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Project Management & Agile · Advanced

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

Management philosophy by Eliyahu Goldratt holding that every system is limited by at least one constraint.

Definition

The five focusing steps are: identify the constraint, exploit it, subordinate everything else to it, elevate it, and repeat. It underpins critical chain and flow-based improvement.

Example

Testing is the bottleneck, so developers help test rather than start new work.

Exam tip

Improving non-bottlenecks does not increase system throughput.

Related terms