Better Project Management: Using the Project Management Triangle

Fresh from a Microsoft Project course, a manager sits down to develop a project plan. However without proper project management principles, the plan will just be pretty charts and graphs that have no bearing on reality.

Fast, Good, Cheap - Pick Two

Some Project courses discuss the project triangle because it is such as central concept to project management theory. Any project is constrained by three things: time, scope, and cost. A manager can influence one or even two of these but only at the cost of the third.

For example, a manager has to deliver a finished project by a certain deadline and keep to a specific budget. This will restrict the scope of the project. On the other hand, perhaps the deadline is flexible but the quality of the finished project, which is part of scope, must meet a certain requirement. The one thing the manager can't do is increase all three constraints. One of them will suffer as the other two are improved.

Or Pick Fewer Than Two

As any experienced project manager knows, two or even all three constraints can get out of control if the project is not carefully administered. So there is a limit, say, to how much you can reduce a project's cost. However there is no limit to how much you can increase it. It is easy to produce a project that is late, poor quality and over budget.

That is often the result of project plans that ignore the triangle and try to remove all three restraints. The project plan becomes unrealistic and when problems arise, the entire thing comes crashing down. No Project course can protect you from bad planning. We are never in control of outside events. All we can do is try to correct for them, while keeping the triangle in mind.

Balance All Three Constraints

Most managers don't have unlimited ability to relax constraints. All three factors will seem important, but the plan must consider which one is most important.

Consider a non-profit organization that has received a $10,000 grant. They can't go to the grantor and request more money if they go over budget. If their expenses are higher than anticipated, they have no choice but to cut back on scope or extend the time.

On the other hand, a company might have a contract to manufacture a component to specific tolerances. If the component is created outside these tolerances, it won't fit into the larger assembly and is useless. The company must follow this constraint, even at the expense of the other two.

After taking a Microsoft Project course, managers will still require experience on many projects before they are able to create plans that incorporate these principles efficiently. However, in time, it will become second nature and their project plans will benefit.