I came into contact with this solution and Tony while searching for a business partner which was not present in Poland and had a specific software for managing projects. This was somewhere in July of 2007 when I got in touch with one of the partners of SphericalAngle - we understood our business needs and I was able to convince them to enter the polish market. Today SphericalAngle is one of my best business contacts - we localized the software which created a strong trust bond between our comapnies.

Our first training of the software was done by Tony :) We thought it would be another presentation on-line where someone would show us how to "click" here and there, but this was different... very different. Tony started by explaining where Critical Chain came from and how this method differs from other PM methodologies. When he realized that we were eager to learn more we started setting up more meetings and longer conference calls (sometimes from 6:00 pm Polish Time till midnight!) and on weekends on occasions.

Thanks to his effort, Tony made me understand more better the client's needs and helped me during my project problems where he discussed with me step by step each matter.

This is when I came into contact with the Total Matrix Management solution and Tony Rizzo became a Mentor. I had the pleasure to meet Tony in New York and go through his full training, from A-Z, of The Total-Matrix Management method with 2 more excellent specialists:

• Richard Zultner a student of Dr. W. Edwards Deming in SPC, trained by Dr. Yoji Akao and Bob King in QFD and Dr. Eli Goldratt and Tony Rizzo in TOC. He is as well a Six Sigma Master Black Belt
  
  
• Regis Betsch One of the founding partners of Velocity Pointe, Formerly, President and CEO of ECHIP, Inc

This was an experience that I will never forget...

Total Matrix is a lasting solution to the project-management problems that plague knowledge-work companies worldwide. This solution is created by a great engineer Tony Rizzo and is still being developed by him...

Total-Matrix Management Program is dedicated to the executives and managers of those companies whose projects share resources frequently. These include: Product-development companies, IT organizations , Financial institutions, Pharmaceutical companies, Engineering-services companies and Job-shops

Who is Tony Rizzo?

Tony began his career as a mechanical engineer, with AT&T Bell Laboratories, in 1983. After a few years, Tony created his own job within Bell Labs, as an internal finite element analysis consultant. Tony specialized in the creation of parametric finite element models, with which he and client engineers often optimized the mechanical and thermal aspects of many of the company's products.

It was during this phase of his technical career that Tony successfully combined his parametric finite element models with the body of knowledge known as Design of Experiments (DOE). With this extremely powerful combination of technologies, Tony and his internal engineering clients consistently developed the designs at hand from initial concepts to optimally working prototypes in a single hardware step. Just as often, Tony and his internal clients would optimize not only the functional aspects of the products but also their quality, by applying Dr. Genichi Taguchi's robust design strategy.

In 1994, Tony Rizzo was introduced to the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Since then, he has spent considerable effort in adapting TOC to product development operations, all the while doing so in a way that made sense continually to client management teams.

Tony launched the very first product development implementation in the world, of the TOC Multi-Project Management Method, with one of the smaller businesses of Lucent Technologies. He is responsible for bringing this powerful management system successfully to a number of Lucent Technologies businesses.

In March 23, 2000, Tony Rizzo left Lucent Technologies and launched the Product Development Institute, Inc. (PDI). This entrepreneurial endeavor already promises to be stunningly successful. The success is due largely to the extreme value of the re-engineering services, outstanding training, and the extensive experience in the TOC Multi-Project Management Method that PDI brings to clients

.the system

I would recomend reading: Defining the System - Tony Rizzo

.primary system

Let's strart with the fundamentals of a business. Each business needs to have a primary system that provides offerings that are valuble to the customers of a business. Although every business requires numerous people-systems, to sustain it, only one of the many people-systems in each business exists solely to create these offerings - and this is what we call the primary system.

All the other systems of a business, the ancillary systems, such as accounting, management, HR, finance, payroll, IT, etc, generate nothing that is of value to the customers of the business and exist solely to sustain the operation of the primary system, without which the ancillary systems serve no purpose and need not exist.

The Total Matrix Program you will teach you the following:

• The invariant with which to identify the processes of your primary system.
  
  
• The proper interactions among the requisite processes. These interactions are the primary system.
  
  
• How to identify the one component, of the primary system, the efficiency of which should be optimized through the strategic design of the system itself.
  
  
• How to use the primary system's invariant, to effect a process of homeostatic control throughout the primary system.

More on the primary system...

.planning

After recognizing our primary system and to it be useful, our models of projects need to exhibit four forms of accuracy. These are:

• Accuracy relative to the expectations the project's stakeholders.
  
  
• Accuracy relative to the required logistics of the project.
  
  
• Accuracy relative to expected value of duration, for the project, and also relative to the variation in duration.
  
  
• Accuracy relative to the marginal cost to the company.

Since the four forms of accuracy are hierarchical, the model of a project must achieve them in the sequence stated here. The Total Matrix Planning Process enables accuracy relative to the first two forms of accuracy.

Download this PowerPoint show to learn more: Logistical Models of Projects (0.4Mb)

.modeling

I recommend this lecture: Robust Project Design

.structure & performance

This is the very reason for the existence of the Total Matrix Program. The management actions required to achieve outstanding speed are known. Without the strutural change no performace will be possible!

Tony Rizzo and others at Bell Labs put these to the test more than a decade ago. However, the need to create an organizational structure, which would have made all that performance available indefinitely and reliably, was not recognized at that time. Today, the relationship between structure and reliable performance is recognized,. Soon, it'll be recognized by you as well.

.the software

TMx: This add-in for Excel is designed specifically for the Total Matrix Planning process. TMx is a product of the Product Development Institute, Inc. Currently TMx works with Excel 2000, 2002, and 2003. It does not work yet with Excel 2007.

cc-Pulse: This COM add-in for MS-Project brings the critical-chain modeling features to that popular application. cc-Pulse is a product of Spherical Angle, Inc.

cc-MPulse: This COM add-in for MS-Project brings the features needed to create and maintain enterprise-models, to that popular application. cc-MPulse is a product of Spherical Angle, Inc.

.the workshop

This workshop consists of two physical simulations. There is no computing involved. The participants become the simulation. In the morning participants perform six projects, modeling the rules, the decisions, and the behaviors observed in their current organizations. In the afternoon participants perform the same six projects, modeling the rules, the decisions, and the behaviors expected within a Total-Matrix company. The increase in performance is so astounding that almost no one believes it, except for the participants, who experience it.

The workshop ends with a discussion of what it takes, to transform a conventional company into a Total-Matrix company.

The Total-Matrix Management Workshop is the first step in creating any substantive improvement is to recognize the need for improvement.

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.fundamental knowledge - download

• The Problem With Knowledge Work.ppt

Total Matrix Institute (TMI) has been created to promote the Tony Rizzo's Total-Matrix Management solution. TMI is a not-for-profit organization that exists to promote the solution from which the organization derives its name.

More on Total-Matrix on the official web-sites:

• Product Development Institute - Tony Rizzo's Official Business Site
  
  
• English Official Total-Matrix Organization Site
• Total-Matrix Blog Spot

*The Total-Matrix Management information above was created thanks to Tony Rizzo's permission and on the basis of his materials and websites. The pictures above are the property of Tony Rizzo.