sites were completed when the launch was
due. The ®rst launch was delayed by several months.
The targeted number of BTS sites could only be met
when the turnkey supplier considerably increased the
implementation resources towards the end of the pro-
ject.
The process of building a BTS site starts from net-
work planning. Network planning gives the approx-
imate locations of the BTS sites as a basis for site
acquisition and/or provides a site list of the sites readily
available. Further, network planning de®nes how sites
will be connected and related to the base station con-
trollers. Site acquisition locates three alternative sites
for further technical review. One is selected, resulting in
negotiations for a lease agreement with the site owner
and applying for necessary permits to build the BTS
site. Construction work starts to build the necessary
foundations for the BTS when the lease agreement is
signed and the necessary permits have been granted.
After the construction work is ®nished, the site is ready
for installation of the BTS, antennas and other auxiliary
equipment. Either a line in a ®xed network or a radio
link connects the site to base station controller. Finally,
the BTS is integrated operatively to the network.
Each BTS site forms a small project with its own
location and coordination challenge. Several BTS sites
together form a multi-project environment with dozens
of on-going parallel projects competing for resources.
There are four parallel processes to coordinate in one
BTS site: (1) site preparation process; (2) delivery of the
BTS equipment; (3) delivery of antennas and other
auxiliary equipment; and (4) transmission planning and
provision of a leased line or a microwave radio.
The project implementation schedule was prepared
for the whole network building project by using the
average durations for each task according to earlier
experience and agreements with the construction and
installation subcontractors. Uncertainty in carrying out
the tasks was expected to be partly taken care of by
bu€ering the task durations, partly to be averaged out
over the course of the whole project. The project plan-
ning assumed the work to be handed over to the next
task as soon as the previous task was completed. The
following critical path was assumed: permit application
process±site construction±equipment installation. The
material deliveries were expected to feed this critical
path ¯awlessly.
Fig. 2 shows the distributions of the actual imple-
mentation times of the analysed site sample. There is no
doubt about the pattern in the implementation times.
These distributions are comparable to the distributions
in the paper supply chain case before the improvement
148 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153

Fig. 2. Task duration distributions in the telecommunications network project.

e€orts were made. What is really striking is the time
elapsed between the individual tasks. Corrective mea-
sures were attempted when the project seriously lagged
behind the schedule and it became evident that the tar-
get for network launch would be missed. Incentive sys-
tems were introduced for the construction and
installation subcontractors by giving considerable
rewards for fast completion of individual tasks. Little
attention was paid to improving the management of
interfaces between tasks. Hauling a massive amount of
new resources from other countries eased the situation.
Still, the project was completed several months late.
In the paper mill case, paper was stored in inventories
along the supply chain, preventing from seeing the true
 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153 149

performance of the system. The same thing was seen in

the telecommunications network project where imple-
mentation of individual tasks took a long time, and
particularly the variability of task duration was a major
problem. Little attention was paid to improving the
smooth passage of work from one task to the next one.
The improvement e€orts focused on increasing the
speed of implementing individual tasks, and, ®nally, just
increasing enough resources to get the work done.
Based on the telecommunications network building
case we conclude that the problems in time use are
comparable in manufacturing and project environments
when no focus has been put on improving time-based
management. Task durations are long, unpredictable
and the primary focus of improvement is on increased
eciency of the present way of working, not on
rethinking novel ways to improve it signi®cantly. This
case produces the following results in relation to our
research constructs:

1. time was an important performance criterion in

this project, but the use of time was not properly
managed; the durations of individual tasks were
long and very unpredictable;
2. low transparency in the use of time resulted in long
and unpredictable delays between the tasks;
3. resource constraints were common and when they
became critical the solution was to add resources
by any cost; and
4. time-based management in this project was not
successful; the project did not meet its deadline
and exceeded its budget.
3.3. Time-based management in a software development
project
This case is based on a major software development
project, which has produced an application used by a
globally distributed user community to manage their
engineering documents and related change processes.
Altogether the system serves more than 18,000 regis-
tered users and it has been in production use for more
than 3 years. New versions of the systems are being
developed all the time, and the releases are launched in
continuously improved accuracy. Traditionally, soft-
ware releases tend to be delayed, but in this case the
time-based management was used to monitor the
implementation and testing of the new features and the
emerging ``bugs''. The past development patterns were
used to estimate the amount of bugs that can be antici-
pated to emerge in the coming release. The average
throughput time for bug ®xes on a distinctive module of
the system was calculated. The initial plan was then
constantly up-dated according to the on-line progress
reports. The progress of the project was shared among
the whole development team (Fig. 3). The constant
Fig. 3. On-line monitoring of the bug ®xing process (each bug is
reported in one document), shows nicely that the number of un®xed
bugs diminish systematically, giving the project team and management
a real-time view on the true progress of the project.
progress review allowed progressive improvement of
estimates when the system will enter the alpha testing.
The quantitative plan is enhanced with qualitative
information provided by the software developers.
This method of estimation and project monitoring
makes project progress transparent to the project team.
By studying the throughput time distributions of the
bug ®xing process the project team is able to focus
actions on those individual problems that seem to delay
the overall process. Taking into account the volume of
®xes and additions Ð more than 500 in half a year Ð
the quantitative approach is very powerful to sieve out
the true problems and to concentrate forces on them in
order to keep the project on schedule. The average time
to do a ®x or implement a new feature, including test-
ing, takes less than 2 weeks. By focusing on those taking
longer seem to have often greater impact on the devel-
opment process, as it is these ones that tend to be inter-
twined with other coding errors.
This kind of analysis also paves the way towards
dynamic allocation of programmers on problems asso-
ciated with each other across the traditional software
module based division of development teams (e.g.[22]).
The time-based monitoring enables better linking of
tasks without delays and the work done gets faster uti-
lized with other tasks. The traditional milestone-driven
project management approach has been ignored and
150 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153
replaced by on-line progress control and review. Natu-
rally, this has not made face-to-face meetings unneces-
sary, but with this approach the right people get together
at the right time and solve time- and project-wise the
relevant problems. The overall outcome of the project
has become more predictable and delays in launching
new versions of the software have diminished radically.
Based on the case of time-based management in soft-
ware development, we suggest that dynamically updated
progressive target setting for project tasks and trans-
parency of time-use monitoring enable improved time-
based performance in project management. This is
achieved by immediate focus on problem areas that
begin to lag behind the planned implementation sche-
dule. This case from software development environment
produces the following results in relation to our
research constructs:
1. use of time in individual tasks was progressively
improved through constant focus on the use of
time;
2. high transparency in the progress of work was
achieved through shared register of time use;
3. dynamic allocation of programmers allows e€ec-
tive interfacing between tasks and productive use
of bottleneck resources; and
4. this case is an example of successful time-based
management in project environment; the project
performance has become more predictable than
before.
3.4. Reduction of project implementation time in new
product development
This case illustrates improving time-based manage-
ment in new product development (NPD) [23]. Globa-
lizing operations, diversifying customer base, and
moving from primarily government market to a pri-
marily commercial market demanded a technology
company specializing in underwater acoustics and
ultrasonics to rethink how they manage NPD.
In the beginning of the 1990s, the R&D department of
the case company was working with proprietary basic
technologies with development times up to 3 years. In
order to realize the global growth potential existing for
the company, the management needed to think how to
apply their proprietary technologies in new ways, and to
bring new customer-speci®c solutions faster to market.
Strong focus in project management was put on time,
particularly on thorough planning of the project imple-
mentation schedules and meeting the deadlines set for
the projects. This set completely new requirements for
project teams and also for co-operation in the company.
Time-based project management at the case company
was based on open communication and strong focus on
time-based management of projects. Open communica-
tion in this company means that the project deadlines
had to be approved by all project team members before
the project was kicked-o€. Goals, deadlines and pro-
gress reports of on-going projects were made available
to the whole organization. A standard reporting system
was developed to follow-up progress of the projects.
The reports were colour-coded to allow quick focus on
the most essential areas.
Time-based management of projects in this company
meant putting `all' focus on time in project planning.
According to the company management, project man-
agers were given `unlimited ®nancial resources' in pro-
ject planning. In the case company's management
philosophy budget overruns were much less important
than the time overdue. The cost of being late in a project
includes the following: additional direct and ®nancing
costs for the additional time used, cost of delays in the
following projects, frustration costs and, most impor-
tantly, lost sales and a shortened time period to reap
bene®ts from the development results. The case com-
pany's approach to resource use in projects was ``fron-
tloading''. Attention was paid to deploying sucient
resources to tasks when work began. Early ®nishing of
tasks needed to be reported and the work had to be
handed over to the subsequent tasks. This way safety
time bu€ers remained to guard projects against real
uncertainties. Resources could be ®ne-tuned during
later stages of the project without risking delay.
The nature and degree of uncertainty needed to be
understood before ®nal project deadlines were ®xed. An
essential part of the change was separating basic
research from development and introduction of new
products. When project teams committed to tight pro-
ject deadlines, major uncertainties needed to be
removed from the critical chain of tasks. Shared
resources were found to be one of the major bottlenecks
in implementing parallel projects. Project managers did
not take into consideration the parallel use of these
resources when project schedules were created. An
example of this was simulation, which used to be a bot-
tleneck because all projects needed it. People capable of
using the simulation software were in high need all the
time. Making the simulation software user-friendlier
broke this constraint, as more people were capable of
doing the task.
The results of the case company's time-based project
management change were good. After a 3-year change
process, 60% of the company's sales came from pro-
ducts that were less than three years old. The company
was growing at 25% per year. The success rate in pro-
ject completion had gone up signi®cantly. The actual
project implementation costs were reported to have
reduced. Development projects had become more
responsive to the changing market needs.
This case gives qualitative evidence of good results
from time-based project management in new product
 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153
development. The whole project team taking charge of
the project implementation time means making time use
in projects transparent to the team and also to the rest
of the organization. The improved success rate in pro-
ject completion suggests that shared responsibility for
the project schedule and good transparency in planning
and implementation improve time-based management
in projects. There are also indications that strong focus
on time-based management improves the ®nancial per-
formance of the projects. This case from new product
development environment produces the following
results in relation to our research constructs:
1. proactive allocation of resources to projects and
reduction of uncertainty in the critical chain of
activities improved predictability of the project
implementation times;
2. high transparency was achieved through shared
objectives and progress reviews within and
between the project teams and company manage-
ment;
3. interfacing between individual tasks was improved
by focusing on good communication among pro-
ject team members to enable smooth ¯ow of work;
4. an example of elevating bottlenecks was to make
the simulation software user-friendlier; and
5. this is another example of successful time-based
project management approach; the case company
reports signi®cantly increased success rate in pro-
ject completion and reduced implementation costs.
4. Cross-case analysis and the lessons learned
In a sequence of suppliers, retailers and sales oces,
each link embeds a certain amount of instability in the
operation of the whole chain. When transmitted along
the chain, minor distortion creates biased demand
information. This in turn creates the so-called ¯ywheel
e€ect [24,25]. In short, this means that demand distor-
tion causes problems with the production capacity,
which implies delivery shortages. This triggers over-
ordering, causing some demand ampli®cation, but also
indicates poor delivery performance which leads to an
increase in safety stock. This again gives boost to the
¯ywheel and the circle is complete. The same phenom-
enon is valid for time-interdependent tasks of a project,
where delays, be they real or bu€er inhibited, generate
chain reaction with other tasks resulting in overall
uncertainty. This uncertainty triggers shielding e€ect in
independent tasks. Furthermore, the way the safety time
is used in project implementation is often not visible to
the project implementation team and management,
making e€ective replanning impossible. This is a known
phenomenon in theoretical literature of project man-
agement, but often badly implemented in practice.
151
We started this research to increase understanding of
the applicability of time-based management in the pro-
ject business environment. Our four cases were searched
by looking at the following four research constructs:
use of time in individual project tasks, transparency of
time-use, interfacing between tasks, and the use of
bottleneck resources. Table 2 summarizes our ®ndings
related to these four constructs from all the four cases
studied.
The fundamental logic delivered by the cases is that
the time bu€ered in the chain of activities in projects
generates potential uncertainty, which bias the true
operational eciency. Signi®cant variation in due and
delivery times prevents the use of accurate routines and
processes to streamline operations. Our case studies
suggest that the fundamental means to improve time-
related eciency of operations is the same, both in
manufacturing and project environments, and that
focusing on time-based management pays o€. In the
following the results from cross-case analysis are sum-
med with the relation to the research constructs.
4.1. Use of time in individual tasks
Consistent improvement of time use in individual
tasks over time was seen in each of the cases studied.
This is a necessary, but not sucient, precondition for
improvement of time-based management in projects. In
the telecommunications network building case use of
time in individual tasks was improved by rewarding fast
implementation of individual tasks. However, this did
not result in overall good performance in implementing
the project, since the work was not proceeding smoothly
between the tasks.
4.2. Transparency of time-use
Transparency of time use enables constant review of
the project progress, and immediate focus on problem
areas Ð areas that start lagging behind because of
unexpected hindrance to the progress of implementa-
tion. In both of the successful project management
cases, software development and new product develop-
ment, an important part of the time-based management
approach was a visual tool enabling the review of the
project progress by the whole project team and man-
agement.
4.3. Interfacing between tasks
Ecient interfacing between tasks can be done if time
use is transparent and work is handed over to sub-
sequent tasks and resources when the preceding work is
completed. This naturally sets high ¯exibility require-
ments for critical resources. A good example of this is
the software development case. Programmers can be
152 A.-P. Hameri, J. HeikkilaÈ / International Journal of Project Management 20 (2002) 143±153

Table 2
Summary of the ®ndings from the case studies

Paper supply chain Telecommunications Software development New product development

(reference case) network delivery

Use of time in Shorter average times
individual tasks and lower variability
by focusing on time
Transparency of From bu€ering to
time use transparency
Interfacing From bu€er inventories
between tasks to smooth ¯ow of materials
Use of Resource constraints
bottleneck reduced by rationalised
resources product palette and
better planning
Success in Successful Ð average
time-based throughput times fallen
management by two-thirds and
variability reduced
Long and uncertain, some Progressive Proactive allocation
improvement through incentives improvement of resources
through constant improved predictability
focus on time
Low transparency High transparency High transparency
between the tasks through shared through shared targets
register of time use and progress reviews
Long and unpredictable Intertwined tasks Focus on good communication
delays between the tasks enable better to enable smooth ¯ow of work
linking of work
Resource constraint solved Dynamic allocation Making simulation
by adding resources of programmers software user-friendlier to
on problems remove the bottleneck
Not successful Ð project did not Successful Ð better Successful Ð improved
meet launch-date targets and predictability rate in project completion,
exceeded budget implementation costs reduced

moved from one software module development to
another depending on where the most critical tasks for
the overall progress of the project are.
4.4. Use of bottleneck resources
Theory of constraints is based on the notion that the
use of bottleneck resource de®nes the overall success of
the whole operation. This is why Goldratt [15] suggests
that critical path should be changed into critical chain
which pays more attention to the use of bottleneck
resources in projects. Special attention was paid in the
use of bottleneck resources in both of the successful
project management cases. In the software development
case, software programmers were dynamically allocated
to the tasks being most critical for the overall project. In
the new product development case, developing more
user-friendly simulation software that could be used by
several other engineers broke the resource constraint.
management in supply chains and project tasks can be
established. In both realms of business the emphasis is
on better interfacing between connected tasks through
good transparency of time use across the organization.
The following propositions are suggested as a result of
this study for further research:
1. focusing project management on time-use of cri-
tical resources in critical tasks improves the overall
performance in project management;
2. time-based management means fundamentally the
management of interfaces between tasks and the
passing of work from one task and resource to the
next one. Transparency in the use of time makes
timesaving possible in project schedules; and
3. removing uncertainty from individual tasks into
one project bu€er enables better overall time con-
trol in the project.

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time-based performance in project management, shar-
pen our understanding of the applicability of time-based
management in the project business environment. These
cases were complemented with one non-project industry
case, which showed that an analogy between operations
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