At the beginning of 2010, the media reported that the city of Wrocław had terminated its contract with the company responsible for building the stadium. The delays in the construction of the facility were so great that they would have made it impossible to open it before Euro 2012. Alarming signals also concern road construction – according to press reports, none of the motorways currently under construction will be fully ready for the championship. The Director of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways emphasizes that, in the worst-case scenario, contractors are to ensure at least so-called “passability” for the duration of the Euro 2012 tournament, but such a solution may affect the quality of the roads put into service.
– Terminating contracts with contractors carrying out public procurement is an infrequent phenomenon. The entities responsible for the decision are reluctant to admit that they made a mistake when choosing the company to implement the project. Most often, the deadline for handing over the facility is postponed – says Mariusz Pawłowski, an expert from Optima Partners. – In the case of projects related to Euro 2012, however, such a postponement is not possible. If we want to organize events of this format in the future, we must use appropriate project management methods. In my opinion, the Critical Chain Method is one of them, as it gives a very high probability of completing the project on time and within the initially specified budget.
CCPM assumes the abandonment of intermediate deadlines, focusing on the only significant date – the project completion date. Thanks to skillfully placed buffers, projects are completed on time, despite individual tasks exceeding their time. Task queuing eliminates resource overloads. Tasks performed individually, in the correct order and time, can be finished faster. Project success is based on finishing, not starting tasks. CCPM also allows for effective monitoring of project implementation, which is not the norm in traditional project management. CCPM eliminates many negative phenomena that we deal with during traditional project management: student syndrome, Parkinson’s law, or harmful multitasking. It prevents contractors from setting the safest, i.e., the most distant, completion dates. Applying the Critical Chain Method would allow for avoiding delays in the implementation of public procurement. Such a solution would bring benefits to both clients and contractors, as well as to the public, who would certainly appreciate the functionality of stations and sports facilities, transport amenities related to the second metro line, or new roads. It is worth using the experience of Japan, which has successfully introduced the Critical Chain Method as a standard for public procurement.