Obituary: Dr Eliyahu Goldratt

ByElizabeth Harrin Last updated: General

Dr Eliyahu Goldratt, the management expert who developed Critical Chain project management, has passed away.

Dr Goldratt was the author of The Goal, which has sold over 13 million copies since publication in 1984. He also wrote Critical Chain. His theories are still influential – he’s quoted in The Project Management Answer Book by Jeff Furman which only came out recently, for example.

Dr Goldratt developed the Theory of Constraints, which is a management approach predicated on the fact that no chain is stronger than its weakest link. The weakest person or part of the process can always adversely impact the outcome. The Theory of Constraints aims to find that weak link and do something about it.

The thinking behind the Theory of Constraints led to the development of Critical Chain project management. This project management approach is based on having the right resources to carry out tasks and is used as an alternative scheduling method to critical path analysis.

Apparently Dr Goldratt’s methodology has been used in 7 of the 8 largest U.S. military air depots to increase productivity by over 30%.

Dr Goldratt died on Saturday, 11 June 2011.

Elizabeth Harrin wearing a pink scarf

Project manager, author, mentor

Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years.
Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects.