Continuous Improvement and Theory of Constraints Often a similarity is drawn with a chain: the chain (the system) is only as strong as its weakest link (the CCR). The resource performing that work step, is the system’s Capacity Constrained Resource (CCR). The key tenet of TOC is that the system’s output capability is limited by one of the work steps, the system’s so called Constraint. The outputs are the products/services valued and paid for by the business’s customers. The inputs undergo a number of work steps and are transformed into outputs. TOC considers any business as a system transforming inputs into outputs. Fundamental Concepts of the Theory of Constraints In fact, TOC has a strong appeal on people with mathematics, engineering or physics backgrounds, while it has not gained the same recognition from the people whom it should interest most, those with business, administration, management and accounting backgrounds. The Scientific Method mentioned above is not to be confused with scientific management, which is a different management theory altogether. TOC is based on Systems Thinking, the Scientific Method and Logic. TOC originated from manufacturing, but has since been applied to engineering, project management, sales, accounting, marketing and other business processes. More recently TOC has been described extensively in the “Theory of Constraints Handbook” by Cox and Schleier. Goldratt during the last 30 years, and first exposed as a business novel, “The Goal,” in. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a management method developed primarily by Dr. In particular, we will examine how Throughput Accounting (TA) can be used to take important management decisions. However TOC has many other tools one can resort to in order to improve software engineering management.

TOC is most well known for its so called “Five Focusing Steps”, and often that process is referred to when trying to identify and deal with bottlenecks in Kanban for Software. In this post we will introduce the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and start looking at how it can be applied to software engineering management.

Define the theory of constraints