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ACCLAIM Techniques

There are 10 techniques that comprise the ACCLAIM Framework, spanning the portfolio, project, and task levels. Note that, while designed to complement each other as a package for maximum value, any of the 10 techniques can be applied standalone for impressive results as well.

Project Portfolio Level:

Maximum-Impact Project Selection—how to select projects with much higher return on investment (ROI) than typical weighted-criteria ranking methods can offer, applying logically sound financial and “monetary equivalent” value assessments, and informing selection decisions with both project-execution and operational (post-project) constraints.
Portfolio ROI Engineering—how to maximize portfolio ROI by exploiting project-level opportunities for enhanced ROI, while ensuring net-positive ripple effects across the portfolio, and with safeguards against inadvertent “over-tinkering.”
Portfolio Buffer Balancing—how to optimize portfolio reliability by balancing project-level risk across the portfolio.
Flexible Buffer Types—how to exploit all three buffer types (scope, schedule, and budget) for maximum reliability.

Project Level:

Project Staggering—how to maximize the throughput of project completions by staggering start dates.
Eliminating Lower-level Commitments—how to aggregate task/sprint-level risk to the project level to improve both speed and reliability.
Project Buffering—how to optimize project reliability using project buffers that are aligned with stakeholder needs and constraints.
Project ROI Engineering—how to infuse traditional critical-path analysis with informed assessments of the value impact of tasks on the critical chain, so that project decisions are value-maximizing, as opposed to being governed solely by the traditional “triple constraint” concerns of scope, schedule, and budget.
Process Value Stream Analysis—how to lean out business processes dramatically, before IT-enabling them, thus shrinking the software footprint for a faster, lower-complexity project scope.

Task Level:

The ACCLAIM “Focus & Flow” Method—how to maximize the flow of task-level completions using a disciplined approach for promoting single-tasking, while infusing the highest-impact flow concepts from Lean/Kanban, Agile/Scrum, and Theory of Constraints.